Canoe Trip

Here is Greg's latest craigslist purchase. We sold 'my' (I haven't been in it in almost 5 years) kayak and bought a canoe. Since selling the kayak, Greg has been totally canoe crazy and finally found one to his liking on Friday. He was beyond excited to be able to take the boys to one of his favorite places in the whole world- the river. On Saturday we packed a lunch, loaded the canoe and set out to paddle from the outdoor center in San Marcos to just past the Martindale dam- about 12 miles. I have paddled this stretch a few times in a kayak and Greg has been down it many, many times. He always underestimates how long it is going to take by several hours, but I still believe him and go along with his plans. As usual, his three hour trip ("We're in a canoe! It will take no time at all!") turned into six hours. But we survived. The boys did amazingly well and begged to go again Sunday. In fact, I guess I was really the only grumpy one by the end of the trip. In my defense, I did paddle the whole six hours through some pretty good rapids and grooling flat water, hauled the boat from the car and over dams, hit my head on a low bridge with rapids underneath and acquired a baseball-size bruise on my hip. We may go again this weekend! We really did have a lot of fun. The San Marcos is beautiful in an eerie, unpredictable sort of way. I have always loved the huge bald cypress' with their narly roots covering the banks. It was early enough in the morning that we got to see a ton of lounging turtles, one snake, dragonflies the size of birds and all kinds of other TX wildlife. We even came upon a herd of mangey sheep (visit my flickr for more pics). Greg and I love to do exciting stuff like this with the boys. I hope they really appreciate these memories and experiences when they get older. I can't wait to see what Greg will have the four of us doing when the boys are a little older! Hope I can keep up- or at least get a good seat to watch the action. I wish I had gotten more pictures of the canoe trip but there was a lot going on and I could only take my camera out on the calm sections and when we stopped for lunch.
This last picture is of our latest pet. 'Twitch' is a little bunny that has taken up residence in our backyard. He is a cute little guy (or girl) and seems fine living in a yard with two small children and two dogs. He is friendly with Greg and I, letting us come within a few feet of him. I know he does not seem like he would be welcome in our big veggie garden, but, so far, he has caused very little damage. I let a few carrots overgrow and he nibbles on the foliage of those, but I can't really see any other damage. In fact, tonight when I took this picture he was happily munching on grass. So maybe he is a rabbit that prefers lush St. Augustine over stinky ol' vegetables. I will keep you posted on Twitch's life.