Surfing, skiing, riding bikes, and climbing. These are the outdoor pursuits that come easier to the little ones than many of us realize. That is until we see our kids give them a shot. That's when we're delighted and surprised, or surprisingly delighted, to see them try, maybe fall a bit, but also get back up and keep going with no shortage of stoke. This video should really get you excited. Watch little Jaime. He's just 4 years old and cranks 5.10b in the gym on lead.

(see video ...)

My 4 year old daughter usurped my longest piece of climbing gear. It's a 30-foot piece of bright yellow tubular webbing that I used quite frequently for building anchors until I dedicated it to slacklining. But I have to admit rock climbing is one of the pursuits that I've accidentally abandoned, so I should be happy to see my little girl playing with my near-forgotten gear, tying it to the back of a hat, putting it on her head, and hearing her declare, "I'm Rapunzel, Papa! Pretend you're stuck. I'll save you!" Brooke and I used to spend more than one weekend a month climbing - er, more like hang dogging - somewhere. Climbing is a drug and you're easily addicted. Even though I haven't been in a long time, I will always enjoy the photography and stories . . .

Five minutes of people performing super phenomenal wicked bizarre crazy awesome feats far beyond David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks. You're going to grin. Big.

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The Sunday Morning Chillax is just a weekly series, always a video, always on Sunday morning. Even though my wife's friends don't like it all that much, it's just here to give you happy thoughts about mountains, fresh air, good views, stoke and fun as you take in the week's most relaxing morning. Enjoy. Relax. Come back every week for more, or tell us about a video we should show here.

What makes this video so perfect for AdventureParents.com isn't that it's a superb adventure story enlivened by non-stereotypical rock climbing action and the thrill of getting to it. Yes, this short captivates your attention in the first minute, don't worry. But watch for the thread that runs in and out of it on growing up, having a family of your own, all that mental clarity you had when you were young, and what those things mean to your approach to adventure of any sort nowadays.

The thing is, you see, you can take three serious rock climbers (Mark Synnott, Alex Honnold, and James Pearson) of varying ages and backgrounds to the opposite side of the planet, pack them into a small convoy of crusty Land Rovers and point them into the south eastern part of the Sahara Desert, a region called Ennedi in the country of Chad, for an 800-kilometer drive across roadless desert where they'll attempt to make incredible first ascents up some wicked rock towers, and guess what?  Right, it'll be a seriously amazing, sick adventure composed with interesting cinematography and storytelling. But that's expected, right? Take the armchair and enjoy.

Conrad Anker is well-spoken, pensive and admirable. He has both a gentility - the good kind - and a down-home g-droppin' drawl in his speech that suggests he's smart and friendly. He says in this video, ". . .the true frontier now is within. What are you gonna find out you can do? For myself and all of my friends, goin' out climbin' embodies all of that."

He's also an adoptive father to three boys and a husband - if you know the story of Alex Lowe's death in an avalanche in 1999, you probably know that part of his story. He's quoted by Metro Pulse, a Knoxville, Tennessee publication, about his climbing pursuits, “I have three children and a wife and I have to take care of them . . . So there’s always that—when someone else is depending on you, you always work a little more."

Watch this video from a series called, "Montana Stories."

What I love most about this video is that it's a video.

Keith Ladzinski brings us all the joy we can handle from the easy side of the keyboard without having to haul our keisters to ground zero to watch. He filmed Steph Davis doing something to four Moab-area towers that no woman has done before. She climbed each one - wait, hang on, I know "what's the big deal there?" you ask - and then base jumped off.

Children of the Sky from steph davis on Vimeo.

Welcome. Good chance you won't be doing this as a family. But that's not the point. For a few short minutes, you can feel like you're flying.  Really flying.

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Ummm, The Sunday Morning Chillax? Here's the idea. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your little turds sweet children sleep in. We'll share a video (No reading necessary!), something to give you happy, relaxing thoughts about mountains, fresh air, fun, or whatevs. Enjoy. Relax. You deserve it. Uh . . . except this is not guaranteed to be weekly. Hey, that's the price of free.

Erica Lineberry tells us, "Pre-cragbaby Steve and I loved planning our multi-day climbing trips around areas that we could do both sport and trad.  My favorite combo was a day of hard clip-ups followed by a nice long, easy multi-pitch climb."  Well, times have changed. Here are her five tips for keeping up with her climbing goals while being a new mom.

First, some background facts. My first rock climbing experience was of the old school method: outside. We're talking about a 45 minute drive down a 4wd road to an approach hike to a big granite mound among "jumping" cholla cactus, massive doses of sunshine, and rattlesnakes where we found three or four old rusty bolts making a faint Dear-God-help-me line up an 80-foot barren face.

I'm not going to go the "grouchy old man" route here and say today's climbers have it easy, or that climbing gyms are soul-less. Not even close. The kids in this video will make you go slackjawed, and your palms will get sweaty. See this video . . .

Arianna is an absolute rock star.

Check out her climbing technique, it's impeccable.  Not even potty trained, she has the concepts of foot placement, three points of contact at all times, shifting her weight on her feet for reach, and toward the end of the video you might think she's about to launch a dyno.

Her parents must be incredibly proud.

Indian Creek from sinuhe xavier on Vimeo.

One recent night after I put Chloe down for bed, Brooke and I sat on the couch talking about the old days when we rock climbed.  We haven't laced up the shoes and chalked up the hands in a couple of years, thanks to this whole parenting thing.

Oh God - we howled with laughter remembering some of the good times, which mostly revolve around the pathetic way we'd dangle on the rope, destroy the nerves in our finger tips, and gorge on pizza and beer after a full day of such blissful activity.

Then I happened upon this video by Sinuhe Xavier showing some mouthwatering crack climbing at Indian Creek, Utah. Watch it.

It's the whole experience including the approach hike, which totally reminded me of the very first time I went climbing.  A nice dude from the local climbing club offered to take me and a few buddies out to a granite mound for some top roping.  He said, "Be sure to pack a lunch because we'll be out there most of the day."

Okay. Said buds and I loaded up a full-size Coleman ice chest - a real on-the-go party unit with a tow handle on one end and rolling wheels at the other - with a case of Mountain Dew, jerky, a loaf of bread, a pound of sliced turkey, cheese, 8 pounds of ice, chips and salsa.  What the hell, right? We're going to get hungry out there. At the meet spot, a trailhead to the base of the mountain, our kind maestro kicked back on the hood of his Subaru with his gear loaded in a large backpack and two climbing ropes coiled up. He looked at us, slid his sunglasses down his nose and grinned.

"You guys take the ropes."

So I went to the trunk to get out the ice chest and asked for Russ's help. "This thing's heavy, Russ.  Gimme a hand."

Maestro turned.  "What's heavy?"

"The ice chest."

He walked to the back of our car and stopped, didn't say a word. He hung his head and smirked. He pointed toward the mountain.  Pointed at his hiking shoes. Pointed at the rocky hiking trail. Stomped in place and panted like a dog.

I looked at my buddies and shrugged because I didn't get it.

Matt, my other buddy in the group, said to Maestro: "It's got wheels, you know."