whobody finally used their Christmas present?

Our Christmas gift to our kids this year was a tube for our boat.  

We finally got it out and on the river in July!

First, of course, we decided to test it out with our friends...

you know, make sure it was safe and everything.  

They are excellent guinea pigs.

 But, they are probably not very good role models for safety while tubing.

(hee hee)

Keaton and Lola: if you are reading this, Gabe was just showing us the kinds of things for you kids to NOT do while you are riding on the tube.

One thing we did learn on our adults only tubing afternoon is that it is 

ALMOST impossible to flip the 

Great Big Bertha. 

Almost.

A few days later we actually let the kids get on the tube!  

First I got on the tube with Lola. 

That went awesome... 

(she wasn't even scared a little bit, which didn't surprise me too much.)  

Then, I took Keaton and Nash out....

but didn't get any pictures, because Jason was driving, 

and Keaton is my back-up photographer.  

Now...you should know that 

Cruz threw a FIT the whole time I was out there with anyone else

so, we thought we would give him a turn too.  

In the picture below, he is crying because we weren't moving yet. 

He either wanted the tube to be moving, OR he wanted to get into the big bath. After we got going, Cruz LOVED riding on the tube too.  

After I rode with each of the kids for a while, we decided to let them try it 

on their own.

They had a BLAST.  

Keaton was the most surprising for me...

I thought he would be much more timid...

because he has always been extremely cautious and careful.  

He had NO worries on the tube.

 (Actually, I think if he would have thought of it, 

he would have tried some of Gabe's tricks to flip the tube.) 

All in all...this was a great purchase. 

I do hope to instill a little more 

"respect of the river" in the kids...

they do not have enough fear of it (but it also seems a little weird to me to TRY to instill fear in my kids....because they are usually SO fearful!)

 We do LOVE having the river as a place for our family adventures!

We are so blessed.