Christian can truly drive me up the wall ... and last Wednesday night, I returned the favor.
Before moving here, I scouted out some of the fun things to tell the kids about. One of them was an indoor rock climbing venue called Planet Rock.
We never got around to checking it out during our first year here, but all the while Christian seemed to keep the memory alive by asking about it from time to time.
This past Christmas, Andrea and I tried to think of things we could give the kids that wouldn't add to the ever-present clutter that has become the bane of our existence. We decided to give the older kids each a memorable experience with one or the other of us. (We figured the little ones are still too young to appreciate a present you can't unwrap.)
Alexandra was delighted with the cupcake decorating class that she and Andrea took together last month.
Christian, on the other hand, has been waiting since Christmas for me to make good on the trip to Planet Rock I promised him on a note I attached to his stocking with some rope and a climber's carabiner.
I took some time off of work while the kids were off of school, and I told Christian we would go before Spring Break ended. True to form, we put it off until the 11th hour ... literally. The night before I was returning to work, the place was open until 11:00pm. I had a meeting in the early evening, so we got started as the rest of the family was in get-ready-for-bed mode.
They showed us how to tie the knots that would keep us secured to our life line rope when we were climbing, and then they showed me how to belay - which is holding the other end of the rope to catch the climber when he falls.
It seems like quite a lot of trust for them to let us tie our own selves "in" and for me to belay Christian, but I suppose that's why they insisted that we sign waivers first.
Anyway, we had a great time. I got a chance to climb once by asking someone to belay me. Yes, I put my life in the hands of a complete stranger, but why not? I had signed a waiver after all.
And Christian was a great climber. He was tearing it up on wall after wall. He was able to make it to the top of the 3-story structure. And after each ascent, he reluctantly trusted me to bring him safely back down ... not that he had much choice ... I had gravity going for me.
I think he felt a little dopey in the white helmet they provided, and I couldn't really blame him. So after about 30 minutes, I asked him if he wanted to take it off. Knowing that I'm a stickler for safety, he could hardly believe I was actually going to let him climb without a helmet, but he had forgotten to take one thing into account ... we had signed waivers, so I knew nothing could go wrong.
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