River Fun

On Friday we headed out on what Miss A's Mom fondly refers to as another "adventure." We were headed to a river she often visited in her youth but hadn't been to for several years, and so her memory was somewhat clouded as to the location of the pathways and the best 'spot' which she had frequented in her teen years.

After some direction from the park ranger, we found a pathway and came across a small stretch of sand next to a stagnant area of the river. Baby Sister was quick to plant her little foot in the sand.

Next it was her fingers.

The weather was sunny and hot so the Girl and Miss A's Mom wasted no time getting into the water and cooling off with some splashing.

As the sandy spit was not the 'spot' of Miss A's Mom's memory, we got back onto the trail and ventured further down where we came across this rocky beach which was along a part of the river that was flowing gently. This stretch was much more familiar to Miss A's Mom.

Surprisingly, the water was not as cold as we would've thought and the girls plopped right down.

We had a wonderful afternoon and the time passed quickly. It was dinnertime before we knew it and so we were looking for a quicker route back to the parking area. Miss A's Mom ventured ahead in search of a more direct path while the girls lagged behind.

But, we ended up back-tracking to the original path and then explored some smaller paths branching off from that. Those smaller paths proved to be more adventurous than we could get with small children as we ran into scratchy plants, large fallen logs and swarms of biting flies. So eventually we hightailed it back to the main path.

Here is Miss A's Mom pumping her fist in victory as we neared the opening to the stinky field (which we'd been trying to avoid) and we learned that sometimes it is best to stay on the beaten path as we probably spent more time looking for an alternate, quicker route. Although if we hadn't diverted we would've missed out on quite a few laughs.