Girls Day Out: Tubing on the Rio

The girls and I decided to spend a couple hours floating on our tubes in the Rio Grande. We spent well over two hours floating from the bridge area that Kev dropped us off at to another bridge area that he picked us up. The time spent was much needed for the three of us. We laughed and talked the whole time. Caitlin did her normal and fell out of the float a few times. There were areas that we had to get up and walk because of how shallow the water turned out to be and other places that were deeper than I am tall... Yes, I know that doesn't say too much since I'm obviously not that tall!

Towards the end of our time in the river, we saw Kev and Nic watching us and taking pictures as we neared the area they were at. Of course, we let Nic join us for the last ten minutes and he thought it was "so cool".

Sunny Saturday at the Rio Grande

What a wonderful and much needed afternoon we had at the Rio Grande. This afternoon we took the kids and their floats to the river...this time we remembered to take chairs for us. We ended up spending almost three hours sitting at the river and watching the kids have a super fantastic time playing, swimming, floating, and just splashing around. We picked up some arm floats for Nicholas and those alone made him more comfortable playing in the water this time. Caitlin was fantastic with Nic today and had fun taking him to the deeper areas on one of the floats. She would let him get on then pull him around. Times like that make me feel more blessed than words can express and honestly make me feel that whatever we have been doing to raise these three we have been doing right. They fight like crazy, but there is so much love between them it is unreal. Like last night, they fought and argued and drove us absolutely insane, but before bed they all three hug and tell each other they love each other before going to bed. This is not something that we make them do, because they just do it on their own. My heart melts when I see them like this. Maybe through it all, even when my doubts and fears have been the most strong, Kevin and I have been doing something right with raising this crazy kids!

While playing in the Rio today, a woman from nearby showed up with a kayak that she explained she takes out quite often during the summer months. The kids were quite intrigued with seeing this "boat" and wanted to check it out. Not only did she have no problems with them looking at it, but she also invited them over to it to get in and try it out. To them, this was one of the coolest things ever and made their day even better. I could not thank her enough for making their day that much better!

Their laughter and smiles made the day all worthwhile!