Summer Vacation 2014: Challenge by Choice

One of the activities that Heber Valley Camp has to offer is a challenge course.  They have several challenge courses in fact.  Each course consists of a "high" course & a "low" course.  Each section appropriately named due to the amount of air between the participant and the ground.

 

Grandma Sue knew there would be all ages invited on this trip so she reserved time at a course that would allow all who wanted to participate, regardless of age or ability.  It was a giant swing . . . of sorts.  

 

 Go, Grandma Sue!

This activity is "challenge by choice". Each of us could make the choice to participate or to not.  All of us that is except Jacob.  I more or less made the choice for him, they had a harness small enough so he was going to give it a try . . . and he loved it! 

Obviously we did not pulley him to the top but rather the senior missionaries just gave him gentle pushes allowing him to swing through the air.  John also loves to swing, but I knew this swing would be different than he was expecting, so I prepared him by telling him we were going to a big mountain swing.  He was so excited to give it a try.  But as he watched Jacob he decided that he would use his choice and not take the challenge.  So instead he hung out in the wonderful sand box.

To participate in this challenge you donned a hard hat and harness.  They clipped a rope to your harness & then the pullers began to pull the rope.  As they pulled you were lifted off the ground.  The participant was able to choose how high they wanted to go.  The higher you go, the farther out the swing goes.  Because we had more spots reserved than we had people (not everyone that Grandma had invited could make it on this camping trip) those that wanted could have more than one turn. 

At first Rachel did not want to go very high, but with each turn she gained more confidence and by her last turn I think she went to the top!  Of course some like Paul, were ready to fly through the air from the start.

I even chose to gave it a try.  Because motion sickness is too easily my friend, I closed my eyes tight the whole time and had to remind myself to breath.  I will never do it again, but I got off feeling like I had done the "good Mom" thing by showing my kiddos I could do it too.  Sarah on the other hand was quite the opposite!  All smiles & a frequent "Look Mom no hands"!

The highlight of the evening was Miss Elizabeth.  As soon as she saw the "swing" she expressed that she wanted no part in this activity.  I so wanted to bribe her with some sort of candy, but I decided to allow the rule "challenge by choice" to prevail.  She sat watching everyone else take a turn.  We would make the occasional invitation followed by words of encouragement.  Nothing.  She asked about the safety of the ropes, the cables, the pulleys, the harness.  Still nothing.  Then sort of out of the blue she said she wanted to give it a try.  So before she could change her mind we got her in a harness and hooked her up! Away she went . . .

. . .and loved it!  She even went more than once, each time a little higher up in the air.  As we were leaving she said, next time I want to go to the top.  It was weeks later that I asked, "Elizabeth what made you finally decide to give it a try?" "The scripture that was there," came her reply.  On one of the big poles was a piece of paper with a scripture on it, designed to give the unsure participants the courage to try. It worked!

We were able to give a second challenge course a try.  Paul was the only one with enough "courage" to give the "high" course a try. 

The "challenge" was to climb the telephone pole, then walk across a cable (like a tight rope walker).  He did it with what appeared to be great ease.  From the end of the "tight rope" he smiled as he zipped down the zip line.

After watching Daddy fly through the air, a sweet Senior Sister Missionary led us up a hill to participate in two "low" course activities; the spider web & the teeter-totter.  Both were great activities that taught us the importance of teamwork and how as a family we need to help each other journey through mortality.

Some things we participated in that we thought would be hard, were easy, some things we thought would be easy, were hard, and some things we thought would be scary, were fun. I believe each of us were touched by the Spirit and had our testimonies strengthened as we "chose" to be challenged.