Have you ever played the game "Whoonu?" you know the one where you ask questions and find out all sorts of things about the person you are playing with.

As a parent it seems that we are frequently in the real life game of "Whoonu" as our children grow, change and become more of their own individual.

For instance, Daria has never been a team oriented sports person and has never been interested much in athletics. As a young girl she enjoyed dance until her interest turned almost totally toward piano. No need to be physical there. You will almost never find her near a ball unless it's 4-square or a short game of around the world with the basketball. As a parent there were times when I wondered if this was ok as I watched other little boys and girls go off to play t-ball, soft ball, or soccer. Isn't that what all kids do? Of course I know they don't but when your children are little you always wonder what they will end up liking or wanting to do.

This past year I've started to see where Daria's interests and strengths are when it comes to sports or athletics and sometimes it surprises me but always it impresses me. For the record, Daria is more athletic then I thought she was, just in a different way. She was extremely natural and good at Tae Kwon Do, mastered the rip stick within moments, and excels as a swimmer. In fact she is a fast quiet swimmer.

Lately she ventured into three other sports that I never would have guessed her for. The first was jogging around the block with me. I was impressed. Second, after volunteering at Cub Scout Day camp she was able to shoot BB guns and Archery. She was good at both but was very natural at archery and she liked it a lot. So much so that she said she might be interested in getting a bow. During the Boy Scouts 100th anniversary celebration, Daria made sure she had a chance to shoot some arrows. Lastly, on a whim, she had the opportunity to go rock climbing with her grandpa during our summer vacation. Grandpa (my dad) is an experienced rock climber and has taught others including children before. My gut response is that rock climbing would be in Daria's category of "FEAR." However, surprisingly she trusted Grandpa and amazingly did quite well considering it was her first time climbing and using tennis shoes instead of climbing shoes.

Who knows where these interests will take her or which ones she will continue to do. During the summer she conquered a 20 mile bike ride from 9100 ft to 9700 ft and some of it in freezing rain. Maybe bicycling will be on her list but as for now she did say she would like to take dance again.....

This was the "beginner" rock my dad wanted to take the kids on. Ok, ok, so it's not a beginner rock. The beginner rock already had people on it and my dad felt the kids would still do fine on this one so they went for it. Talk about trial by fire!

Grandpa belaying Daria

I love my camera and lens. Oh wait, this isn't about my lens, uhm great shot Daria, straight up!

Did I say I love my camera lens? I was down on the ground. Daria was not. Thank you 70-200!

When I looked up at her I wondered what her other grandparents would think of their granddaughter doing this .... I think they would think it was cool.

Coming down