Current River 2009

What a great trip!

We were all set to leave by 6pm (huge accomplishment in this house) and armed with a new movie to start off the 20 hour drive. No, ONE movie won't last that long, but it's great to have something new to hold the kids' interest...or bribe them.

Devin and I picked up an old fave that we did not yet have on DVD. A classic as I'm sure you'll all agree - Back to the Future!!!!! And the memories start flowing: Devin remembers sitting in the theater for this one with his BF and Eric and thinking it just couldn't get any better than this (obviously before he met me); I remember seeing this movie with my BF Brigette, her mom and my mom - it must have come out over the summer. Knowing the movie so well, Devin and I sat in the front seat listening, singing along, and laughing at what was coming next. Classic movie.

The drive was so easy for me this time. I used to be prone to panic attacks, most often when I'm tired. Now, I can avoid them/suppress them/medicate them away and ta-da! I slept in the car during the tired times, and was awake and chatting for the more lively times.

One thing I was so super-excited about before this trip was seeing Laci and Lynsey. I cried when I heard that we'd be seeing them. And I'm not an outwardly emotional person. I'll tell you that I cried and I still get teary-eyed thinking about it.


That's Noah in the arms of his Great Aunt Kelley. What an angel!


And then the E-Girls - Ella and Emma. They hit it off right away. Emma moved her place setting from another table so she'd be sitting by Ella. They hugged and sang. Just perfect together.

From Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri, we picked up two more cars in our caravan heading to Aunt Becky and Uncle Smitty's house. They opened their home to 17 guests (we're campers - we had gear) and fed us from their garden. Unbelievable hospitality. We'll be sure to head back to this Washington boarding house.


Laci, Lynsey and the Strickland babies drove back to Tennessee, while Aunt Becky and her friend Pat joined the caravan to the Ozarks.


We arrived at camp on Sunday, July 5th.

Hit the river for day one

And celebrated Austin's 12th Birthday that evening

Yes, it's a danish. That was the closest thing to "cake" they had at the campground store.

This was Ethan's first camping trip and he was a trooper. Getting dirty, hanging out peacefully in the playpen, and floating the river in that mean old life vest.


He also had a special t-shirt:


The family floated for four days, while some of the ladies took off a few of the days to....do laundry and shop. The kids rocked! They had normal bickering between siblings, but I saw that going on between the adult siblings, too.

HUGE moments:
the cliff - Emma wanted to jump. Devin didn't really, but seeing that the princess was persisitent...

the kayak - each of the kids worked the kayak expertly. Yes, even the 6 year-old.

the stearn - Austin learned to stearn solo on our last trip at age 10. Connor took lessons in stearning this trip at age 10.

the skipping rocks - are flat and sharp and can cut when sent at someone's head. Accidents happen. And heads bleeeeed. Nurse Eric patched Austin up.
Eric is wearing his finest Campground Scrubs to stitch the wound in the super-sanitary environment known as the Open Air and using highly-technical equipment such as the Folding Chair.

Yep, good trip.