Rowan Canoe Trip

Every year Andy's company puts on this Extravaganza out in Louisiana. We've never been able to go as it always seems to fall on conference weekend, or we've had a small baby or something, but this year we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. So we drove 5 hours into the backwoods of Natchitoches, LA (don't ask me how to pronounce it!). Admittedly, I've never had a high opinion on Louisiana...but this trip was a pleasant surprise. While we were there Rowan had set up some fishing contests and golfing tournaments, both of which we weren't ready or really wanting to participate in. So we spontaneously found a little canoe rental place and went canoeing as a family for our Sat afternoon adventure. It was SO fun and so beautiful. I truly had no idea that there was such beauty in Louisiana. The rental place was very "hick" and the guy just dropped us off, gave us a map and said good luck. I was a little surprised, but we did fine and didn't even get lost :)

The river was so low that we could touch our oars to the bottom no problem, in fact we had several episodes of getting "beached." I guess they are having major drought issues, but it really made for a very calm river and a very laid back Mommy.

Tyler and I headed up one boat and to his dismay I wasn't as fast as Dad's boat, which was a hard pill for him to swallow. But it being my first canoeing trip I thought I did pretty good...AND lets not forget I'm almost 7 months pregnant! Hopefully Tyler will understand someday that I'm pretty tough :) Until then I'll just be known as the slow boat rower.

We stopped half way through our little adventure and "parked the canoes" and had some snacks. The kids mostly dug in the sand and seemed to enjoy that even more than the actual canoeing :)
At one point in our adventure we parked on a rock bed that was just gorgeous. Apparently we are amateurs at docking because at one point we looked back and saw one canoe floating away :) Andy is in mid run trying to rescue our rented boat! The kids thought that was pretty funny. I as a child would have started bawling at the thought, but my kids are so much more laid back then I ever was. Funny.

Andy has a picture from his mission where him and his companion are doing this near a beach. I am still unsure of the significance, but due to the BEAUTIFUL picture I just had to include it. Someday I might understand what it's all about, but then again maybe I won't :)

The kids and I all together.

Andy and the kids all together.

And cute Kaylee got the best seat in the house...a cushion! Pretty fun stuff. We're going to have to do this again someday soon :) Maybe we'll get the nerve up to camp near a lake and do the full blown outdoors adventure. We'll see.