Sunfried, Beaver scares, Cubbie chills, totally peace and renewance.

We took our great trip.  The morning started with Yogie making cupcakes for her birthday.  She had gotten the choice for mom to make or buy her a cake but she decided she would make cupcakes to give everyone.  She made the boxed cake all alone.  She picked red velvet, cracked her eggs, measured her oil, add the water and stirred.  She metered out the batter with a 1/4 cup measure cup into the little paper cups and popped her creations into the oven.  25 minutes later she had lovely little cakes to cool down to frost later.  She is my "nine" year old wonder.  She is very self sufficient in the kitchen.  She has her own little way and style in the kitchen and in life.  I am so proud of my wonderful little lady.   Someone asked me one time why I always call them "ladies", I said, "I do it because that is what I set out to raise and they hear it and it reminds them that that is what they are, lovely empowered ladies in training."  I think I am going to be so marveled at what they become, it is truly a pleasure to see them develop into the ladies they will be in this life.

Yogie went to Uncle Brother's to see if he had tubes and a raft but the tubes were no good and the raft had a leak and he couldn't find his patch kit.  Shinny gave her five new tubes as a gift for her birthday and told her to enjoy them.  Such a nice thing to do.  We filled the tubes and Mokie and Poppie drove down to the rive to drop of Mokie's car, where we were to get out.  They decided on their own to add an additional 5 miles to our trip.  We chided them that that may be to far for the kids, and us with "virgin skinned" legs.  Mokie who is beautifully tanned just laughed at her old white skinned mother, Poppie got a look of utooo.  She gets her beautiful dark skin for him, but his old knees have seen less sun than mine have this year. They arrived home to find one of the tubes had a hole in it.  Son patched it and off we went. We piled into the truck.  We drove down to the fishing access and put our tubes, and the small raft Mokie had bought for Cubbie and Boy, in to the water.  Cubbie was not going to get to go but during the night Mokie had decided she could go.  We tied all our tubes, the raft and Poppies tube, that you pull behind a boat, together,  it has a cover on it with handles and pull hooks, it was great to help tie us all together.  We started down the river, Boy whined, it was a nice beginning. The water was going a nice clip and we all settled in.  The sun was shinning, the water nice and cool.  We had never actually started in that exact place before, we soon learned a routine of how to adjust where we went in the stream.  Son regretted not bringing a paddle, not sure where he would have put it on his tube.  We had to stopped a short distance down to let Son and Mokie change tubes.  He can't swim and had his life jacket on but the tube was smaller and he felt over balanced.  Mokie had liked her tube but was ok with the smaller one. All of my kids swim like fishes, the girls both had life jackets on as did Cubbie, Boy and Son, it is the law for children to have them on.  Poppie can swim but his brain scares him to death about the water if it is over his head so not a good swimmer.  Boy whined. Cubbie was in her element, she laid back on the raft and just chilled.  She didn't growl, cause trouble or roar.  She just had the cutest little smile on her face and took in the days events.  We had sun screened all the kids, our faces, Nannie and Poppies knee's, and passed out tea or juice drinks, I had water with lemon in it.  We navigated under the first of the five bridges we would traverse.  Boy whined.  Yogie and Booboo were having the time of their lives.  Yogie said it was her best birthday ever.  Booboo wanted to get off and swim but I told her we needed for her to get more used to the currents and open water before I would let her do that; in the end we decided we probably wouldn't let them do that this time. The river took us from one side to the other through the slow water and the fast,  we went through our first set of small rapids.  It was so fun it was a nice bouncy ride.  The ladies loved it, Cubbie giggled and Boy didn't whine, we were all shocked he actually liked the ride.  He decided he liked rafting for the moment.  He couldn't wait to find more rapids.  We soon went under our second bridge.  We saw a  deer under a tree.  We passed the swimming hole with the ropes that hang from the third bridge. We passed the fishing access that Son and I thought would be where we would have gotten out.  More rapids another bridge.  The water started to slow and we saw a beaver in a patch of willows.  He saw us and slid into the water.  We moved in close to the shore as the current took us back and forth along the river.  BoobooBooboo's bum in the air, Yogie's feet on Poppies raft, Cubbie still chilling and Boy whined.  We saw another beaver slid into the water, Booboo stiffened and got scared.  I told her beavers didn't eat meat they didn't want to take a bite of her bum and to calm down.  She eventually probably would have but her bum back in the water but she had dried and the water was chilling. Our trip was uneventful the rest of the way, Boy whined and we all noticed that there was a lot of red skin peaking out here and there especially on Nannie and Poppie's knees especially.  A little on Mokie's arm and none anywhere else.  We got off of the river, deflated the tubes and rafts and got into the car and came home. 

The goats were in Poppie's garden when we got home, they had eaten his apple tree and it will need to be trimmed alot to save it.  Poppie and Son went and got the truck.  The girls and I made salads, got steaks ready to barbecue.  Yogie frosted her Cupcakes, chocolate or pecan coconut, I added candles.  We all had a nice barbecue, Yogie blew out her candles, we sang her a nice birthday wish and she proudly passed out Cupcakes to one and all.  A wonderful birthday, a memory for one and all, we will have for a lifetime.  Nannie is fried this morning and Poppie nicely cooked but already tanning..... tomorrow.