For July 4th, we relented and let the kids stay up well past bedtime to watch Grandpa's fireworks show. Thankfully, no one lost any eyes or appendages during the ordeal. All the kids loved it - except for Judson who would rather just stay inside or play with Benji.
We took our lives in our hands again and went tubing in Ellijay yesterday. Both Wren and Judson denied that they would ever go tubing for the duration of the drive there, but once they saw that the "river" was in fact quite small, they reluctantly agreed (promising ice cream at the end of the trip for bravery may have helped too). That is until it was actually time to embark on the voyage. Judson said he would just stay with the worker at the launching point, so, being the good parents that we are, we tethered his tube to mine, snatched him up and deposited him into his tube while I shoved off the bank and let the current pull us further away from shore. He maintained a death grip on my hand the entire trip but never said a word. Wren voluntarily climbed into her tube attached to Tony's and seemed to be ok...until they reached the middle of the river (now descending as deep as two whole feet). Then she lost it. Onlookers surely thought she was being kidnapped or murdered. She was yelling, "No! No! Mom!," interspersed with "I want to go home!" Caleb, meanwhile, jumped in his own tube (not tethered to anyone else's) and was on his way. Judson and I were at this point very far ahead of the others, but we were able to hang on to an overhanging tree to wait for them. We eventually all tethered together, Judson sitting stoically and silently on his legs, frozen in fear, Wren screaming bloody murder and Caleb routinely sliding out of his tube (I think just for fun and to make his dad go after him). "Isn't this fun?", I kept repeating. "Oh, how beautiful!", I would exclaim, hoping that my positive vibes would rub off on the younger two. About half way in, Wren did eventually allow herself to save her voice and actually enjoy herself. By the end, she was laughing and smiling. Judson never cracked a smile or let on that he was having any experience other than a terrifying one. Once we made it back ashore, Judson found his happy place by playing in the mud, while the other two splashed in the river. At this point, all that Wren could say was, "That was so much fun!" Success!
As promised, our first stop on the way home was for ice cream at a local orchard.
Since we survived our first tubing trip, perhaps we will try more adventures like this in the future - though Judson still says he will never go tubing again.
