Back from the river

As promised, I'm back.... with pictures! I decided NOT to charge my camera, but to buy a water proof disposable camera. With my obscene clumsiness, I can't be too careful. Sure enough, five minutes down the river and I dropped the camera in the water. Anyway, I took the thing to Wal-Mart today and they burned the pictures onto a disk for me. Yay!

We left out around 10 Sunday morning.


Don't let that look fool, ya. He was excited, too. He just needed some help smiling. I had to show him how to do it:


Anyway, we got to Coldwater around 11:30 and got signed in for the noon river trip. We got our tubes ready and piled into the van to head up stream. Of course, as soon as we got in the water, I was ready with the camera.

I found out pretty quick that there's way more to tubing than I thought. I was thinking we'd just float along, take a little nap here and there. Ha! Who knew you actually had to steer? Apparently Kevin, who kept reminding me around every bend to paddle harder. I'm sure he wouldn't have been nearly as worried about me paddling if our tubes weren't tied together, though.

See... here he is trying to get the knots out of the rope at the end of the day. At first, he just tied the cooler tube to his and let me float along on my own. But after we got separated around the first bend, I made him hook me to the group!

The trip only took about three hours, which was shorter than I expected. Of course, we didn't stop at any of the sandbars along the way. Overall, we had a fantastic time. The weather was beautiful, the water was cold, and I couldn't have asked for better company. I can't wait to go again!

In other news, I brought a kitty home today. Seven kittens were found behind the building at work - no mama in sight. We're trying to find homes for them, but you should know that I had to save at least one. I took him to the vet this afternoon and they said he was about five weeks old. He's orange and fluffy and absolutely precious. I had the vet give him his first set of shots, then headed to the store to buy some kitty food and other essentials. I've never had a cat, so this should be interesting. Pray for me.

Toby adores him, which is one less thing to worry about. He's been covering him in dog kisses all afternoon. I'm trying to keep them separated when I'm not giving them my undivided attention - at least for now. Toby doesn't realize how rough he plays, and I'd hate for him to accidentally hurt the poor little guy. I haven't quite decided on a name yet. He reminds me of Oliver from that Disney movie. Maybe I could call him Ollie for short? I don't know... I'm finicky about names. He'll go through 12 before the end of the day.

I'm charging my camera now, so I'll be back tomorrow with pictures!