A Bit of Adventure

So, now that the Dude's nose has healed up a bit, and the terrible twosome had a school holiday, the Mommy and Daddy decided to treat the kids to a bit of adventure:

For some unknown reason, in the past year, the personalities of the twosome have somehow switched. Laurens is now the fearless one, and generally led the way with only the occasional bout of fear or doubt. Though, he fought through everything, and showed Anneke how things were done:

Anneke, understandably, was less than enthused at first by many aspects of the climbing park, and needed a bit of reassurance (otherwise known as the Mommy's formidable powers of persuasion...):

But once she overcame her initial misgivings, well, let's just say the "old Anneke" reappeared in full force (yes, if you zoom in, that is definitely a smile on her face...):

This may look like no big deal, even for a 5 year old...

But when you zoom out, you quickly realize the courage involved in stepping out on that wire... The Daddy can be seen on the right side of the photo, having already made this traverse, and though the photo doesn't show it, his legs were still shaking from having just walked across... Lautje, by the way, had already done this route with the Mommy and Daddy, which is why his little sister decided that she wanted to do it as well... Lautje decided to stay on the ground and take photos...

At the end of the day, the kids let Mommy and Daddy have a bit of fun on their own (Anneke wasn't tall enough to come with them; Laurens was tall enough, but still needed to eat a bit to make the weight requirement... it was likely no coincidence that he worked his way through 4 plates of pasta at dinner that evening...). Although he enjoyed the zip-line portion of this route, the Daddy was not overly happy with the climbing portion (especially since you can see through to the ground while you are trying to maneuver up the ladder...):

The Mommy, on the other hand, had no such difficulties...

All in all, the Mommy and Daddy were supremely proud of both of the kiddos! Several kids far older than the terrible twosome froze from fear and needed to be rescued from the trees, and yet both Laurens and Anneke had their moments where they were massively afraid and wanted to stop, and still they gathered their courage and finished each route. And left wanting to go higher and higher... which sounds very much like a job for the Mommy!