And they're off!

As most of you know, my brother is famous for his crazy backpacking trips he always takes and they're off on another one right now! Nick & Win have gone to Thailand, Honduras, Bolgaria and now they are tackling Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Panama with some help, Dale & Kevin. The 4 guys arrived in Atlanta around 9:30 on Saturday night, and it was great catching up with all of them. Within 3 hours we had all eaten bagel bites, a large pizza and a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies. Sunday morning we had planned to take them all rafting down the river. Kyle & I did it last summer with some friends and it seemed like a great adventure to get their vacation started. Chris, Kathleen & Kathleen's sister, Rachael, came and met us as well and we all had a ball.

Here we all are getting our life jackets & kayaks:

It's along the Chattahoochee River and they drop you in about 5 miles up the river from where you park. And then you just float and float and float :) It's about the most relaxing thing you could ever do, especially when you have a big group of people and you all tie your kayaks together so it's one big "flotilla" as Nick liked to call it. They are all 1 person kayaks where you basically just sit on top, your legs don't go under anything. There is even a comfortable backrest! It's a great way to get sun and relax from a busy week. I had packed PB&J and chips for everyone so we stopped half way and ate... which was good b/c it took about 5 1/2 hours to kayak down! The guys had a great time throwing tennis balls back and forth and trying to stand on top of their kayaks. Win gets the award for hurting himself the most, as the river was SO low and he would fall on rocks a lot. Dale & Kevin actually kayaked some of the time so they got way ahead of us and we finished probably 25 minutes before us b/c we chose to float the whole way! We had a great time.

We had cheeseburgers & chips back at the house for dinner and it hit the spot, we were all so hungry and tired. We got out the scale and weighed them all (since they lost so much weight last summer from throwing up trying to get used to the food & water!). We also weighed their packs and good thing for them they were all in the 20-28 lb range which is great! We all went to bed early, but of course got some last minute shots of them.

We had a great time and are so glad you guys stopped by... can't wait to see you when you return in late July!