Tubing the 'Hooch

Well, it took two tries, but we finally went tubing again.  In case you don't know, "tubing" is floating down the Chattahoochee River in an inter tube float.  I had my first experience with it 4 years ago.  It was not so fun.  You can read about it here, if you wish.  It was not that great of an experience, but the kids have been begging to do it again.  Well, the boys have, anyway.  

We made plans to ride up to Helen to go tubing on Saturday.  If you've never been to Helen, Georgia...what are you waiting for?  It's an Alpine Village in Northeast Georgia. Totally a tourist trap,  but there's just something about it that I love!  Everybody else in Georgia loves Helen too, apparently because what should have been a 40 minute drive took almost 3 hours because of all the traffic.  We drove and drove, in our little car because the air isn't working that great in the Explorer.  The kids did great until the very end, but I couldn't blame them for getting bored.  After the first hour, I was ready to pull my hair out as we inched our way up to the mountains.  

The truck in front of us provided some entertainment.  They must have gone through a 12 pack  of beer during the drive.  I know because they kept opening up their rear window to throw away the empty cans.  And one of those guys must have drank more than he could handle because he exited his vehicle and went to pee in the woods.  He could do that, you see,  because we were literally in stand-still traffic.  The kids got a kick out of it.  I was worried that we were going to be stuck floating down the river with a crowd of drunks for three hours.  

We FINALLY arrived in Helen and Violet flipped out!

"Oh, it's a castle!  We're in Arendelle!"

Bless her heart!  

It took another 30 minutes to make it up to the tubing place.  Because, again, the traffic was just nuts.  

And then, we we got there, I shouldn't have been worrying about who we would be forced to encounter during our trip down the river, because there were so  many tubers and the line was backed up so badly that no more tickets were  being sold.  

Oh, my word.  

Talk about disappointed.

We were all dressed to swim with no where to go.  We even had our sunscreen on already.  

So, we promised we'd come back on Monday and just drove home.  

The kids were so mad.  So were we, truthfully.

A friend of mine took her youth group tubing the same day and said it was so insanely crowded.  Shore to shore tubes.  I  believe it!

We woke up early on Monday and left the house  a little after 8 to get to Helen by 9, right when it opened.  

It was like deja vu.  I put on my swimsuit, coverup, and floppy hat.  (Don't get me started.  I can't believe I wore that in public).  Everybody packed changes of clothes  and sunscreen and what not.  The drive only took the regular amount of time and Helen looked deserted when we drove in.  We drove over the little bridge and there was not one single person tubing in the river below.  We really began to wonder if the tubing place was even open.  

We drove up and there was a big OFFICE CLOSED sign in the window.  I almost passed out.  I told Chris to go see what was going on.  He went up to the ticket window and then waved us on in.  We applied our sunscreen and put Vi into her lifejacket.  She was so excited until she had to put on that vest.  

Here we are, before we got into the river. 

By this time, other customers were starting to trickle in.  Since we could  only tether 2 tubes together, Violet and I paired up.  Shaun and Jordan went together, and Chris was by himself.  We walked down the little ramp and, right when we got to the river bank Violet said, "Well, I'm just not going in there".  And then she tried to walk back up the ramp!  I told her no no, it's going to be fun!  And then she wanted to take her shoes off.  She was starting to cry so I took her pink jellies off and put them with me in my tube.  I sat on them and thought they'd be safe.  

Then, we were off.  It was smooth sailing. I The water was lots higher than the last time we tubed, and we were able to actually float most of the way, instead of dragging our tubes over the sharp rocks in the shallow water. 

Vi and I were in the lead at first.  She was a little scared at first.  Terrified might  be a better word.  She calmed down but kept the look on her face that she had in the above picture.  She'd say, "NO" when I asked if she was having fun.  

The only really dramatic, eventful thing that happened was when I almost drowned.  Seriously.  We only got stuck a few times.  Chris helped us out the first time.  The second time, we were stuck between two rocks and my tube just would NOT fit through it.  I had the brilliant idea to hop out and then pull Violet's tube over.  Well, when I hopped  out, the current swept me over the rock and my tube ripped over on top of me.  I had chosen a tube with a bottom, so I was trapped.  I was so scared!  Vi was still in her tube right behind me.  Chris was in front of us and turned around in time to see what happened.  He tried to make his way back and I was swept under again.  OMG!  I got up and just waited on him to help me.  But Violet's pink jellies were gone!  :(

This whole thing took 5 or 10 minutes and I was freaking out because the boys had kept going down river. They'd been ahead of us, and now the were REALLY ahead of us.  A few minutes later we ran into a friend of ours who said they had passed her a few minutes earlier and that they were okay.  Small world!  We ran into them a little while later.  They'd pulled off to the side to wait for us.  Jordan didn't want to wait, but Shaun made him.  Ha!

The rest of the ride was uneventful and Violet even started to have fun.  In her words, "Just a little bit of fun".  

We met a family vacationing from Ohio.  They were here for a week all the way from Ohio.  We really take Helen for granted!  

We had a fun day together.  Chris has worked really hard this summer and it was nice to do something together.  We had lunch on the way home and then had time to rest before Jordan's first football practice.  

At the end of the day, the trip was so enjoyable that I wouldn't mind doing it again.  In fact, my small group has made plans to go tubing in a few weeks.  :)

Lake Day

The boys love swimming in the lake and they've been hounding and hounding, so on Monday- we spent an afternoon there.  

I've never been a fan of the "lake life" that everyone here is into.  Personally, I think Lake Lanier is cursed with demonic activity. Why else do so many people drown there?  

Anyway.

We went during the day, to a beach area with the shallow part roped off and we made  Vi wear her life jacket the whole time.  Chris was with us, so I figured we'd be safe.  Plus, we didn't get drunk, which I realize is a huge contributor to drownings.  I was still paranoid, though!

It was actually kind of nice.  The kids had a blast.  Jordan  made a friend and, once said friend figured out that Violet was his sister asked, "Tell me the truth.  How bad is it, with her in the house?"  I overheard this question and laughed and laughed.  

We were all really tired at the end of the trip, and sunburned, too, despite sunscreen. I remembered why we've opted for indoor swimming all summer!

The only downside was that Jordan came down with Swimmer's Ear yesterday.  I'm trying to tell myself that it's just a coincidence and the fact that we were swimming in a lake has nothing to do with it.  Even though we've been swimming at least twice a week in the pool all summer long.  And we didn't swim any other day this week.  

?!?!?

Lights Out/Night Out

Last Friday I took the kids to the pool.  We got to the gym and the lights were out in half of the building.  ?!?!  I'm serious.  The common area and pool were in the dark but at least there are lots of windows in those rooms.  The Family Locker Room was pitch black.  Vi and I had to get changed by the flash light on my cellphone.  Kind of creepy, especially for Violet.  

Here are the kids, swimming in the "dark".  I don't understand how the overhead lights were off but the lights in the pool were fine?  

We ran into our friends the Willocks and all of our combined 11 kids took over the pool.  Thankfully it wasn't crowded until we got there.  Ha!

After some fun in the water the kids and I rushed  home because I had a Mom's Night Out to get to.  I was so excited, as it had been a looooonnnnnggg time since my last MNO.  My sister and I met our friend Gigi in town.  We wanted to try a "new" italian restaurant on the square because everyone we know has been talking about it for about a year now, saying  how delicious it was.  Our opinion?  Meh.  The good was not great.  The salad was a pitiful excuse... just iceberg lettuce and some chopped white onion drowned in oil and vinegar.  I had Eggplant Parmesan.  It was okay, but nothing to write home about.  The ambience, however, was amazing.  The three of us stayed there for hours, until closing, just talking and catching up.  Then we went to Gigi's van and sat in the parking deck and talked some more.  It was a good night.  We all agreed we shouldn't wait so long before we do it again.  

I was so refreshed when I came home that almost didn't notice Violet's poopy panties that someone left on the kitchen counter.  Almost. 

4th of July

As usual, I'm 3 steps behind, but here's how we spent our 4th of July:

My aunt Nancy had a family cookout on Friday, July 3rd.  But before we could go to that, we had to take Chris to the doctor.  He had woken up a few days earlier with a sore and swollen foot.  Turns out he had a staph infection!  Two shots and 3 prescriptions later and he was good to go.  

The doctor told him to stay off his foot, so this happened at Kroger while waiting for his meds.

My family's cookout was lots of fun.  We don't get together as much as we used to, so I was really glad my aunt hosted a cookout.  There were a few who couldn't make it, but most everyone came.

We took lots of selfies.  

And us girls had to deal with these goobers.

On the actual 4th, we lazy.  We pretty much laid around all day until time to go to the fireworks.  We kept it simple again this year and just met up with my friend Kelli and her family at the little community get-to-gether.  The good thing about a small fireworks show is that they're able to start earlier when a storm threatened.  

The 4th in the country.  Nothin' like it!  

Since fireworks became legal in Georgia a few days before the 4th, we actually had our pick of shows to choose from.  It seems like everyone in our area was putting on their own shows.  Ha!

My Next-to-the-Littlest Baby Cousin Got Married!

My cousin Lindsey got married, almost a month ago.  As usual, I'm behind in recording these events, but what a beautiful wedding my little cousin had!  Lindsey is the next-to-the-youngest of our group of 7 cousins.  I'm the oldest.  She'll always be one of the babies in my eyes.  

The wedding was beautiful.  Violet and my nephew Micah were in the wedding as Flower Girl  and Ring Bearer.  These shots are courtesy of Dash Photography.

I still can't get over how beautiful Lindsey looked.  Just stunning.  Her groom, Chris, was handsome too!

I think I was more nervous about this wedding than I was about my own.  Because of Violet. Ha!  Lindsey asked her to be the flower girl a long time ago, so we had plenty of time to prepare.  And  Violet sure was excited.  She went around telling everyone it was her wedding for weeks before the event.  She loved her dress, she was excited to walk down the aisle...until the day of the wedding.  Or really, until right before it was her time to shine.

We were in the barn, in line behind the bridesmaids, and Violet just said that she wasn't going to do it.  She was whining, too.  I was sweating buckets and almost had a nervous breakdown. Oh, and my glasses were fogging up due to the sweat on my forehead.  I came down with pinkeye the day before the wedding, so I had to wear glasses.  The wedding coordinator lady kept telling me to put her down but I knew  better than that. I held her right up until the very last moment.  Then Micah, God bless his heart, said "Come on, Violet.  It's time to go".  He held out his hand and just like that, Vi hopped down, took his hand and everything was smooth as silk.  

I took this picture as they were walking away.  I haven't seen anything much sweeter.  

And this is all of  my cousins, from my mom's side.  Minus the bride, who was busy.  The quality isn't great,  but I love these girls and I miss them.  We don't see much of each other now that we're all grown up. 

Finally, I had to post this picture of mine and my sister's kids.  We can never get a good one with everyone looking at the camera and smiling.  The "reject" shots make for good laughs, though.