Bridge Climbing, Whitewater Rapids, and Other Dangerous Activities

There is nothing that fills me with dread more than the first signs of puking in our house. I hate it! We were faced with that today, but, thankfully, it was short-lived. I'm praying it was just Jack's tummy not liking the antibiotic he took this morning. We have a busy yet pretty fun week planned, and I'd rather be busy than hanging over a toilet. I don't know about you.

So, before today's puking occurred, we had a fun Saturday. We're helping to lead a newlywed Sunday School class at church, and we had a class picnic yesterday. I must say there is nothing that can make you feel old faster than hanging out with a bunch of 20-something newlyweds, some of whom graduated high school after I had already birthed two children. I wonder what they think when they look at us with our pack of kids, minivan, and crazy life. (To be accurate, there are a few who don't fit in the "newlywed" category, so it's a great mixture.) We really enjoy it, though. We've made friends that we never would have made before. I keep telling them they're free to borrow our kids anytime they're bored or just have an urge to babysit, but we haven't had anyone take us up on it. Puzzling.

My kids are sometimes a little bummed when we take them to hang out with the "nearly/newlyweds" because, as you can imagine, there is a shortage of other kids to play with. (There are actually a few sometimes.) So, we assured them that the picnic would be tons of fun, and they weren't disappointed. I think they actually luck out because they're the only kids there demanding the attention of lots of adults. No competition.

It actually turned out that there were two big kids there as well.

Our daredevil friend, "Mr. Outdoors," thought it would be oh so fun to scale the bridge (I mean, what fun is it to just walk on a bridge?), so, naturally, Chris had to match his daring.

Next came the terrifying bridge dangling. Thankfully, he hung on and didn't plummet the whole three feet into the 12 inches of rushing water.

After witnessing all this daring behavior, my kids were inspired to do a little daredevil climbing of their own. As a mother who can sometimes be a tad bit on the cautious side, I couldn't have been more thrilled.

Lukey had a great time, what with all the freedom to run and be wild. That's all he needs to have a good day.

All the "kids" ended up with their toes in the cold Cahaba.

And here's the rest of our fun-loving group. The tamer members of the group are included in this photo.

Of course, things couldn't stay tame for long.

It was such a fun day and the kids just got to be kids...climbing, running, playing, and getting dirty. I can be such a non-fun mom that they miss out on all that stuff most of the time. We should do more of that, as long as no one gets more than two feet off the ground and we have lots of antibacterial wipes.