Pie Festival: Pietown, NM

Pie is good for the soul. And when you mix it with rock climbing and friends, well, you have one happy pregnant Carrie.

I took my daughter Ava with me on our first ever time to the Pie Festival, not knowing at all what to expect. I'm sure everyone has their own agendas during piefest but ours consisted mostly of:
wake up, eat pie, go climbing, go to the festival and eat more pie, go climbing, have gigantic spaghetti dinner.








The day of the festival we were focused on climbing in the morning so we got all our peeps together and headed out to Monster Island, a small but fun area with problems you are more than happy to get on for this one-time-a-year occasion.


Jenny Walker
Ploss
Climbing an overhang 4.5 months pregnant is harder than it looks!! I decided to make this particular overhang the last of my pregnancy. I found that it was really hard to not breath so hard that I gave myself a Braxton-Hicks. I had to rest, like a sport climber, mid problem to calm my breathing down and relax my stomach.

When the clock struck 12:30, we all ran down to the cars to make it back to the festival in time to see the pie eating contest (They make the contestants hold their hands behind there backs and go in face first!). By this time I was so hungry we had to stop at the pie booth first for an appetizer.

Being at the Pie Festival is a little like going to some one else's family reunion except everyone is invited.
After laughing through the pie eating contests and thoroughly stuffing ourselves, it was time for the horny toad race.

The horny toad race was truly a spectacle. Walker and Lisa efficiently drew two concentric circles with chalk on the towns basketball court. Each child, or adult, was marked with a number or letter that corresponded to the one on their toads belly (for retrieval and return to their homes after the race). The toads were then placed in an ancient metallic bucket looking thing and placed in the center of the circle. The first toad across the line won. Now, there were large toads and itty bitty toads which apparently has nothing to do with their age but all to do with their type. When the bucket was lifted, the crowd that had huddled around to watch erupted in whoops and hollars. When Walker's mom (the judge of the race) lifted the bucket there were 31 toads piled on top of each other. Now, we had heard that it once took a single toad 10 minutes to get from the pile to the winners circle so we were prepared for a wait. But the moment she lifted the lid this tiny toad shot out and crossed the line within seconds. Winner! Personally I think that was our toad because she was not returned to us at the end. Second place was actually two toads; one large toad with a tiny hijacker on its back.

Andrea

Pie Fest would not have been complete without the Kearney's and their amazing hospitality. In addition, I am so thankful for all our wonderful friends who make the Pie Festival what it is!

Photos by:
Javier G and Jenny Smith

Climbing pregnant: Week 16

* Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The opinions on this blog are my own educated opinions.

The pants I've known and loved are now crying "Mutiny!". They have rebelled against my growing belly and are refusing to button or zip. Solution: Belly band. Love that thing. I can still wear my skinny jeans and I don't have to show anyone what I'm wearing underneath.

I went out to the Priest Draw a couple of days ago and for those of you who are unaware of this area, it is almost all completely horizontal roof climbs. Now, I'm four months pregnant and my pants don't close, do you think I have enough core to climb roofs? I actually did amazingly well but it wasn't my core that is putting an end to my roof climbing for now, it's my joints. Being pregnant is much more than just carrying extra weight. Your body has to grow in order to accommodate and what do you think happens to your stomach muscles? They stretch!!! Without being too graffic here, not only do they stretch but all of your joints start to act like putty as well.

Relaxin is a hormone that does exactly what it sounds like, it relaxes things. Joints in my case. Strangely my core was still strong enough to keep me climbing through some very tough rock climbs but the moment I had to throw a heal to pull or drop my knee down and push the pain was un-ignorable.
The sacroiliac ligaments connect the sacrum to the pelvic bones. My pelvic bones are beginning to wonder. Therefore, I'm switching my focus in climbing to more vertical pursuits that do not require me to torque that area as much. The pain associated with my shifting pelvis is a constant bother. I work with a lot of physical therapists (I'm a tech getting ready for PT school) and I've been picking their brains about how to stabillize an area that doesn't want to stabilze. Their answer for the moment is to do exercises that strengthen the area around the joint.

Side lying: Lying on your side with your arm bracing in front of your body, straighten your legs out as though you were sandwiched between two plates of glass. keeping your knees facing forward lift and lower your leg squeezing your bottom. You should feel this in your upper glutes. Do it till it burns then take a break...

Side lying circles: Beginning the same way but this time lengthen your leg out and up off of your opposite leg. Keeping your knees facing forward start making small circles in the air with your toes. Go both ways.

Bridges: Laying on your back with your knees bent, slowly lift and lower your bottom off the floor by squeezing your bum to lift as high as you can.

The future is now.