Repelling

Our Bishop likes to go caving, rock climbing, hiking, camping, and repelling and I am so glad.  These are not easy things to do when you live in West Texas.  It's flat and dry here....very, very flat and dry.  One joke that circulates is: if you visit West Texas you can stand on a tuna fish can and see for two miles in every direction.  

I appreciate that he is willing to travel a minimum of two plus hours to give the youth opportunities that don't come readily here.  I also love that in the middle of this pandemic, he found a way for the young men and a couple of the young women to have an activity.  Aubrey was able to join because his daughter Trinity was going on the trip.  The group took more cars and had more leaders than usual to make social distancing easier. 

Tan Man

Aubrey was terrified before the trip.  She was really having second thoughts about going, but I kind of pushed her for Trinity's sake.  I  didn't think it was really fair to back out at the last minute and leave Trinity friendless.   She didn't sleep much the night before because she was so scared.

I did speak to Parker privately about encouraging Aub and helping her be less scared.  I was really surprised by his reaction however.  When I first mentioned how scared Aubrey was, he got this huge grin and started gleefully laughing.  He seriously had the little twinkle in his eye that I remember from his mischievous childhood.

I think he just saw this perfect opportunity to tease his little sister mercilessly.  I was a little shocked and tried to reign him in.  He just kept snickering and saying, "it's going to be really hard [not to tease her] Mom."  

I finally gave him the example to picture how he might treat a girl he wanted to date.  I encouraged him to imagine how he would treat her if she was scared about repelling.  He nodded solemnly, cracked up, nodded again and promised to try.  Since it didn't go over great with Parker, I decided not to talk with Tanner before the big adventure and hope for the best.

Tanner and Parker

Aubrey

All three of the kids said the first time down was intimidating and scary.  After that though, they had a blast.

Tanner

Aubrey

Later Aubrey confided, "Mom, it's nice to know the boys actually care.  When I was repelling for the first time, Parker was cheering me on by saying "You can do this!  You are doing great."  And one time when we were hiking up the mountain, I slipped, and Tanner turned around really fast to catch me if needed.  Then he kept turning around to check on me the rest of the way."  

BLESS those brothers.  It really made my heart swell as well knowing they "secretly" care for their little sister.

Parker

Tanner

Thanks youth leaders for taking time away from your families and Saturday needs to provide this awesome opportunity.  You are appreciated.