I had an irrational fear of ticks...

...then it became a little more rational after a bulls-eye rash became visible surrounding Micah's armpit. This is the 2nd time he's gotten Lyme Disease. Luckily, when you catch it early, it's not that hard to treat. You just have to take pills for 3 weeks (or liquid medicine, I found out, if you can't swallow pills) that make you nauseous/puke. So for $100 (doctor visit and pills with no insurance), it's no big deal... except that hopefully-not-too-often puking for the next 3 weeks.

I've gotten bitten by 2 ticks, and I'm hoping not to find a bulls-eye too.

I'm not going outside around here again... until late fall, because the bouldering here is amazing. There are lots of problems that I want to work on more. Unfortunately we have about 6 pictures from the last 2 months of living in Harrisburg, but here they are anyway (sorry Madison, I didn't get any pictures of the camp we've been working at or even anything cool. I'll keep trying)

this tree was actually in Chattanooga, but it's a sweet picture, so I'm adding it to this post

as weird as I look, that is, in fact, me. This problem was cool, but it was sharp!

this is Micah's neice Savannah and I at a playground. We look hilarious. She's screwing up her face hard-core due to the sun being directly in our eyes. Besides posing as Smoky the Bear's face, we also play Chinese Checkers at least once a day.

To get away from the ticks (this was even before we realized that Micah had a bulls-eye), we took a short trip to Cooper's Rock, WV. We met Matticus and his friends Adam and Jack. Poor Adam rolled his ankle during their initial explorations before they even climbed. But here's a couple pictures of Matt and I trying Moby Dick (V2, but I try it every time I go there. I think I will send it next time though), and Micah doing Roundhouse (I think?? V5).



On the up side of things, Micah was playing on the internet, looking at different shoe companies when he came across Acopa shoes. They are owned by the famous climber John Bacher. He also noticed that all of Acopa's sponsered athletes are from the west coast. He e-mailed the company, asking if they wanted some representation on the east coast, and John Bacher himself called Micah back. Well, 2 free pairs of Acopa shoes are in the mail headed for Micah. If he likes the shoes, you may just see a picture of Micah up on the Acopa website someday. When the shoes come, I'll let you know what he thinks of them, and then you can check them out for yourself!

Here's some climbing movies to end the post:
A different Cooper's visit
From all over the east

-Stella