It's Her World

Carys is very independent and enjoys doing her own thing. She's not scared of much and if dared will do almost anything.

One example of this happened 3 years ago. For those of you who haven't read it, you can read about it here.

Like I said, it doesn't take much of a dare to get her to try something. Benay has always said that the world is Carys's playground. She has fun wherever she goes and she really hasn't ever met a stranger.

This year she decided she wanted start soccer school. In Brasil, soccer is still a male dominated sport. It's growing among girls but it's still mainly a man's game. That didn't faze Carys. Once she decides she to do something (like climb a 9 foot tall metal fence with sharp, pointed tips) she does it.

She plays indoor soccer two times a week and loves it. She is the only girl in her class and she played her first tournament a couple of weeks ago.

She's a good player and, as this undoctored photo shows, she's really fast. This is Carys after the tournament waiting for the director to address all the players. As you go down the line you won't see another girl in this photo (although there was one other girl who played for another team with her brother). This is Carys's coach, Alexandre "the third" (she has three coaches and all three are named Alexandre), presenting Carys with her tournament medal. She wore it proudly.

A couple of weeks ago we found out that her soccer school was taking a weekend trip to the mountains for a soccer camping trip. On this trip they get to play games against other soccer schools, visit a chocolate factory, play scavenger hunt at night on the campgrounds, climb a tall tower while hooked on to ropes,etc. Really fun stuff for kids. I took Garrett on this same trip when he was 7 and we had a great time. Carys wanted to go this year. They left on Friday night around 9:30 and got home Sunday night around 9:30 at night. She had a great time. This is a picture of her, with her chocolate factory goodies she bought for her family, after she got off the bus. Right after I paid her registration fee last week for the trip I asked her if she was sure she wanted to go by herself. No one, girl or boy, her age (9) would be going without a parent and I just wanted to make sure she didn't want me or Benay or a bigger sister to go with her. She told me, in all seriousness, "No I think I need some alone time away from my family for a couple of days."

That's Carys's world.