High on the hill was a not-so-lonely mountain goat.

I’ve finally had a moment to glance through some of the pictures I took on vacation. Look what we got to do (and by “we”, I mean Gracie because 1) her sister offered her up very quickly as our group sacrifice and 2) she was the only one with proper footwear on):

We don’t usually stop at the rock climbing exhibit at the zoo – in fact, this was the very first time we had. We were trying to make the staycation as fun as possible for the girls and we were smack dab in the middle of a “well why not?” afternoon. Also, there was just one family there. The three kids Gracie watched all failed to get more than two feet off the ground, and I’ll admit I was a little nervous for Gracie. She hadn’t been rock climbing before. She doesn’t play organized sports. And if she doesn’t accomplish something quickly, she can get easily frustrated. I was afraid this might be one of those times.

Of course, Gracie shot straight up the side of the plastic mountain.  Three times. The first time she only got stuck for a few seconds in a couple places, but she kept her head about her, listened to our suggestions, and a few times said screw the footholds and just hauled herself with sheer arm strength. Oh, to be 8-years-old, wiry, and invincible. The next two times she scaled Mount Rock, she made it up in about 30 seconds flat.

It was a small victory, but I could tell by Gracie’s smile that it’s one she’ll remember. I’ll try not to tarnish it too much when she gets stuck doing homework and I trot out,Remember that time you were stuck during rock climbing and you took a minute before trying a different approach…

Tags: rock climbing, vacation