Pioneers, Peaches, Harry Potter and Floating down the river

We were traveling on Pioneer Day so we waited to celebrate until Saturday.  Mark picked 17 miracles for our family movie Saturday and it made me tear up again and again.  So many sacrifices were made and so many miracles happened. I believe it was on Amazon Prime which makes me wonder how many people watch it who are unfamiliar with the back stories or religious association and what they think of it. It was a fitting movie to watch but so emotional.  I was glad to have another resource to use to teach Jared and Lydia about the Pioneers and be reminded myself of their stories. I was in charge of the activity the next day for Home Evening so to continue with the theme we played Pie Face which was a lot of fun.  Its impossible to not take a ton of pictures when playing this game.

Mark's favorite day of Summer happened this week.  We headed to Carter Mountain to pick peaches. We met up with the Shedd's, Mark's co worker from Burley and sweated it out to pick 74 peaches.  Due to Corona Virus things were a little different.  In past years you can bring your own container or use large clear plastic bags that they provide.  After you were done picking you take them to the register and have them weighed then pay. To minimize contact they sold bags that you prepaid for and could fill with as many peaches as you wanted.  Challenge accepted. Jared set a goal to get 2 dozen peaches in his bag and he and Mark made it happen. Jared and Lydia both found great peaches, Mark was pleased with their progress in selecting peaches.  They each found lots of peaches that Mark "approved of" and didn't pick any he would have rejected.  I was surprised we were able to fit that many peaches in a bag.  We now have 8 gallon size bags of sliced and peeled peaches in our
freezer. He wants to go again before the season is over.

It smelled so good! 

Friday morning as I was working out (I've been jump roping 3x a week and am hooked.  Its amazing cardio and I love having something new and challenging to do) Jared came downstairs to wish me a "Happy Harry Potter's birthday day".  We kept it simple and celebrated with Butter Beer, props and watching Harry Potter 2 for movie night. 

The weather looked decent for the first day of August in Virginia (not above 90 before noon and cloud coverage but not rain) so we decided to drive to Scottsville and float down a section of the James river Saturday.  I originally wanted to actually float in a tube but Mark convinced me that he and I should kayak so we could move Jared and Lydia long if the river was very slow.  Thank goodness he did.  The section of the river he chose was 6.5 miles long and while we did have cloud coverage for a good portion of the time we were floating the times we did not were brutal.  I always think this will be great and it always ends up taking SO much longer than I think it will.  Our goal was to cover 2 miles an hour and with Mark and I paddling we were able to stick to that.  Mark took one for the team and towed both Jared and Lydia.  My kayak is missing a rope to attach the tubes to so it would not have worked very well  to tow one of them.  Overall we do enjoy doing this. We are always ready to be out and doing things and this was a good choice for social distancing. We saw a group of 3 people put in right before us but they went the other direction first and then nobody else on the river where we were until we got to the end point. Thank goodness we brought sunscreen with us in the kayak. We reapplied twice and all made it out without getting sunburnt a major accomplishment for me, Jared, Lydia. We brought some snacks but should have brought more.  Things to remember for next time.  Poor Jared got quite cold sitting in the water in his tube which boggles my mind as it was hot! It would have been more fun with friends so we will try another time and hopefully some can come.  There were a few spots of very mild rapids I don't even think you could call them that, more like sped up current which were great.  We'd really like to find some faster  moving water around here.  It was a good outing, but next time friends and more snacks. Lydia gave it a 5 out of 5 which surprised me and Jared gave it a 2.5 but more snacks would have pushed it up a whole point so that is an easy fix.  I think I would be better if we could find a section that was closer to 4 miles. We listened to some fun music which gave us energy and made me feel cool and Jared and Lydia loved it when they could bump into each other.  Once we got to the boat ramp Mark got in his car to go pick up the highlander so Jared and Lydia had fun playing in the water on the boat ramp while we waited.  That is another hard part about floating.  Having to take 2 cars and then wait to drive back and forth.  It was nice to use our kayaks somewhere new.  Jared and Lydia would have loved to stop every now and then and explore somewhere or try out a few rope swings but it was already going to be such a long outing and corona virus stuff so we were mean and made them stay in their tubes. Were just doing our best to have fun safely this Summer.

 Before we hooked them to Mark's kayak

Major props to Mark!  It was hard work towing these two.  

I had to try to not paddle or I would get way far ahead of them.