Adventures in Climbing pt.2

This is the secong installment of a blog sub-category I'm calling "Adventures in Climbing". It mostly features Evan's various climbing adventures (thus, the title), as he is DAILY finding new obstacles to conquer...

Nathan and his cousins had a ball-throwing fest in the back yard a while back, with a couple of the plastic balls ending up on top of the patio cover. I decided it was time to get them down. I grabbed an extension pole, attached it to a push-broom brush, and hauled an 8' ladder to the edge of the cover. The boys were playing in the yard behind me as I climbed to the 7' mark of the ladder and stretched over the patio cover to retrieve the balls. As the ladder was on the grass, it was slightly wobbly. This explains why I did not immediately notice the additional presence on the ladder below me. I heard Nathan shouting, "NO, EVAN, NO!" I almost had the last ball, so I did not turn around at first yelp. Nathan then shouted, "GET DOWN, EVAN!" "Did he just say..." I thought to myself, as I looked to see what was going on below. Actually, what was going on was just below - as in inches below - as in nearly SEVEN FEET OFF THE GROUND! Yep, Evan was coming to help! He grabbed my pant leg to pull himself up to the step I was on (second from the top). "No, buddy!" I said, as he responded by letting go and looking down. I grabbed his hand/arm, and somehow scooped him up to me as I carefully navigated the two of us back down the now (seemingly) VERY shaky ladder. I strapped Evan into the wagon while I finished fishing the balls down. If only Nathan hadn't flipped the wagon over with Evan strapped inside! I'm glad toddlers are so flexible!