Barnhart Family: We're not lost we just don't know where we're going

Today was a spur of the moment day. We woke up this morning not sure what we were going to do, but with a forecast of 95+ degree weather, we knew it was going to involve water. We decided after some "I don't know, what do you think we should do" that we would head out to Little North Fork and spend the afternoon on the river.

Little North Fork is only about a 30 minute drive out of town, and we got there about 12:30. Unfortunately, everyone and their brother got there sometime before 12:30, and there was literally no where to park. Not even illegally. Not even the up the road and hike in kind of parking. Nothing. So we decided to run up the road a bit and see if we couldn't find another place to get down to the water. We are a semi-adventuresome bunch, and if we could have parked somewhere and walked down an embankment, we were all for it. But we couldn't even find that before we came to the big orange sign that said something like "end of paved road", and we had to turn around. We swung through the parking lot for the swim area one more time on our way down, just for giggles to see if we could get lucky, and nearly got stuck in a logjam of vehicles. There were so many people trying to get in and no where to turn around once you realized there was no parking and you needed to get out. **Note to self, must get to North Fork a little earlier in the day**

We headed back towards town and I mentioned I had seen a sign for a day use park, hey why didn't we check that place out? Silly Mommy...... Another 30 minutes later, we still hadn't found it, we were hot and tired and basically ready to call the day done. We headed back towards town, and one more time, I said "Hey, I saw a sign..." God bless my ~~mostly~~ patient husband, he humored me one more time, and we headed for Silver Falls. This place we knew, knew how to get there,and knew it would have water. So after what ended up being almost 2 hours in the car to get to a place 40 minutes from home, we finally piled out of the van in 98 degree heat and headed for the water.

Dad a little grumpy from the "adventure".....(OK not really, he was only frustrated for a minute but he does look grumpy in this picture)

this is Leah's pure joy to be anywhere near or in any kind of water

this is what I get when I ask for a group picture

freezing - the water was cold!

I love this picture

a rare moment when my husband actually picked up the camera. I wasn't going to post this because frankly, I don't look that great in a swimsuit. But then I thought, whatever, it is what it is. And it's photographic proof my children have a mother.