Climbing is Not Just For Monkeys

Winter break is over, but it is not too late to tell you about more of the adventures we had.

One of my favorite parts of winter break was getting to hang out with my Cousin Tyler.  For Christmas he took Ellen and me to Vertical Endeavor so he could share one of his new hobbies, Climbing.  I loved getting to hang out with Cousin Tyler, and Auntie Missy and Wendy all morning.

The first thing we had to do when we got there was get our harnesses and climbing shoes on.  The shoes were kinda funny, but Tyler assured me that it would help me to be a better climber.

Next we got to listen to an orientation to teach us how to use the equipment and make sure that we know how to stay safe.  I am pretty sure this was Mama's favorite part because our feet were on the ground :-)

After that it was time to go!  Ellen was pretty timid at first and needed a lot of help.

But it didn't take long before she started to get more and more brave.

And pretty soon she was climbing all over the place.  I think it was a good thing that Mama was helping me when Ellen decided to climb up high for the first time, because she wasn't so sure she was ok with it at first.  Ellen climbed so high that she was a little nervous getting back down.  The funniest part was that she needed to have a rope tied to her harness so we could make sure to get her back down, because she didn't weigh enough -- they called it a monkey tail.

Me, on the other hand, I had no problem from the very start.  I LOVED climbing, the higher the better.

Not only did I get to use the auto-belays, my cousin Tyler belayed me as well!  It was a lot easier when Tyler was helping me, and it was even more time that I got to hang out with him, which was great.

It was also great having my Auntie Missy there to climb with me.  I love that we get to have so many adventures together.

We had a ton of fun, I can't wait for Tyler to come home again so we get to hangout and hopefully make some more great memories!
Linden