As most of you know, I am in charge of the activities for the Relief Society in my ward. Pretty much for the past 7 years, I have been in charge of activities in one way or another. I don't mind, I like thinking of fun activities for everyone. It frustrates me when other people who are in charge of activities don't do a very good job. Makes or breaks attendance. Right now, the activities for the ward (Liz & Oliver) and activities for Relief Society (Me and Allyson) have been doing a stellar job with fun activities.
I have loved working with Allyson ever since she was called to the RS Presidency over activities. One thing that Allyson and I decided we wanted to do with the girls was rappelling. Just because we are women, doesn't mean that all of our activities have to revolve around cooking, crafts and beauty tips. Also have to take advantage that we have Allyson and Emma that both have the skills and equipment to do such an activity. I was excited for this activity, as I am all of the activities which is why I plan them. :) I wondered what the turn out would be.
Our turn out was great! We had about 17 girls show up to this activity which was on a Tuesday evening. Some just came for the hike and stayed for a little bit and went home, but most girls wanted to rappel. This was great, however each girl was taking around 20 minutes to talk them into trusting the rope and lean over the edge. With that amount of time for each girl... we were losing light fast. I was letting all the girls go first and I had to be back by 9 to meet up with some friends. Sadly I was one of the few that didn't get to go that wanted to. Thank goodness Allyson and I are friends and I knew she would take me again another time. Meanwhile, the girls that did get to go were saying it was one of their favorite relief society activities they had ever done. THIS is what I love to hear. :)
This last Friday Allyson and Emma decided to do round 2 for those who didn't get to go the previous week. There were 12 girls that said they wanted to go, however there were only 6 of us that showed up (including Allyson and Emma). I made my little hike up there and it was time to harness up. This was our view from where we rappelled from. Beautiful!
After putting on your harness, you had to cross the slippery creek of death to get over to where we were going to be rappelling from. Once you made it across (hopefully without slipping) you hooked yourself onto the rope so that you don't slip and fall off of the cliff while you get into position for rappelling. This was probably almost equally as scary as leaning off of the cliff.
I tried not to look down since I am slightly afraid of heights. I knew I didn't want to take a long time to start or else I would never go down. Last time I went rappelling, I was so scared.... it took me a while before I finally went down. I didn't do too bad this time. I leaned back until I got comfortable and then made my way down the waterfall.
There was a tree stump to get over and a little bit of a free fall off the top of the cliff and then at the end it got pretty slippery... but it was pretty fun and I'm glad that I did it. I totally got wet coming down, but how cool is it to rappel down a waterfall? I thought it was cool. When I was done and taking off my harness, one of the girls asked me if I had fell. I wondered why she asked that and then I looked down at my knee and saw that it was bleeding and blood was getting on my shorts. I had no idea when that happened. I didn't feel anything and I don't remember bumping my knee. Weird. If I'm going to have a cut, at least I can say it was from rappelling down a waterfall.
Emma and Allyson were both patient and kind with all of the girls, who most of them were scared to do this. They were so great to help out not once, but twice and let everyone have such a neat experience and accomplish something you don't get to do very often. I could go on and relate this rappelling experience to life and our trails and needing to trust and have faith.... but I think that would be a whole other blog post. So I will spare you and say that this was a great experience and leave it at that. :)
Thanks Allyson for being great to work with in planning activities and being a great friend.
4 comments:
still sad i didn't feel well enough to come :( you are a rockstar. thanks for the shoutout!
Way to go Tracy ... Not many people could have a more beautiful spot to rappel
I'd like to request a "Tracy's guide to throwing a good party" or having a great activity. I think you do it right, but I can't put my finger on all the things that make your events great. just an idea if you're looking for a prompt!
WOW Tracy! My kind of activity for sure! I would LOVE to reppel down a waterfall- sweet! Awesome pictures, so beautiful & you are looking mighty thin too :) You rock!!
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