Hot Humid Days

I met my sister and her hubby for an impromptu dinner the other night as they were somewhat in the area. We decided to take her oldest 2 and keep them with us for a week. My kids were very excited to have their favorite cousins come for an extended visit. Once we got over the "scared to go to bed because a mountain lion/coyote / some other scary animal might jump through the window" with her 5yr old, we were good. Needless to say he will NOT be living in the mountains when he gets older. Way to scary for the poor boy. He told me his first night here that he would hate to live in the mountains on account of all the mountain lions and coyotes. He has such a lively imagination. I assured him that we have lived here for years and have never had any such encounters and even camped out and also played outside after dark many times and are fine. No scary animal has ever come into our yard when we were here. He just looked at me like "OK, whatever". He is a mess. Cute, but a mess. So we have been having fun playing with our cousins in all this hot weather. Hot humid days call for a nice refreshing dip in the river. I don't know why we waited so long to do this. It as the perfect remedy for the hot stickiness that we have been living with. Our usual swimming hole was taken so we had to go to this other one. We have to walk through a meadow to get to it which is why we don't usually go unless they have cut the hay which luckily they just did. We love this place. It is a big swimming hole that gradually gets deeper. It was perfect for today. We did not want to leave it. They all had fun splashing and swimming about with all the little fish that we soon scared away with all the screaming and splashing that was going on. Many rocks were thrown and even more skipped. Even the 3yr old got into the fun of it. Her favorite game was climbing onto my back when I was trying to swim. Nothing like getting dunked under by your own child. :) I personally love to just lay back and float down the river and watch the clouds sail lazily by. I had all the kids try it, but it could not compete with the rock throwing. At one point we saw a suspicious object floating towards us that they were convinced was some animal. They immediately started throwing rocks toward this white floating thing which I assured them was just bubbles. Although in their defense it did look like some dead white creature. Until a rock hit it and dispersed all the foamy bubbles that is. I was glad it would be something to add to Collins list of scary creatures. :)

So that is how we cooled off today. We ended the day in the garden weeding. Yes sister, I had your children weeding. I am not adverse to child labor. :) They actually enjoyed it once I assured them they would get paid if they did a good job. Collin did an excellent job of digging holes with the hoe. Tristan actually will get a paycheck this week if he keeps up the good work with my son. They made a good team. Now, on to some pictures. They are not the best as I had to take them with my phone because the camera that I brought did not have any batteries in it thanks to my 14yr old taking them out for her CD player. What was I thinking, expecting batteries to be in my camera. Crazy me.





Here are all of them when we first got down to the river. They were testing out the water. If you could make this bigger you would see the silly face my nepher Tristan is making, he is the boy all the way in the back on the left. He is a mess!





Here is my 7yr old after she came up from swimming under water. She was very proud of herself. She got the idea from her partner in crime, cousin Collin. :) She loves swimming in the river as she can touch bottom and still practice her swimming techniques.




Here is my 3yr old swimming with her tube. She likes to float in it down the river but pretty much stays by my side doing it. She can touch bottom if she needs to, but I still like to keep her within arms reach.





Here they are after we have played a while. She all the smiles? If only you could hear all the hollering too. :) We all had a lot of fun and it was just what we needed. Just perfect. I am so glad we went and look forward to going again. Although my son said it won't be as much fun the next time as it is ALWAYS more fun the first time you do something. :)