Swiming Grumpy

Back at council retreat LeAnn asked me to lead the fearless females women's ministry. I prayed about it an accepted the challenge. The ministry includes Women in the woods led by Katie Sewel, Sisters on Saddles led by Jenifer Edwards, Roadrunners led by Lori Merrit and RAD led by , and I lead the extreme women. Saturday we had our first event. We went white water rafting on the Ocoee. This is where the Olympics were held.

We drove the Willowbrook bus to Benton, Tenn. 12 of us went. Rhonda drove the bus on the way there and part way back. Then I go to drive the bus. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Mr Bill got the bus ready for us and also he filled it with gas at the end of the trip for us. Hats of to Mr. Bill.

We stopped in Chattanooga for lunch at Sticky Fingers. We just had fun visiting with each other and getting to know each other. I spent a lot of time with Donna Fay and Melanie. I so enjoyed the two of them.

We arrived barely on time for our trip cause lunch took longer than planned. We all got our life vests, paddles and helmets. Then we went for our orientation about the trip. We boarded buses and headed to the put in. We went through some more rules. Rule #1 Stay in the boat, Rule #2 Get back in the boat. Rule #3... and so on.

We put our boat in the water. We pushed off and soon after that we his a rock and out of the boat I went. I swan Grumpy! I hit a few rocks and all I could think of is get back in the boat. I saw Melanie and Airone trying to get me back in the boat and all I could think was get back in the boat. I was shaking I was so scared. I got back in the boat and tried to stay in the boat the rest of the time. I loved it when the guide would yell all in and I would hit the flour and go for the ride of my life.

Half way we choose to swim in the resting area. Melanie talked me into it. It was fun and cooled me off. We finished the ride and got back on land. The Airone told me I had swam the most dangerous rapid on the river. Leave it to me. I had fun and it was a great experience.

On the way home we stopped at Zaxby's for dinner and drove home. I am still sore from the trip but I have not seen any bruises. I did experience soreness from paddling.

I have enjoyed telling people about it and loved Kenny's recaction of wow grumpy that is pretty dangerous. Pastor Mark Johnson shook my hand and said he had never heard of anybody swimming grumpy before. He was excited about it.

10 Happy Years

We spent our 10th anniversary in the Mobile area with Kathy. We left on Thursday evening and arrived in the Mobile area ta 10 pm. We made it to the river around 10:30. We sat in the chairs by the river and just enjoyed the fact that we were out of town and going to be going non-stop for the weekend.

Friday morning we got up early and went to see Bear, Mom and Grandmom. We brought new flowers and wind chimes.

We then went into Mobile to see the pirates exhibit at the City Museum.

The exhibit was fun and the rest of the museum was very interesting. Well worth the trip.

We drove around downtown a little bit.

After the museum we went to the Cannonball for lunch. That was a great lunch.

We then drove over to Gulfport to go to the beach. We toured many places along the way. We stopped at several beaches and then we went to the Beau Revage. We went inside and Darrin wanted to gamble and Kathy and I went to have ice cream. We had butter pecan and banana monkey. The was the best and way more than we could eat in a waffle cone.

We spent some time on the beach and took some fun G I Joe photos. The sun set and we came back into Mobile and headed back to the river. First we stopped at Hooters for dinner. Kathy got to see how load it is and it was a good salad. We sat up and talked for a while.

On the Fourth of July we got up and went to Grandbay for the watermelon festival. We ate watermelon and walked around. It was fun to watch the little ones play with the animals in the petting zoo and the kids climbing the rock wall. I loved the colors and the smell of funnel cake. The band played great tunes for the fourth like Yankee Doodle. I took lots of photos of stuff that said Fourth of July to me.

We drove out to Bayou La Bartie and looked at the boats. It was nice to see the clean up after the Hurricanes. It was sad to see that homes were not rebuilt along the coast. Conan was cleaned up as well. I so love that area and enjoy driving through.

We decided to drive over to Fairhope and look at the scenery and decide on if we wanted to stay there for fireworks or go to the battleship. We drove by the castle home. The man that built the house was a friend of Kathy's. I remember the dentist that had such a cool back yard in the area. He is no longer there. It is still a quaint little town.

We went back across the causeway to the battleship to watch the fireworks. That was so cool to be that close. The next time for photos I will be behind the battleship and take photos from the causeway. I had fun taking G I Joe photos at the battleship. What a great weekend and what a great Anniversary. Thanks Darrin for 10 great years!!!