Ha....I did it!

I grew up in the shadow of a very athletic older sister. Sally could play all sports and excelled at them. I on the other hand, not so much. Sally could fly over a vault in P.E. whereas I could crash into the side of it. Sally was a fast runner, me, not so much. Things changed by the time I became a teenager and I left school holding the title of "sports girl of the year". In fact my school took on my sisters school in a netball tournament and we beat them. They had never been defeated.....ever, I played that game!

There was one thing that I just could not do and those were the ropes in the gym. I swear they were at least 80 feet high and we were supposed to climb to the top of them. Firstly, and please excuse me, the ropes were shoved between your legs and you had to pull yourself up by using your arms, fireman style. Those ropes had been glued to the crotch of every single student in the schools history and they ended up being right in your face as you climbed.....ewww, that is disgusting! They were really nasty. I would grab on for dear life but could barely get off the ground. I have never had huge amounts of upper body strength. Try as I might, monkey bars have also always defeated me.

I have been really trying hard to get into better shape. I don't weigh very much and am pretty thin but that does not make me fit. I am extremely hyper and have tonnes of energy but again, that makes you skinny and not fit.

Today the girls and I were at the park and nobody else was there. I was playing on the swings, the slide and all sorts of other things with them, heck I even did a couple of cartwheels and a handstand or two but I stayed far away from those nasty monkey bars. Lily was hanging upside down by her knees and swinging herself along (much to my panic) and then flipping herself over and swinging from end to end with great ease.

Jokingly I said to her, "move over it is my turn". I have tried loads of times and fallen flat by the second bar which causes us to laugh hysterically. I grabbed hold and went for it. You can tell where this is going can't you?

I MADE IT! I finally did a set of monkey bars. Yay me! What I didn't know was that Lily had the camera and was frantically snapping photos of my grimacing groaning self!

Not very graceful but I never said I would grow old gracefully.

I can't believe I was staring at her and didn't realise she was taking photos. Must have been the concentration I was using to stay up!
I think I am whining here about how much it hurt my soft little hands.

My girly girl tomboy is always up a tree

Well if Lily can do it so can I, Mama.
I love how this shot turned out.
Do you know anyone that sits on a swing like this...my pretzel child.
This is how odd she looked from behind.


I am off to bed now so that I can think about what's next on my list....I can guarantee you it won't be those smelly ropes!