We Had Joy, We Had Fun

It was a very good weekend. Sometimes, when you experience something that moves you and entertains you and is wonderful and sad all at the same time, it’s hard to put it to words to tell people about it because there is no way to do it justice. It’s one of those “you had to be there” things. We really enjoyed each other’s company. There were 15 of us that were there for the whole weekend and one couple joined us on Saturday and Saturday night and another couple joined us just for the day on Saturday. All total, there were 19 of us who floated for at least a 5 hour trip down the river.

One of the cool things about the weekend was that we had two couples who were new to our experience. I cannot remember if I have talked about it before, so forgive me if I am repeating myself. As a result of the website that I did for my brother-in-law with regards to his ALS and for the benefit we had for them, another couple in our area who also had a recent diagnosis of ALS, found us and came to the benefit in April. Kip was diagnosed in October of 2007. His wife, Shannon, was 8 months pregnant at the time. Kip and Shannon also have an amazing spirit and they are an inspiration to everyone they come in contact with. This year, they joined us with another couple that they are best friends with. It was awesome to all sit and joke about the funny things about ALS (yes there are funny things) without people getting all uptight and feeling all “oh this is taboo, we shouldn’t say that”. It was awesome. It was just a good time to kick back and sit and gab about anything and everything. (Hi Kip and Shannon, Kane and Rian, if you’re reading, too. Love you guys!)

It went really well getting both Kip and John on the river and the people at River’s Edge were so awesome helping us get them off the river and then back to our campsite. I cannot say enough good things about River’s Edge. If you ever find yourself in the area, or if you live in the area and want to tube down the Apple River, please use River’s Edge for whatever your camping and/or tubing needs are. /end commercial/ They really were so awesome, though, and I am not sure we would have been able to do it without their help.

There were a few tears and a little bit of speculation for what the future holds, but, for the most part, it was just laughter and fun and enjoying the moment. I wish I had pictures that I could share with you. I can’t because they are either too, um, not for my kids to see or they are on the water camera that we haven’t brought in to the photo shop for developing. I’m not sure that there are photos on there that I would want my kids to see either. We’ll see.

Our kids did come on Sunday afternoon and they all went down the river again. I skipped out on that excursion by taking my daughter’s car back home. Saturday’s 5 hour trip was too much sun for this girl. I couldn’t do it another time. On my way home, although I have been to the river a gazillion times, I somehow managed to get lost. Luckily, I had my handy dandy Blackberry which, along with Google Maps, found where I was and told me how to get home. Gotta love Blackberry and Google Maps. It was totally awesome. When I got home I took a long nap.

I’m still exhausted. I may sleep all day tomorrow, my one day off this week. Then I work Thursday and Friday and then I am on vacation! Hurray!