Summer Fun on the Little River

This week I managed to escape for a few hours with my boys for a little late summer fun on the river in the Smoky Mountains! We had a wonderful time, talking together, laughing, and playing! My mom came over to our house to watch the 4 little ones (Claire and our three foster babies) so I could take the boys swimming. We blew up the inflatable kayaks and headed out in search of the perfect spot in which to start our adventure.

{Sorry in advance about the crummy photos! I borrowed my Mom's waterproof point and shoot camera and left the settings on automatic. All of the pictures turned out very over-exposed... not sure why?! And I wasn't able to tell as I was taking them as the sun was so bright that I couldn't really see anything on the display. Besides, isn't that the whole point of "point and shoot" cameras? You just have to point, and well, shoot! But apparently not with this one, you need to take into account that its auto settings are set to over-expose every. single. picture. Uggh! Oh well, I am just very happy that I got any pictures at all, as I wasn't about to take my camera into the water with us! So over-exposed photos they may be, but we recorded our outing together for our collective long term memories, which is really the point of my taking a camera along anyway! So, I hope you all enjoy our over exposed trip to the river!}

Logan and Matthew preparing to set off.

Very pregnant me, paddling Ethan down the river. (Only about 3 more weeks to go! I'm getting very excited about meeting this little one!)

Ethan taking a turn with the paddling for a while.

Ethan and I made it down the rapids first, and turned our kayak around to catch a few pictures of Logan and Matthew coming down after us. {And before anyone starts to worry, about *very pregnant me* taking any undo risks, this time of year the rapids where only about 6 inches deep for the most part, and with me weighing so much now, I spent 90% of my time trying to figure out how to get us unstuck off of the rocks that I constantly scraped the bottom of the boat (and my bottom!) on.} 

Here they come! 

They didn't get stuck nearly as much as Ethan and I did! ;-P 

Disembarking to explore a bit.

 

Searching for snakes and crayfish (or crawdads, if you're from around here!)

Skipping stones

Catching tadpoles

Trying on some scratched up glasses he found among the rocks. He told me he was very sorry for whoever lost them, as they must have had a terrible time getting home after that. They must have been quite blind! 

And I found my little friend's shadow! Soon...