Take your toob and shove it

The thing that Emma most wanted to do on this trip was go tubing. So we decided to embark on that little adventure on Monday. We had completely psyched the girls up with tales of how much fun me and my mom used to have on the river. They could not wait! And the Medina is a very calm river, perfect for taking little ones on.

So we went to go rent some tubes from the local river company which was the only game in town, therefore could charge us whatever they wanted, which basically amounted to extortionist amounts. And we read up on the different options. We could take the 9 hour, 7 hour, or 5 hour trip.

Oh now, wait a minute.

The river was low and therefore very slow. I confirmed that 5 hours was indeed the shortest trip and there was just no way that was going to happen. We weren't prepared. I mean we didn't have a cooler stocked with beer water and no way were we going to be on the river that long without the means of getting drunk hydrating ourselves. Plus with the river being so low, there were many places where we would have to walk and carry our tubes. And well being as the tubes were bigger than the young 'uns, that didn't seem like much fun for Grandma and me.

So I told Emma that tubing was a no go. And she was quite upset. But I told her we would find a spot to just play in the river. And we did, the perfect little spot, complete with highway workers enjoying their picnic lunch and checking us out.

The girls had a blast!! Especially when they found the rope. They spent the majority of the afternoon just swinging away on that thing and jumping into the river. Even Princess got over her fear of non-chlorinated water and had a good time! Kathryn swam like a fish all over the place and was just a joy to watch. I think I only had to tell her a million and one times to stop drinking the river water, ICK!

When it was time to go, I popped open the hatch of the truck and stripped the little ones down and clothed them. Modesty is not in their vocabulary so the fact that we were at a rest stop on the side of the highway didn't bother them in the least. But Alli wanted to change too. And the highway workers were slowly packing up from their lunch. A little too slowly. I threw towels over the windows and stood guard, glaring. And when it seemed they weren't moving on, some smart ass comments along the lines of "a shovel next to a barrel with your name on it" and "our tax dollars at work on their two hour lunch break" might have been said. And they might have moved on then.

Some pics from our nice, fun, FREE day. Well other than the wasted tax dollars.

Make a Smilebox slideshow