Just Like Their Daddy

I've always told people that I married a man that is part mountain goat. He can climb. He can climb fast. I used to get upset with him every time we'd go hiking because he'd leave me in the dust. I always wondered why he even bothered bringing me along because he was a mile up the trail while I was huffing and puffing trying to keep up. I DON'T DO HILLS. I try and avoid them as much as possible. I strategically choose marathons that are flat and if there does happen to be a hill on the course, I will stress out about it for months ahead of time. I don't like hills.

Fortunately for our girls, it's becoming more and more evident that they got their Daddy's good climbing genes. Celia was a little climber at a very early age. We would often find her in situations such as this:

Today, Ella's school had their annual Game Day. They bring in a company called Climb for Fun and there are several jumpy houses, a big slide, an obstacle course, and a 25 ft. rock climbing wall. Ella announced last night that she was going to get to the top of the wall and ring the bell. On her very first try, she climbed up that wall like a girl on a mission. She then proceeded to climb up it four more times. Not only could she climb up, but she was fast!

This was the challenge (photo from the climbforfun.com website)...

Here is Ella scurrying up the wall...

Surprisingly to me, and to all the people that know her well, Celia jumped in line and headed up that wall. I NEVER would have thought she would do it. While she's always been a bit of a daredevil and likes to climb, she's also deathly shy of strangers, especially strange men, and that's who was doing the harnessing. I guess she wanted to do it so badly that she set her fears aside and gave it a try. She was up and down that wall all day, but could never get more than about 3/4 of the way up the 25 ft. wall. But she kept trying. Probably after about 10 tries, she made it up to the spot that kept giving her trouble, but instead of giving up and coming back down, she thought about how she could get past it. And she did! She climbed up there and rang that bell. All of the 5th graders were standing below chanting her name and cheering for her when she made it. She got back down and was beaming.

Celia...determined to get to the top and ring that bell...

I love all three of my mountain goats...even if they leave me in their dust!

~J