CAMPING AT THE RIVER SAY WHAT?

Over the summer we have become really good friends with Mac and Sara and their 3 boys. Mac was Cole's baseball coach in the Spring but, we didn't really even start talking to each other until the end of the season baseball party. Mostly because I thought Mac was a jerk (that's putting it nicely) and, Sara was usually very busy keeping score and chatting it up with the hoards of people that know her in this small city. Plus, I was also always off to the side with a camera in my face taking pictures and videos of the games.
Since the baseball party we started hanging out more and more and somehow ended up getting talked into going camping and canoeing with them and 2 other families.

What's that?! Yes, I'm just as shocked as some of you are that we went, too. I went canoeing several times when I was a teenager and somewhat liked it but camping...Uhhh dislike. Especially when the weather is absolutely disgusting outside. I sweat bad enough as it is and prefer not to be all stanky and drenched in my own body odor when I'm eating meals and supposed to be relaxing. Just a personal preference I guess.

I failed to take a picture of the actual campsite but, this was our practice set up at the house before we left.
We drove the 1 1/2 hours deep into the boonies and camped 2 nights right on the Buffalo River. I won't go into full details of the trip...Mainly because I just don't feel like it since I have many more posts to do but, I will say this...I may canoe again but the chances of me camping again are very, very slim.

Packing all the food, cooking, sleeping, and living necessities SUCKS, setting up everything on the campsite SUCKS, breaking down the campsite SUCKS, and floating down a dirty, non current river for 10 miles with a child that is miserable almost the entire time SUCKS. And Nathan would probably add that being told by his wife to move from the back of the canoe to the front because she can steer way better than him thus making him the only man on the river with his woman in control SUCKS.

But I don't care because I didn't enjoy having to slam flat on my back to avoid having my face roughed up by these trees. Just look at them. Yep, the ones right after that giant log. Thank goodness I have skills and we miraculously didn't flip over.
We stopped way too many times to look at cliffs, jump off cliffs, swing off ropes, splash around, eat a snack, pop another beer, and pee in the water. Not necessarily in that order but, YES...It was definitely as white trash as it sounds.Dain, Cole, Nathan, Devin, Mason & Drew at the very top of the waterfall.Sweet Drew helping Brooke down the slippery hillside that I didn't even attempt climbing.The water was actually very cold for August. Not really refreshing...More like bone chilling.
Drew chillaxin on the floaty being pulled behind a canoe. Hard to believe he's 16, huh? All of the kids took a turn on there. Brooke unfortunately had a near death experience on it and will probably choose to never talk about it again. Stupid turtle.
She did have an excellent time with an empty beer can though. I was just glad that she wasn't complaining for at least a good 20 minutes.
Oh my...Just look at her cooling herself off. What are we in for when she's older???
I love how Brooke has the Livestrong bracelet on her ankle for her Daddy.

Drew spent many hours talking noise to Nathan about this super high cliff called Chimney Rock and how he absolutely MUST jump off of it or else. Of course, Nathan couldn't lose face and agreed to do it. See that little speck of a man on the highest peak on the right? That's the jumping off point. Yikes!

Come on, Dad! JUMP!!! Don't be a chicken!
Ugggghhh...Still waiting on them to jump.

Once they were up there, smack talker Drew kept trying to talk Nathan out of jumping because he was scared and didn't want to have to do it himself. Drew kept saying, "Don't do it, man! You have a beautiful wife and two kids. Think about your beautiful wife. Think about your kids. Don't jump!" Bahahahaha!

It took a whole lot of courage for Nathan to finally jump off that cliff but, he did do it. And it was awesome! It was so cute to see how proud the kids were of him! He was badly bruised up for weeks on his inner thighs and under his arms where he slammed in the water but, he was glad that he didn't have to face the shame of chickening out and having to climb back down the cliff.

There were a handful of fun moments but not near enough to make it worth all the hassle. Oh, and don't get me started on the hassle of the moist and muddy mess on everything that had to be dealt with once we got home. Grrrr! Makes me really appreciate the fact that I live indoors. The kids said they don't want to go camping or canoeing again. Ummm...No argument here!