Do you remember our inaugural canoe trip last year?

The one where we started out with lifejackets and ended up pulling our canoes for miles upon miles? Because we tried canoing in the middle of a drought?

Oh yeah, that one.

Well, we decided not to be deterred by such a negative an interesting experience, and we set sail on our second annual canoe trip this weekend. We had (intensely) watched the weather forecast for a week, hoping that the weekend would hold no storms to prevent our trip...and as it turned out, we had nice weather for the majority of the trip. We had really wanted to return to the river we canoed last year, but given the fact that the water levels were up...oh, pretty much NONE, we decided to go with a somewhat larger river that would not have the same water-level-issues. Because it was a bigger river, it was not (at least to me) nearly as scenic...but we really did have a fun time. We lost one canoer (Sarah) from last year, and gained three this year: my youngest brother - Johnathan, his girlfriend -Tessa...and the newest addition to our family - Iliya!

The funny thing is that - last week - when various people asked me what our plans were for the weekend, I would tell them that we were planning to canoe/camp...as long as the weather held out for us. They nodded their heads with approval and then asked who would be keeping Iliya while we went. You can imagine the looks I received when I said that he would actually be going with us. "...in a canoe? Camping?" But of course! Why not?





ready for canoing? We shall see!

I'll be the first to admit that I was nervous. We hadn't had the opportunity to go on a practice run with him...but we just decided that we would go and have no expectations. If he didn't want to sit still or even get in the canoe, then we would just have to be okay with not forcing him. We were prepared for the possibility of having to turn around and return home. But you know what?








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He exceeded the highest hope we had for him. I believe this child was born to be outdoors. He didn't hesitate to get in the water...he didn't mind his life jacket...he really wanted to keep playing in the water, but didn't mind getting in the canoe...he sat in the front of the boat with me and took in all the sights.


There was only one mishap in which Iliya went overboard. At the end of this post is a video, where Iliya is recapping the trip with me...but I'll quickly give you my version. He had really wanted to put his hands down in the water as we went along, so one time, I held on to him tightly and let him splash in the water a few minutes; he had a lifejacket on - and the water wasn't very deep, so I wasn't terribly worried about him falling in. He actually did not fall in at that point. But later (he was sitting, not playing in the water), I had my hand on his back (not holding on at this point), I turned my head to give a quick answer to a question asked by Nathan. As I turned back around, Iliya was falling out of the canoe and Nathan jumped in the water to get him. Aside from the fact that the water was very shallow, and Nathan scraped his knee on the bottom of the river, everyone was fine. Iliya was a bit shaken, because I don't think he expected to fall in. But after crying a bit, he was okay - and ready to float on.


I paddled most of the time, but there were a few times, when he got really tired, that Nathan did most of the work so that I could hold Iliya. We had gotten up early Saturday morning, so he actually fell asleep toward the end of Saturday's leg of the trip. Fortunately, the water was not too rough, so Nathan was able to handle a half-hour of paddling while Iliya slept. And the poor little guy slept right through me getting out of the canoe & into a chair on the bank, while everyone else set up camp for the afternoon/night, and then played in the river.

Our campsite was on a small island that - because the water levels are so far down - had a beach-like quality. The area would normally have been under water - leading up to the campsite was very rocky...and then it was sandy. Just like the beach. And you remember how Iliya enjoyed the beach? Once he woke up from his nap, he was ready to play hard. So Nathan played with him while the rest of us caught a quick nap...He played in the sand...and then got brave and wanted to go swimming in the river.

deep in conversation

I guess I didn't realize that the water would be as warm as it was...so (silly me) I didn't pack swim diapers, only regular diapers. So Iliya started out swimming in his regular diaper and quickly swapped to skinny dipping. He wasn't really happy to get out of the water, but it was soon time to eat dinner.

Our food consisted of a variety of camp foods - which are always simple, but taste so delicious after a day of hard work! We also started a fire and after I put Iliya down for the night, the rest of us sat around the fire for a little while before the rain moved in with a vengeance.

We took a large, thin, inflatable camp mattress for Nathan, Iliya & I to sleep on...everyone else slept on their own camp mat & sleeping bag. I was surprised at how well Iliya did with the bedtime routine...but I really shouldn't have been surprised, given the fact that he had been going - almost nonstop - since 6:30 Saturday morning! In fact, he slept through some very hard rain, fairly strong winds, and a thunderstorm! He woke up once, after the storm went through, and was a bit disoriented. He cried for me and finally fell back asleep after snuggling for a little while.

This morning, we took our time in waking up, and then we ate breakfast, broke down the campsite, and had a little devotional before heading out for the second leg of our trip.

c'mon mom, it's really too early for pictures!

As we paddled this afternoon, Iliya kept reminding me that, yesterday, he had fallen out of the boat with a big "splash" and then he cried, but daddy saved him. But then he would (for lack of a better term) "joke" about it. He would look at me, and act like he was moving toward the edge of the boat, while saying, "Whoa, mama! Whoa!" The little rascal. I reminded him that, maybe he thought it was funny to joke about it...but he wouldn't think it was so funny if he really were to fall in again. That seemed to do the trick.

We finally made it to our final destination and got loaded up to come back home. We had a great trip! And I don't even think that I would say that Iliya was a trooper - because, to me, that term implies that there is a lack of desire, but a grudging willingness to go along. Instead, I think he had the best time of all of us - he truly enjoyed himself...which makes me actually look forward to our next trip.

the 2008 group, after having survived an awesome, but exhausting trip -
Johnathan, Iliya, Tessa, me, Nathan, Christopher & Jarred





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