Just around the river bend...

This past weekend, the cousins took a trip to the Current River in Missouri. 

Basically, I love canoeing and water and sunshine.  And, since such activities will be more difficult in a few months here, we figured we better do it now.

We loaded up and headed out after work on Friday.  

Our hotel for the night.

I would highly recommend. 

Saturday morning, bright and early, we drove to the rental place and loaded on to the bus that took us up stream. It was a little bit of a flash back for me, riding in the cramped school bus seats. 

Kandace, Carli, and Kayla. 

We got on the river at about 9:30.

Clayton and Carli

The mist was still rising.

Tate and Kandace

Kirk and Kayla

Nathan and me. 

This is so not flattering at all, 

but I never get pictures of myself, so I had to put it up.

Cliffs

One of my favorite parts, was the cave.   You could canoe directly in to it.   The cave was the mouth of one of the natural springs that feeds the river.  The water was clear blue and freezing cold. 

entering the cave

We couldn't all fit in the cave at once, so we pulled the canoes to the side and spent a while exploring.  

From the inside

Just look at that water.

It felt like we were in another country.

We stopped on a beach for lunch and swimming.  We switched up canoes throughout the day, so I ended up canoeing with Kandace, Jake, and Nathan. 

Jake did a great job of steering. And paddling. :)

My arms were pretty sore by the end.

We stopped at another spring. You could hike up a trail to the mouth. 

The spring

The colors were amazing.

This cabin was built in the early 1910s right by the spring.

Another stop for a swim

Right before the end, we stopped at the outlet of a warm spring. By that point it had clouded over, so the warm water was refreshing. 

We were about 20 minutes of paddling from the end, when it started to sprinkle.  Other than that, we had amazing weather. It was beautiful and sunny all day and never got unbearably hot. 

We got off the river at around 5:00. 22 miles traveled. :)

It was a great trip. I'd love to go back someday and canoe more of the river over a long weekend. 

In Christ

~Michelle

Anniversary

Well it's not like this post is super late or anything. Ha. 

Nathan and I celebrated our third anniversary this year. :) 

We were on Wyss vacation for the actual day, so we celebrated early.  We went out to eat at Biaggi's. Which is one of my favorite restaurants. And for the first time ever, that I can remember, I ordered dessert. :) It was so good and we were stuffed.

Lobster Fettuccini. Amazing!

(I pulled this pictures off the internet because I forgot to take pictures :( )

Bombolini

Ok. So, the menu said "Italian donut" so I was expecting a donut. Not this magnificent masterpiece.

This was the most phenomenal crispy, gooey, warm cinnamony, goodness. Drizzled in caramel sauce with real gelato. It was so good. 

While grocery shopping after work one day I made Nathan buy me some flowers. Hehe.  

Aren't they pretty?

This is probably where I should insert a sappy paragraph about how awesome marriage is or how awesome Nathan is or something of that nature.  Both are true, but I'll spare the sappiness. :) (ridiculous huh? I can wright more about dessert than marriage. hehe)

So yup. Three years. It seems pretty strange. I can't decide if it seems shorter or longer than that.

God has blessed us and provided for us in so many ways already.  I'm so thankful for where He has brought us.

I think the next three years will probably look way different than the first three, though :) 

In Christ

~Michelle

30th

The first week in August we headed south to Kentucky Lake for the 30th annual Wyss Family Vacation.  :)

We left around 10:00 in the morning Saturday and ended up catching up with Fred and Di, who had left long before us.  hehe.  They did make a few more stops than us. 

We got to the resort right at check in.  

The view from our cabin

Matt and Lena shared the cabin with us for the week.  

Jack enjoyed swimming

Eva and Emmy

Eva's family comes to the resort every year and we've gotten to know them a bit.

Our days seemed to follow the same itinerary.  Nathan and I would try to get down to breakfast early. We'd head out on a walk for about a half hour and then relax at the cabin until I decided it was late enough to head to the beach. Nathan spent most of the time indoors playing games. And, I tried to get as tan as I could. :)  Supper at 6:00 with wonderful food, followed by old family videos, games, or movies.  

We are getting old.  I could barely stay up past ten, but by the end of the week I pushed myself to spend more time with the cousins. 

Beach time

enjoying that fudgsicle

Emmy was very pleased with her cheese cake

nerdy games

A butterfly on our morning walk.

Nearly everyday, a thunderstorm would roll through.  It was a mad dash at the beach to gather up all the stuff and kids and make sure the rafts and floatys weren't going to blow away... it was quite hilarious to watch I'm sure. 

waiting out a storm on our porch.

Matt took us out on Ron's boat.

selfie with Emmy

I'm not sure what they are doing, but this is classic.

Emmy, Boden, and Cecily

On afternoon, Matt and Lena and my dad went to the General Store with me.  Someone on the beach had recommended the place, so I convinced them to go with me.  "Huge wall of pop" didn't take long to convince me or them. :)

mountain man

Look at all that bottled pop!!!!

I took way too long deciding 

In honor of the 30th, I was encouraged to make t-shirts. It didn't take too much convincing since I enjoy doing it. It's the gathering of sizes, collecting money, and all that fun stuff that makes it stressful. 

Aw.

sadly they don't have maternity shirts, so it's not very flattering. 

The whole family :)

cousin selfie!

Due to my delicate condition. hehe.  I couldn't do any tubing, kneeboarding, wakeboarding, or cliff jumping... and as I get rather bored of just laying out,  a group of us decided to go to a water park one afternoon.  There were a few slides that specifically stated I wasn't allowed to go down, but I went down the others. :) It was worth it. 

I took pictures of my cousins while I sat out. 

Clayton had an interesting mishap with his swimsuit going down one slide. Let's just say, he may have traumatized a poor little girl watching on the side. hehe... it was his own fault for wearing a European swimming suit. :)


I joined a boat load headed to the cliffs one day. I took a floaty and enjoyed the water and watched the rest jump.

Go Kayla!

Cliff. Living up to his name :)

The week was over before we knew it.   I miss the sunshine and the family. sigh. 

Now we are back to the usual grind of work, gardening, mowing, projects, and birth classes. :)

In Christ

~Michelle