floating

First off I must appologize - there are no photos again - and they would have been soooo lovely. But alas - we were floating down the river and I just didn't want to risk a camera soaking - I do love my camera - almost as much as I love my family - not quite tho ;)

So you'll have to imagine with me. First imagine a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and oh so many trees. Then look down into the valley and see that river? That's where we spent the day today. Floating. On either side of the river it's all green. Bright lush and green. Long grass waving in the warm breeze. Pastures. Trees. THe occasional house. Oh and the sand! It glitters as if it has little tiny flecks of gold in it!

Now imagine 2 families that like each other a whole lot meeting up there with a canoe, 2 inner tubes, and 2 little inflatable boats - all tied together with ropes - all the better to lay back and chat :) 2 mamas, 2 papas, and 6 sweet and often very loud ;) children - all floating down the river - ever so slowly.

It was bliss i tell you :)

The babe fell asleep on my lap in the canoe for a time. (wish I had a photo of that!) Every once in a while someone would end up in the water for a float along. There was quite a bit of musical boats - everyone switching spots to either cool off, or warm up depending on where they'd been sitting. life jackets all around, so not a concern about anyone being unsafe and this stretch of the river has such a mild current - very safe all around.

We spotted 4 turtles! Papa even swam over and picked one up for the kids to see which was a huge hit .

When the babe woke up I passed her over to papa and lowered myself in for a float and to my surprise she wanted to join me! The 2 of us floated together for a while - what a special moment that was!

No one cared whether the canoe floated the right way - in fact at one point the two papas were both rowing with one facing forward and one facing backwards. ANd when it was suggested that he might want to turn around? Scoff - of course not! That wouldn't be very social now would it!?

The sun did manage to hide itself behind the mountain before we were quite there - about 30 minutes, but thankfully no one got too cold before we arrived at the end where the truck had been dropped off before hand.

What takes 10 minutes to drive in the car - took us approximately 4 hours floating - now that's what I call takin it easy!

I can't wait to do it again!