Canoe time

This weekend was the big race our family usually helps out with as a fundraiser for a clean water non profit organization. This year, we had huge voyager class canoes for people to paddle in.

The kids were SO excited about getting a chance to be in the big boat. I was pretty nervous, but strapped up the life vests and away we went.

The highlights:

William was thrilled about how "easy" it was to paddle the canoe and about drove me absolutely crazy repeating over and over how it wasn't hard at all to paddle. And really it wasn't that hard to paddle - especially when you DIDN'T EVEN PUT YOUR PADDLE IN THE WATER! Or when you wave it around and whack your poor mother in the head and wiggle around so it feels like the whole boat is going to tip. Special thanks to the teenaged boy who sat next to William and put up with his constant stream of chatter and wayward paddle without dumping into the river.

Asian carp- we were paddling along and William was asking his 94737372829th question when 6 fish leapt out of the water about two feet away from my head. Canoes, you may know, are low on the water. They were WAY to close and I was not happy. But, how can I complain? It was my idea to take the kids out on the water....

A big thanks to the kids and my great husband. Our family carted just about everything in the garage down to the riverside at 10am and then stayed all day until we packed it up again at just before 7pm. In the rain. The kids were awesome and loved it- John was super supportive, even though I know this is far from his cup of tea!