River trip - our remedy for life's stresses.

Gorgeous river rats. I love blond, California boys and matching swimsuits. Precious!

Aaaahhhhh...there is nothing like a good river trip to ease the stress that life can bring your way. When our family is feeling the stress of the daily grind (especially Tracy and Dana - the hardest working men in the universe) we all yearn for the river. A trip to our honkey tonk river spot is the remedy we crave. Last week we got a sudden opportunity to go and we grabbed at the chance. It was so great. We have missed it so bad. Two years ago and the 3 years preceding we went all of the time. Last year we did okay but career changes slowed us down. This year we've been only a few times since Tracy is working Monday-Saturday usually 95 plus hours a week. It was an awesome weekend with naps, BBQ'ing and relaxing together as a family. It is always nice to spend leisure time with Tracy, especially for the boys. Thanks Tracy for working hard so that we could take a few blissful days to play hard!

Okay, if you plan on reading this post, grab a snack because I do not like slideshows. They slow down the blogspot, won't print out into book form and frustrate TMac who surfs this blog all of the time. There are a ton of photos below and I even only chose a fraction of the awesome photos we took!

Tracy is always great about building a special sand sculpture and since TMac is all about sea animals and Sea World lately, they built a Mommy and baby dolphin.

Sing the Alan Jackson song "When Daddy let me drive." The boys love to drive on the journey from our motorhome to one of our favorite river spots. Don't worry - it's on private property. Tot must drive! If you start him out sitting on Mom's lap in the passenger seat he will protest!

The boys love piling up all of the big couch pillows and bed pillows and jumping into them off the drivers platform of the motorhome.

I love this picture of Tracy. All of the problem areas are hidden under the water - hee hee! I should take some photos in this position because I delete most of the ones that show me in my swimsuit!

Tot's current trick is giving the best hugs all day whenever the mood strikes. I love it! That is not me in the bikini behind them. Just a random lady and the dog named Oakley that the boys loved playing with. They love their river dogs which in TMac language means dogs that he gets to borrow for awhile.

The boys love hanging out on the wood deck on Papa Doug's (Genni's Dad and W's grandpa) boat.

Dana the river lizard - basking in the sun. The water he is in is a little cove on the side of the river that slowly fills up all day which makes it hot like bath water. When you get too hot you go jump in the big river behind him and cool off in the cold water.

Papa Doug taking a nap on his boat. I didn't have my camera on me any of the times that he took a nap in a chair right in the deep water! Doug is fun to have with us because he is really easy going and super funny.

W jumping. The older boys did such a great job of taking turns and being careful with Tot.

Hanging out on the jet ski. These swim trunks are one of my favorite sets. It says "surfer dude" across their bums!

Tot loves a good jet ski ride but he usually returns asleep. This time he came back awake.

Mommy and Tot swimming. Great photo that hides all of the problem areas! :)

One of the reasons that the boys are such great swimmers is their experience in the river with the tides, waves from passing boats or jet skis and differing depths. They both started swimming in the river when they were 2 months old. The river is usually really calm though and wave free.

TMac and W were eating dry Trix cereal out of bowls like they were kitty cats. They were belly laughing and would get cereal sticking to their nostrils!

Nap time for Tot.

Tracy and his boys at sundown in the lagoon.

Tot felt like having a hug! River = LOVE!