On Belay!

If you know my kids and I asked you which one was the bravest, I bet you wouldn't pick Katie. Katie's my bookworm, she's quiet and can be quite shy. She's not nearly as adventurous as Beth who we have a hard time keeping indoors when it's nice out. Katie likes to be outside, but often it's to find a quiet, relaxing place to read. So it will probably surprise you just as much as it did me, that Katie is quite the little wall climber!

She went on a field trip last month and they had a chance to wall climb. When I read the permission slip for the trip I was sure that the wall climbing waiver I was signing was useless since she was never going to do it. But I was surprised when she got home to find out that not only had she given it a try, she got up quite high and really enjoyed herself.

Katie was ecstatic when she found out for the last Girl Guide meeting before Christmas that they were going wall climbing. They needed volunteer adults to belay so I stuck around to help and to watch Katie. I was a little nervous about belaying as I had never done it before, but it was actually pretty easy. Most of the girls did well, only a couple were too scared to go up more than a couple feet. Katie, however, amazed me. She climbed walls none of the other girls could do. Not all were perfectly vertical, some had parts that jutted out at angles and that stumped most of the girls since you had to hang slightly upside down to get around them. Every wall she tried, she made it all the way to the top to touch the ceiling. I'm not sure how high the walls they were climbing were, but they were pretty darn high. Even if I had the strength to do it, I couldn't get over height, so I would most likely be a terrible wall climber.

One of the Guide leaders was taking pictures and I'm pretty sure she got Katie in at least one shot, so I've emailed her asking for a copy and as soon as I get it, I'll post it on here.

Katie was still talking about it this morning. She went so far as to say wall climbing was her passion. I took a brochure from the place home last night, and the prices seem pretty reasonable, so I think Chris and I will try to take her every couple of weeks. Anything to get her out doing something physical is good I think.