Larson Family Blog: Papa Dick Smiling Down

Torin is by far our most cautious child. From the time that he was little he would see his friends going down slides and going on swings. They would say "Torin come play with us" and he would reply very politely "No thank you". It just wasn't his thing and as much as we wanted him to be at least a little more daring it just wasn't him.

There are times that we will push him to try new things but for the most part we just let it go. Last 4th of July we pushed him to go tubing as it was a tube that seated two people so Bjorn went with him. This past year we were out at our friends lake and when asked if he wanted to go tubing he said "nope". After all, he was fishing. Really, there is nothing more important than fishing to Torin.

Well this year the kids started trying waterskiing. There were 2 boys that were trying and one got up and the other one kept trying. Then a girl tried it and after she attempted and didn't get up, Torin said "I'll try". We really couldn't believe that he was going to try. We hadn't even asked him if he wanted to.

So our friends Nick and Andy helped him get into position and told him what to do. Sit back, knees to your chest and let the boat pull you. His first try he got up, went about 20 feet and fell. Both Bjorn and I couldn't believe that he actually got up on his very first try. We both looked at each other like "seriously?". We were SO proud of him. I told him that Papa Dick was so proud of him as my Dad (Papa Dick) was one of the most patience men I knew when it came to teaching us skiing. So I said try it one more time for Papa Dick and he said "Okay Mom, one more time, for Papa Dick."

Well he tried again, got up and went half way around the lake. He was pretty proud of himself too. It's always amazing to me what this kid can do. I'm so interested to see what he will do with athletics as he gets older. Hopefully something, as he obviously has some natural abilities that he got from his Daddy.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy!