Bellingen Birthday

My birthday fell towards the end of our road trip, and since I was still holding my family hostage in paradise basking in the glow of Bellingen, we went canoeing on the Bellinger River.  Sam gave me the ultimate birthday present by telling me to go ahead and have my own kayak while he'd be managing the kids.

Jackson was in a single-person craft as well,

and Sam, Alex and Kenyon triple-teamed it.

With no kids to wrangle, or iwanttositupfront/isaidthatiwasgoingtousethatoarbutyoujusttookit/whenisitmyturntousethesinglekayakyousaidicouldusethesinglekayak to mediate, it's amazing how peaceful it is to be on a river!

ahhhhhhhhh...serenity now. So lovely.

We'd paddle some, and then mosey on over to the side to spot water dragons in the trees.

Alex spent much of his time in the canoe crafting and delivering his finest arguments as to why he should have a turn in the single-man kayak.  You'd think one of his parents was one of those annoying attorney-types or something; I wonder where on Earth he could get this persistence?

Of course, as soon as he got his wish, we saw a lot of this:

A blur of lots of movement but going absolutely nowhere?  Check.  Stuck in trees and other brush? Check.  Backwards motion while seemingly paddling forward? Check.  It's honestly hard to believe so much effort could be put forth with such a poor outcome.  Luckily, my wonder-husband Sam totally MacGyvered a solution by breaking off a vine and tethering his canoe to Alex's so he and the other two boys could provide some forward momentum for our canoe-inept Al Pal.  And more luckily, I was still in my peaceful solo kayak enjoying the river.

Despite the fact that it was my last day in Bellingen (cue the weeping), it was a pleasant, peaceful birthday out enjoying life with people I love, in beautiful surroundings.  No better way to celebrate another year on this planet, really, and I can't think of any other life I'd rather be living at 35 than this.

(think harder, you say?  Ok, if hardpressed, I'd toss a few more dollars in our bank account, buy some property up here large enough that friends and family could visit, and then do the obvious--open a wombat sanctuary.) But canoeing on the river is a close second, and I'll always remember it.

**and this concludes my posts and gushing about Bellingen, I promise!**