My Labor Day Day

So, before I share what I did this Labor Day I have to first share that I don't have the best history with large bodies of water - or any size of water for that matter.  It seems that with almost every trip to a pond, lake, ocean, river, or spring, something "bad" happens.  I've either almost drowned, been swept out to sea, or been caught in a monsoon amount of rain with a thunder storm (and I'm sure there's more incidences that I can't recall at the moment).

On Sunday after church, a very sweet family invited us to go canoeing/kayaking with them the next day, Labor Day.  It was decided that we were going to Holmes Creek in Vernon Florida, to which we (my brother and two sisters) had never been before. We loaded up the cars and headed out.  Naturally with this trip I was a little skeptical because of all my other trips to large bodies of water that didn't go too well, so I just prayed for safety and a good time.  O how good He is!

So we get there and we get our vessels (my brother and two sisters and I got two canoes), we slathered on more SPEF 50/55 sunscreen (this was our second application) and got in....and we were off!  Floating, O the glories (and worries) of floating! ;-)

Now sadly, I didn't bring my iPod so I took no pictures - even though my brother did bring his GO-PRO and filmed a little.  So the pictures I am about to share are from Google Images.

While floating past this I thought that it looked like
lettuce.
"Salad, anyone?"

This was the springs - our first (and pretty awesome) stop.
Isn't that water beautiful...and cold looking?

This picture doesn't do this spot justice...
the color looked like Jade.  So pretty!

See that rope swing?  A little to the left of
this (not pictured) there was this tree
that someone had nailed "stairs" into.  Well,
one would climb this and then, yes you guessed it,
fall or jump off into the water.  I asked my brother
how high up he thought it was and his guess was
about 40 feet high!

Isn't this pretty? This is under the springs.

Going under and around the trees was funny and a little
scary at times.  My sister at one point saw a spider
about the size of a baseball!  Creepy!

This trip adventure was SO much fun!  It had been over 10 years since I'd been in a canoe so I didn't think I was going to do that well and I thought that for sure I was going to fall in - but because God is good, none of that happened. :-)
The water was COLD but felt so good and refreshing on such a hot day. :-)
Overall it was just a good day full of friends and fellowship..and little singing of "Just Around the Riverbend".
Thank You, Lord for Your wonderful blessings!

~Sarah