Aaahhhh!!!!

After tubing on the Deep Creek River and having some pizza for lunch, we headed back to our cabin for some 'down' time. Our cabin was great and we had brought along some games and ball gloves (of course!) to play with, so, along with the 'relaxing' we planned to do, the kids didn't mind at all not having somewhere to go or something to do! Our cabin had a great hammock and rocking chairs on the wraparound deck. There was also a fire pit that we planned to put to use!! We lazed around taking turns in the hammock and all drank our share of sweet tea! We enjoyed just spending time together and later, the kids pulled out the ball gloves for a game of catch. They made the best of the small space they had to throw the ball, and somehow kept the ball from rolling down the small mountain we were on! Terry and I got the fire pit ready to roast some hot dogs for supper. It's hard to beat a roasted hot dog and we all had fun cooking our own. After dinner, we hit the fire pit again for some S'mores. Although Anna and Tanner don't like S'mores, we all had fun roasting marshmallows. Terry, Avery and me enjoyed the S'mores too!

Tanner got my camera and took some pics!

Our cabin!

Avery on the hammock with her sweet tea!

Tanner's turn

Anna taking it easy in her rocking chair

Terry working on the fire??

Making supper! I could get used to the kids doing their own cooking!

On to the marshmallows

S'Mores!

A marshmallow that was a little 'well done'!

The kids were so excited about sleeping in a king-size bed! Well, Avery and Anna anyway. Tanner, actually, was very excited about sleeping on a roll-away bed! Glad he was excited about it since that was his only choice besides in the middle of the girls or on the floor!

The inside of our cabin

Upstairs den

Tubing the Deep Creek River

On Day Two of our vacation, we went to Deep Creek River and went tubing. At $5 per tube, all-you-can-tube, you can't beat the value - and the fun! I had tubed before - lazily down a slow river - but Terry and the kids had not. The Deep Creek River has some small rapids on it, and if you go to the upper section (which we, of course, did!), you go through some rougher rapids. Terry and I debated on taking Tanner to the upper section, but decided if we held on to his tube, he would be ok. The only small negative to tubing is that you have to carry your tube and walk to the "put in" spot. The higher you go, the longer you can tube down, and since we went as far up as they would let us, the walk was a pretty long one. The kids did great and didn't complain too much about having to carrying their tubes. We finally got to the top and "put in". We were all decked out with our water shoes, and I had strapped on a waterproof disposable camera (which is why all these pictures aren't the best!).

Walking up the trail to tube!!

The water was FREEZING at first!

Me and Tanner taking it easy in a calm area

See the butterfly on my back??


I didn't get any pictures of the rapids this trip, but they were awesome!! It was so much fun going fast through them and bouncing off the rocks! We learned on the way down to just let the river guide our tubes and not try to guide them ourselves. We did end up stuck on some rocks from time to time and had to work a little bit to get off, but for the most part we just went with the flow (literally!). Through the rapids, I held on to Tanner, but learned that I didn't really have to. He got on his knees in his tube and held on and was never in danger of falling out! I was closer to falling out than he was! He did great - so did the girls - and we all had a blast!!

Avery - drifting along towards the end of our trip

Tanner at a spot where some people got off the river - we kept going!


Terry floating along


Here comes Anna!

Avery

One of the sights along the way!

We had a total BLAST tubing the Deep Creek River! There is nothing like having adventures surrounded by God's beauty! We lasted a couple of hours, then our stomachs took over. We reluctantly turned in our tubes for the day and headed to the Pizza Hut for a late lunch. The water always makes us hungry! Our day on this small river is one we will not forget!