President's Day River Trip

The happiest place in the world to me is our River House.  I live such a fast paced, hurried life just trying to keep up with the 5 kid’s schedules.  I almost get to a desperate place of needing rest before I get to the River.  The main reason I love it so much is because I get serious quality time with my kids.  At home, I am always torn between chores, filing things away, laundry and more!  We get to the river and a peace comes over me and I am never happier!  We take lots of walks through the woods, play cards, swing on the front porch and laugh together.  We mainly, slow down!

This trip we had some unusual things happen.  Our zip line was really low like a huge person or two went on it and dropped it several feet.  It was actually really nice for my age kids.  Eddie had his first zip line experience and got braver on every turn.  He was scaring me going so fast by the time we left.  It was Maggie’s turn and Bonnie took her way up to the top of the hill and she got going so fast.  Annie and I both lunged to stop her and we did slow her down but she did slam into the tree. I felt so bad. I yanked my arm and hurt my shoulder and neck trying to stop her.  She got a few scratches but was fine just pretty scared.  Dan forced her to do it again later so she would overcome her fear.  He stopped all the kids easily so we had no other injuries.

The next day, Maggie and I took a walk through the woods and were walking down the wooded road. I was telling Maggie how much I loved the woods and pointing out how beautiful the trees were.  I glanced down and was getting ready to step down on a big snake.  It’s the first snake I have ever seen down there in the past 11 years. I yelled and Maggie stepped right over and started dancing around with this big snake between her feet.  Finally, we got away from it and KC started running back towards us.  I quickly grabbed her and diverted her away from the snake.  We ran up to the main road and stopped to get our breath.  Poor Maggie was shaking and I was pretty sure I was having a heart attack with my chest beating out of control.  I know the Bible says we as believers can tread on serpents but I wasn't ready to give it a try! LOL!  I thought it was a rattler but after checking in our book of critters back at the cabin, I think it was a Pine snake.  It really scared me and freaked me out especially when my kids and KC were running through the woods playing.

We have a small cemetery on our property.  It’s such a mystery to us.  It seems to be a small family.  A couple of the tombstones are children’s and we always wonder about why they died so young. I always imagine it was a yellow fever epidemic or something tragic like that.  I tried to look up who they were online but they died in the early 1900’s and I couldn’t find any information.

 

Dan always cooks when just our family goes and does a spectacular job, grilling and cooking big country breakfasts!  My girls always volunteer to make lunch so it’s such a nice break for me (a person who only cooks to feed the masses and not for enjoyment ever)   Of course we ended, every night with a powerhouse game of Hearts!  Dan actually shot the moon and was pretty proud!

It was typical, crazy, Florida, winter weather.  It got in the mid 70’s and the kids begged to swim.  I thought it was a really bad idea but Dan said OK.  We didn’t take bathing suits so they were swimming in their shorts and t-shirts.  It was my favorite time of the weekend.  Dan and I sat on the deck and watched all five of our children playing in the kayaks, swinging on the rope swing, having so much fun together. It was a surreal moment realizing that I have survived raising all my five babies to this point.  Because I have watched my sister and brother’s kids grow up at the River and now are grown and so busy.  I know how these times are so precious and will be just a memory before too long.  I loved every second and would have stayed there in that moment forever if I could have.  There is nothing as good for my soul as time away with my family enjoying God’s beautiful creation!  The only thing that would have improved our trip was if we got to visit with James McDonald who mysteriously left his River house, moments before our clan arrived!  :)  We did get a drive-by visit on the 4 Wheeler by Mrs. Vicki and Jimmy so I guess that will have to satisfy us for now!