On Monday my mom, Caleb, and me headed out for NOC white water rafting tours. After almost getting lost from Mama's handwritten directions, we finally made it to the last leg of the "never ending" journey...and that's when it got weird. We had successfully made it to hillbilly country. When I mean "hillbilly", I mean shacks with 3 dozen broken, rusted vehicles scattered in the front yard! It was awful! Then we finally reached the NOC building! To describe how "hillbilly" it was; when we drove into the parking lot be saw that the NOC owns a goat! Okay, so they have this specialty breed of goat to eat these vines that are overtaking the place, but still.
Then after we waited around and listened to a really nice elderly man give a demo, (during the pouring rain) we suited up into moldy wind breakers, body odor ridden life jackets, and probably lice infested helmets. Then we all piled on an old, faded, blue school bus and headed down the narrow, bumpy road. Then the real fun began.
We waited around for the guides to throw the rafts in the water. Then we all jumped in and sat down on the side of the raft. Then we started down the calm river. For about 10 minutes I said to myself *in Lance's famous voice* "this is really dumb", and after that is when the white water started coming into view.
The first rapid was okay, but not very intense. Then the second one came and little brother #1 fell out of the raft! He was safely rescued by P.D. though. Oh, who is P.D. you ask? Well, I don't know his real name him and his wife just reminded me of my favorite 2nd cousins P.D. and Stephanie. :) Also in our raft was "hairy dude" (that's the name me and Caleb picked for him), but I don't like to think about him much. Oh, and our guide (also the nice elderly demo man).
The trip was great! They stopped and let us jump of a tall rock into the river and also do some swimming. All in all, even with all the not so good things it was an AMAZING day. :)
Then after we waited around and listened to a really nice elderly man give a demo, (during the pouring rain) we suited up into moldy wind breakers, body odor ridden life jackets, and probably lice infested helmets. Then we all piled on an old, faded, blue school bus and headed down the narrow, bumpy road. Then the real fun began.
We waited around for the guides to throw the rafts in the water. Then we all jumped in and sat down on the side of the raft. Then we started down the calm river. For about 10 minutes I said to myself *in Lance's famous voice* "this is really dumb", and after that is when the white water started coming into view.
The first rapid was okay, but not very intense. Then the second one came and little brother #1 fell out of the raft! He was safely rescued by P.D. though. Oh, who is P.D. you ask? Well, I don't know his real name him and his wife just reminded me of my favorite 2nd cousins P.D. and Stephanie. :) Also in our raft was "hairy dude" (that's the name me and Caleb picked for him), but I don't like to think about him much. Oh, and our guide (also the nice elderly demo man).
The trip was great! They stopped and let us jump of a tall rock into the river and also do some swimming. All in all, even with all the not so good things it was an AMAZING day. :)
I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day (Allix B. Photography) and I came across a video that the blogger made about her vacation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1eD4_GfBxE. I love this video, I love the way she put it together, I love the music that she put to it. She inspired me to make a video of our up coming vacation. I can't wait! With a little help from my friends, I came up with these to put the video clips to.
The Outsiders-NeedToBreathe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3e-DWGxeBA
Keep Your Eyes Open-NeedToBreathe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iXRMkmFbs
Only Have One-JJ Heller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thQQIUNEhls
Glow-Moriah Peters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bUm7Le0fI
Do you have any suggestions?
Grace
The Outsiders-NeedToBreathe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3e-DWGxeBA
Keep Your Eyes Open-NeedToBreathe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91iXRMkmFbs
Only Have One-JJ Heller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thQQIUNEhls
Glow-Moriah Peters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bUm7Le0fI
Do you have any suggestions?
Grace
Yesterday I started really getting ready for vacation. Here is a list of all the things that I did:
1. Cleaned all the DVDs with a banana to help them from skipping and then rubbed them with alcohol to remove the residue.
2. Made the kids cute binders with all sorts of activities for them to do. I made one for the 12 year old (pictures below), one for the 7 year old, and one for myself with a photo challenge and blank paper.
You can get all these FREE printables here:
North Carolina Activity and Coloring Sheets: http://homeschooling.about.com/od/unitssubjgeog/ss/nocarolinaprint_all.htm
Mazes:
Scavenger Hunts:
http://vol25.typepad.com/vol25/freebie-build-your-own-cupcake.html
These are a few of the things that I packed for my little toddler boy.
Here are some more links to some printables in their binders that aren't shown in pictures:
Crayola has some great FREE printables, this one is for North Carolina.
Grace
