Rock Climbing with Avery

Saturday 10/14 was a great day. The sun made a return to western Oregon. Avery had her first soccer game, and first real rock climbing adventure. And the beavers beat #2 California. Almost a perfect day! If only the ducks had lost! :-)

Avery played her first soccer game at Noah's birthday party, at the indoor soccer arena in Corvallis. She was pretty scared at first to get out there and play with the boys. She was clinging to me for dear life! Being the heartless dad that I am, I forced her out there, telling her she had to at least give it a try. I pried her off my leg and talked her into joining the other kids with the "coach". Within about thirty seconds, Avery was having a blast! I don't think she stopped smiling or stopped running for the next 45 minutes while they played various soccer skill-building games, and then had a scrimmage. Watching six 4 and 5 year olds scrimmage in soccer was pretty entertaining for the grown-ups too.

After the scrimmage, Avery ran over and said something to the affect of: "we didn't keep score, daddy, but our team had four points, the other team only had one!"

After the birthday party we stopped at home to pick up Jasmine, and then headed to the columns in Eugene to go..... rock climbing! I set up a top-rope, strapped Avery into a harness, and away she went. She had a blast. I don't know if she's just too young to know better or what, but she certainly wasn't scared. She's also light enough that it doesn't take much to "help" her up the tough parts of the climb, with a good pull on the rope.

There's a bunch of pics of Avery climbing at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mtnahorniak/RockClimbing10132007

Looks like this weekend might be the last good weather for a while. I'm glad we took advantage. I also got in a good right yesterday morning, and a great 4 hour, easy, slow run today, partly alone, partly with Tim and Jake, and partly with Chris.