We Now have a River Rat

I should apologize for these posts being chronologically out of order. My mind got so overwhelmed with the move that I forgot about everything else. It wasnt until I went back and looked at the blog that I realized that I hadn't told the story of our family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. There are a few highlights from the trip I want to be sure and mention, so I will glaze over the major details including how gorgeous the house was, how perfectly located it was, how insanely steep the driveway was and how spacious the rooms were. Ok, with that out of the way, Aunt Judy started the vacation out on the right note by giving Ryan and Leah TONS of presents (mainly Toy Story stuff-the best way to Ryans heart. But the main highlight from the trip was the river-the piece de resistance! We wanted to slowly introduce Ryan to it because we were worried about her still being in her "fear phase", so we took her down fully dressed..but within minutes she was getting in the boat with grandma. I really should have known. So only an hour into the vacation and a river rat was born! She really liked the paddle (more on why that was a problem later) and adored skipping stones (basically tossing rocks in front of her-no matter how big). Every minute we had free we would head down to the river and hang out in the boat paddling in circles, or standing on our island of rocks, watching Ryan slowly dissolving the island stone by stone.
Now, here is where her fierce independence nearly caused a tragedy-she got into the boat with grandma but wanted to paddle herself. This really wasnt a problem until the current started to take them down the river into the rapids and Ryan wouldnt give up the paddle to help them stop (cant be sure that she didnt want to go down the rapids, she is brave like that). But to avoid the treacherous rock ride down the river grandma did what she had to-dump herself and Ryan into the river and abandon the boat down river. Of coarse the water was only a foot deep, but Ryan was crying and seemed worried about grandma...pretty sweet kid! Poor grandma looked like a prune, all purple and bruised. I did my heroic gesture by jumping into the river fully dressed to save the day!!!
We decided to take Ryan to the Aquarium in town and try to spend a little alone time with her without Leah. At first she wasnt in the mood, but she opened up a bit and started to really enjoy the fishies-until the Shark room-that scared the beejeezus out of her. But in her defense, they were really big and swimming right over our heads, I was a little freaked. I think Jamey and I enjoyed the aquarium more then Ryan did, and while she didnt have as much fun as we had hoped, I was glad we went. Also, on the way back to the car we stopped to have her picture taken with the official GENERAL LEE-Jamey was in heaven! We now have a picture of her with the general Lee just like the one we have of Jamey when he was a boy.
Now, when Ryan wasn't in the water, or yelling at the sharks, she spent the majority of her time upstairs in the 3rd floor tunnels that was created for the kids-an amazing, colorful, wall to wall, floor to ceiling paddled bunks and tunnels that Bri and Ryan would play in for hours! Thank you Bri, I soemtimes forgot Ryan was even around! :)A needed break!
You may ask what Leah was doing this whole time-well, she spent the week sick, and mainly stayed inside with grandma. She did go into the river and spent a little time int he hot tub-the girl already knows how to chillax.
I realized while on this trip that while we had some fun and Ryan had the time of life, the days of relaxing vacations are over. I think I had to work harder while on vacation than I did while at home. Thankfully we will only do this once a year!