Yesterday the kids had several first time experiences. On Friday afternoon Yvonne and six of her kids arrived at our house. The kids played here, we had dinner, and then we hung out at the swimming pool for a couple of hours. Five of her kids (all who were there except for Wesley) took and passed the swimming test so they could go off the diving board. Yesterday morning the kids were up bright and early. Paul took Ian, Joel, Nadia, Nathan, and Joshua to the berry farm. They could have picked strawberries, blueberries, red raspberries, and/or black raspberries. They picked a little shy of three pounds of red raspberries. We've picked blueberries and strawberries multiple times over the years, but we've never picked raspberries before. Nadia loves raspberries, and I don't usually buy them because they are so expensive compared to other fruits. I've had picking raspberries on our summer bucket list multiple times in the past, but we never actually did it until this summer. I gave Paul my phone so that he could take pictures of the kids picking raspberries, but he didn't take any pictures. I was at home packing our lunches and getting ready for our white water rafting outing.
Around 10:00 Paul and I took Nadia, Ian, Oliver, Joel, Nathan, and Joshua to a boat launch site about 90 minutes from our house. We arrived around 11:45. We were supposed to board the vans at 12:00. Jenna, Andrew, and Toby had a very hard time finding the launch site. The drivers waited until a little after 12:15. Thankfully they parked and ran over to the vans just as we were pulling out of the parking lot. Had they been one minute later, they would have missed the trip. The vans took us to Jim Thorpe where we received our paddles and got into our rafts. The rafts could hold up to 8 adults or up to 10 people if some of the passengers were children. We had eleven people in our group which meant we needed to use two rafts. For the first half of the trip, Joel and Ian were in the raft with Paul and I, and the other seven were in another raft. For the second half, Joshua and Oliver were in our raft instead of Joel and Ian. Oliver also spent a little bit of time in the kayak with one of the guides. It was the first time that Joel, Paul, Ian, Oliver, and Nadia went white water rafting. I hadn't gone in almost 30 years. It's an expensive type of experience, but I thought it would help make Nadia's 13th birthday special. At the time we planned this outing, I didn't know we're also probably going to to white water rafting in Oklahoma City in September. Thankfully that white water rafting trip isn't as expensive. The kids had a good time. It was a dam release weekend on the Lehigh River which means the rapids are supposed to be up to class three. I was expecting the rapids to be more intense than they were, but it was a good first experience for the kids.
After we changed clothes and someone jumped Jenna's car battery, we drove back to Jim Thorpe. Paul had been given a gift card at Christmas for a hotel in Jim Thorpe. We used the gift card at the restaurant at the hotel to pay for dinner for our group of eleven. The Towfighis and Toby then headed back to Maryland, and we drove back home. Before we went to bed, we watched the pilot episode of the Mysterious Benedict Society on Disney+. We had enjoyed listening to all the books in that series previously. There will be a total of eight episodes this summer. The first two episodes followed the book very closely.
We don't typically drive to the Poconos that often, but in a span of eleven days we'll have headed there four times. I took the kids and Pop Pop there on Wednesday for the water park and trampoline park, we went white water rafting yesterday, Paul is taking the boys to overnight camp in the Poconos this afternoon, and I'll be picking the boys back up on Saturday morning. Nadia begins theatre camp tomorrow afternoon. The director is holding auditions this evening, but she gave the option for submitting a monologue by video if you can't make the audition, and Nadia and I plan to be at church this evening for an outdoor event that includes baptisms, food, and fireworks. Paul will have dinner and chapel with the boys at camp this evening.
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