Thursday, September 24, 2009

Not to be out done

Over the 24th of July weekend, my family (on my mom's side) got together for our annual family reunion. My mom's cousin has some property down near Scipio and so every year we bring our trailers and have a great weekend doing the reunion thing.

One of the great things about Lyle's property is that he has a repelling wall right in the middle. Barry and his boys always bring their gear and are more than willing to help everyone and anyone. A few years back my mom's aunt (that would be my grandpa's sister-in-law) decided to go repelling. At the time she was only 85. Well here we are two years later and she said she was up to doing it again! She amazed us all in many ways. One that she was able to climb up the ladder in the first place. I know by experience that you have to really reach to make the next step. She just flew down that wall...and even gave us a little pose at the end :)

Next in line came my little niece Ronnie Jo. Last year Ronnie was to scared to do it, but she really wanted to go this year. I'm so proud of her. She did a great job. Even after she got down she was really excited to jump back up there and do it again.So as to not be out done by my 7 year old niece and my 87 year old great aunt, I had to take my turn of it. Now, my mom must have done some bragging to her cousins and their children, because when I went to put on my harness one of the boys said "after all the crazy things you've done...we better give you the fast release". Now I will admit that I have done some crazy things in my life (bungee jumping, sky diving, white water rafting in the Nile) but I had never done repelling and didn't know the first thing about it. So I was a little nervous about getting the "fast release". But then I thought "if my niece can do it and my great aunt can do it...what could be so hard...ok give me the fast one!" Once I was on the wall though...there wasn't anything to worry about.After the first jump...my nephews and I even had a contest to see who could jump down the wall in the least amounts of jumps. I think we all tied with two jumps.All in all it was a great weekend. It was great to see family again and catch up with people I hadn't seen for a long time.