We’ve been out enjoying the final days of summer while we’ve still got sun.  For those who don’t know, Lima loses it’s sunshine for roughly 7 months a year thanks to the Humboldt Current, a jet stream that pushes the clouds eastward.  Those clouds run smack into the Andes and just like that we’ve got perma-cloud-cover.  And one other bizarre thing – Lima is a desert, so it never actually rains hard enough here that you’d use an umbrella.  However, during the winter months we get this cold mist called garua nearly every day.  Granted, it doesn’t get below 50 degrees F, but you’d be surprised what constant rain and no sun can do to one’s mood.

So back to where I started – we’ve been sucking up all the sun we can because it’s going to disappear very, very soon.  Today we went out for a romp in the park – here’s a short video of Nick and Nia enjoying each other:

Nick’s other passion as of late has been rock climbing.  We have a climbing wall near our house and he tries to get there 2-3 times a week.

It’s been great strength training for him, as well as a wonderful stress release after a long day of work.

Nick has a dream that Nia will join him on the wall within 6 to 12 months.  Crazy perhaps, but I think it’d be a great way to help her channel her abundance of energy (and stop climbing all our furniture).  We are going to start bringing her to the climbing wall to play around so that within a couple months she’ll be comfortable trying to climb on her own.

As you can tell by the picture, Nia took to it immediately and Daddy couldn’t have been happier!