Just Around the River Bend

Yesterday....

I went canoeing for the first time! Dani picked me and Gram up from my house at 12:45PM in Nikki's car, and we went to her brothers house, where Dani's sister-in-law helped us load the canoe on top of the car.  Then we went to The Italian Place to grab some sandwiches to take with us, and I had never eaten there before.  It was fun to get food from a new place when I was about to go on a new adventure!

We drove out toward Tremonton and parked at a picnic area with a loading dock for the Little Bear River.  When we pulled the canoe down from on top of the car, we dropped it, Dani fell on top of it and cut her hand, and I twisted my wrist! We were almost ready to call it a day! But we carried it over to the dock and I hopped in front, and Dani got in back because she knows how to steer.  Gram had already gotten all wet by jumping in the water at the dock, so I had him wrapped up in a towel when we launched.

It was such a beautiful day! The sky was clear and there was a breeze.  We spotted a pelican and started paddling toward it, but then it took off and flew right over us so that we got a close-up look! Then Gram decided he wanted to go for a swim, so I tightened his collar and attached his leash, and set him in the water.  He doggy paddled around for a little while, but then he gave me the wild look that said, "I'm going to drown!" and he went into a panic.  So I pulled him in by his leash like a fish and plopped him back into his towel.  We paddled around for a while and saw some monster fish jump out of the water, and I wondered if the fishing was any good out there. 

We headed back to the dock to eat our sandwiches and sang badly Just Around the River Bend, from Pocahontas...or at least what words we knew to that song! After lunch we went back out and I sat in the back this time and steered.  I took out my new phone to snap some pictures with the excellent camera it has, before putting it back into my pocket. 

The next time I reached for it, it was gone.

RIP phone =( I'm sorry my negligence left you cold and wet at the bottom of the river.

I was super bummed.  I love my phone! I had two cute videos of Weston on it as well as tons of beautiful pictures and videos I took during Monday's rain storm.  And now I am disconnected from the world and will have to rely on Facebook to make plans with people for a little while.  But it's ok.  It's a luxury to have a problem like not having a cell phone when other people in this world have much bigger problems.

I tried to put on a happy face and I let Gram out to swim two more times.  Then we started heading back to the dock, when all of the sudden, Dani jumped and yelled:

"Oh my God!"
"What?!"
"There's a huge spider!"

Relief.  Spiders don't scare me...until I saw this one! It was huge! The leg span was as large as a 50 cent piece and it had big thick dark body! It scuttled.  Dani yelled and started climbing toward the back of the boat, which started rocking and the spider scuttled again.  I burst out laughing and started paddling.  Dani ended up perched in the middle of the boat and we managed to paddle back to shore with only a few more scuttles and screaming.  Once we got to shore, I got a stick and scooped it out onto the grass so it could terrorize us no more. 

We got the canoe back on top of the car and drove into town to get some snowcones.  Peach colada this time.  It tasted even better because we had been out in the hot sun for hours, so ice was just what I needed.  We unloaded the canoe at her brothers house and she dropped me and Gram off at my house.  A long shower.  Some clean pajamas.  Yes.  It was an excellent day.

Minus losing my beloved phone at sea =(

My mom's name is on our Verizon plan, so she called Verizon and they let us put insurance on my phone so that I could make a missing claim and get a new one some time late next week.  I will survive.