Johnson's Shut-Ins and Elephant Rock

A couple of weeks ago James and I took the kids with my sister and her family to Johnson's Shut-Ins and after we finally got there it was a blast! Some how James swore that Dan said it would only take about an hour and a half to get there and as much as I new it would take longer, I believed him. Well, that hour and a half turned into more like 3 and a half :( Not only that, but the kids TV died about halfway down (wasn't charged fully) and so they started to bicker and after Dan said we were almost their the kids asked "are we there yet" about every five seconds and to add to it Dan's halfway was about another hour or more away :) About 20 minutes away from our final destination Kierstyn got car sick and to top that off there was no phone service, so she had to puke in a McDonald's bag and continued to scream for mommy to hold her till we got there.

We finally made it after what seemed like an eternity! After parking, changing, and applying sunscreen, we were finally ready for the water and the wait was so worth it! The kids had a blast climbing the rocks, riding the rapids, swimming, and jumping off the rocks. Quentin absoulutley loved doing cannonballs off the giant rocks and Zach enjoyed climbing on the rocks and even tried to run off a couple times. After getting sick Kierstyn remained pretty crabby for the first part of the day, but cheered up as the day progressed. Kariana enjoyed "swimming" and even kicked her feet and flapped her arms to do so. I think everyone got a kick out of the little minnows trying to eat our toes.

After making our way all the way down to the bottom of the river, we fought through rocks and currents to get back to the top for lunch. We found a spot on the grass and had an old fashioned picnic filled with Chicken, potatoe salad, baked beans, pudding/jell-o, and of course drinks for us all.

After lunch we took a vote of staying here or moving on to Elephant Rock and although it was fun, Elephant Rock won. So we headed over and changed into our tennis shoes in search for big rocks to climb. Again, everyone had a blast, even the girls unclinged long enough to climb all the rocks. Kalia gave us all some laughs as she through Brandi's water from the top of a rock and we watched it roll to the bottom. Oh, and the priceless look on her face as she's walking along and her diaper falls to the ground, we don't know why it suddenly fell, but it did and it was funny :) Even party pooper James loved these big rocks and tried racing "Spiderman" Dan up to the top. Dan had to be a mixture of Spiderman and a monkey! The way he ran up the rocks and used the trees to swing on to neighboring rocks we had ourselves a "SpiMonkeyman."
Unfortuneately, we had to leave before we made it all the way through the park, because of the long ride home. The kids were not ready to leave, but after about 30 minutes all but Kariana had fallen asleep (including Emilee who decided to hitch hike back with us). After a quick dinner at McDonald's, we all headed home for a restful nights sleep! We can't wait to do it again soon!

Special thanks to Brandi and her family for taking pictures and tagging along for the fun!