Just can't wait to get on the........

River Again! 

( I think this is what Willie Nelson meant to sing)

After camping for 4 days in 100+ heat on trek, Rand and I decided to prolong the madness and canoe down a river in 100 +heat again for a few days!

We are mad, I am quite sure of it!

But "mad" in all the good ways, right?

I have come to a conclusion, that the more people you can get to forge a river with you will directly effect the way in which you merrily, merrily, merrily - row, row, row your boat!

These boys were proof that little guys can row as tough as the big kids.

  Too bad Jake sported a cast on his left hand that dampened his spirits....  but he was a trooper none the less.

There comes a time in your life when you turn four and you are pretty hot stuff.  Not only do you get to accompany your family on the river but you have the right to become an individual!  There is no mom that can convince a four year old that orange glasses and a red bandanna is not the latest river fashion!  

This little guy was AMAZING on the river and  an AMAZING hiker.

Brady Bug, you are one of the coolest 4 year olds I know!

We put in the river at Hoover Dam and I pretended that I knew something about architecture with Mikey!  I think I ooh'd and ah'd at all the right moments as he explained the different elements of this really cool bridge.

Knowing my flighty ways I thought the BMan might be more safe and secure in Grandpa's canoe!  (This lasted about one minute down the river and then he traded places)!   

The BMan became my little singing buddy for the entire trip....I am pretty sure everyone loved our loud singing as much as we did! 

I really thought that when I purchased this hat for trek it would be retired shortly after.  How could I be so wrong??  This ugly hat was perfect for the river and I do declare I did not get sun burned!

Some people are crafty and some people are not - it's really not fair in the least!  I tend to fall into the "not"category  more often then I would like too!  Domestically speaking I am challenged when it comes to creative flag building and so when the call to make a canoe flag went out,  mine was embarrassing to say the least.  I gave it my best effort as I ironed on letters to a pillow case in the hotel room the night before.  But as you can see from the picture above (my flag is not flying high but secretly tucked behind me and guarded by the BMan!

Other's more domestically blessed than I took this challenge seriously and I was quite impressed by their creative genius.  Too bad I only have a picture of a few of them!
 

The "Spitfire" took it a little too far when they decapitated this poor man!

  

And the "Row Hoes"  might have been a bit showy (he he)!

But really, when it comes right down to it, I am just jealous of my inability to produce quality craft projects.  

One of our pastimes on the river when canoeing got a little bit "not" fun was to look for goats or are they Big Horn Sheep or are they Mountain Sheep, I still can't get the terminology right.  Anyhow, Rand and Mikey thought they were amazing and spouted their knowledge about how to hunt from the river and score a big, mountain sheep, goat, billy ram, or some such a matter!   

They were hard to spot but we saw a bunch!  

I have about a million pictures and videos of these things running up the cliffs, ok not a million really, but I do have more videos of the goat animals then I do my own children.  

PRIORITIES!

Here is a fun game - I picked this picture to see if you can spot the big ram goat thing a mabob too!

(Hint) click to enlarge and it is in the middle bottom of the picture, it has big antlers, horns or whatever you call those curling items that protrude out the side of his head!

If you really can't see it, just have Rand show you his slide show of these animals....I am sure he would be quite pleased to accommodate you!

We made plenty of time for skipping rocks and hiking.. 

I dare say that I would put Jake up against any of the big guys when it comes to rock skipping, he is quite talented.

These guys are sports......

But us girls can climb too!  (A little higher I might add).

To my fellow canoe friends....

We will see you next year!