Welcome to our 'ool

I have a personal goal/dream to visit all 50 states with Christopher--for personal record update, so far we've been to: Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. That's 18--not too shabby, if I do say so myself. (Chris and I have both been to Oregon, but not together yet.)

Our first grand adventure for the month of July is adding a new state--FLORIDA! I'm glad we're taking advantage of actually living out east to get to more states beyond just what we drove through to get here. I'll be honest, though, it probably wouldn't have happened if Michael and Amanda weren't living there for the summer.

As an added bonus, Brenda came, too! She marks our eighth out-of-state visitor. That count is WAY higher than I ever anticipated it would be when we moved here. You people must like us or something.

We managed to get on the road near 6:30, which allowed us to drive all the way through Atlanta without hitting any of its killer rush hour traffic. (Seriously, it's insane. I know there are worse traffic places, but nowhere that I've ever lived.) The drive was largely uneventful, other than Brenda throwing up four times. At least she's a grown up and could take care of it herself. :)

It was much more exciting to actually get there. After hours of sitting in the car, it was a welcome change to go with Amanda and her kids to the swimming hole.

Michael is getting his degree in Fish and Wildlife Sciences and he is interning for the summer at Deseret Ranch, owned and operated by the church. They make it a rather pleasant place to stay, including this swimming hole.

I was quite impressed with miss Audrey Jane. As I've said before, she's gotten much more adventurous in water and this trip was no exception. She was more than excited to try out the rope swings, and even jumped off into the water. (She particularly wanted Grandpa Jeff to know about it.)

Chris was not lacking any bravery, either. Not that we expected him to...

I got a good video of him actually jumping off the platform and dropping into the water. I accidentally ended the video a little early, so it just shows him dropping down and never coming back up...oops. I promise, he survived.

Sadly, our swim time was cut dramatically short. Just as we were getting settled in and really starting to have fun, lightning was spotted and we immediately packed up and went back to Michael and Amanda's house. Good thing we had a few days to visit so we'd have plenty more time to swim.