4 wheelin

Last Saturday after the boys soccer games we loaded up our 4-wheelers and headed out to Caswell's (which is a place you can go ride if you're bored with your own land). We met my brother, Craig, and his wife Kassie out there. Riding 4-wheelers is one of our favorite family activities, and the boys love going out to this place.

One of Aaron's favorite things about it is that there is a lot of water out there that we can ride through. I will drive through water, but I don't do it unless I just have to. Aaron will do it for the thrill of it (you'll see that he takes after his Uncle Craig in a minute).

Austin enjoys riding 4-wheelers, but he likes to play at the "beach" more than anything. I guess it's a sandy place with water, so it's as close as we can get to a beach around here. First the boys got in with their boots on...

Then the boots filled with water (oops!), so the boots came off and Austin's boots and socks spent the rest of the trip on the front of Robbie's 4-wheeler drying out. Which was fine with Austin. Apparently he is aware that he lives in Arkansas, where shoes are always optional.

This is what you call 'chillin'

Craig is probably the biggest risk taker of the group. The thing about riding through water is that it can be moving on nice and smooth, and then all of the sudden there is an unexpected drop-off and people with winches and chains come out to use their man toys to get people out of the fix they've gotten themselves into. This is what happened to Craig last spring when we went out there:

But on this trip, it was smooth sailing.

Pageant wave and all.

Craig and Kassie brought 2 of their dogs with us. One of them ran beside us almost the entire time we were out there. The other took turns riding with us. Unfortunately my turn came just after he had gotten out of the water and got my back soaking wet.

Kassie with her baby

At one point the rest of my group had gone to the other side of the water and I turned my 4-wheeler off and put my feet up for a while. Then this 4-wheeler with a man, woman, and an ice chest coming barreling through the water like they knew exactly what they were doing. But seconds later they were climbing off of their 4 wheeler that had gone too deep down into the water, and they were about waste deep trying to figure out how they were going to get the 4 wheeler out of the water. I was across the pond from my boys, but I could see that Aaron was chomping at the bit to use his winch to get those people out. After allowing them a few minutes of humiliation, Aaron pulled his 4 wheeler over, attached his winch, and pulled these people out.

Rob, Aaron, Kassie, and Craig lined up watching the people struggle with their 4 wheeler.

Aaron's hero moment

It was possibly the best thing that's happened to him. Ever.

Who knew that a 10 year old on a 4 wheeler could make a grown couple on a sinking 4 wheeler feel so inferior. 

I hadn't even had time to move from that proud momma moment when this jeep drove across the water to pull this 4-wheeler off of the island it was on and back to safety. Maybe it was rude of me to stay on my 4 wheeler and take pictures of their misfortune, but it was just too entertaining. I was seriously laughing out loud, but I think they were too caught up in the use of chains to notice.

My little Austin was just walking right by these poor, struggling people.

At the end of the day, we all came out with dirt in our hair (and clothes, and eyes, and ears, and mouth) with safe, working 4 wheelers and completely worn out.

A good time was had by all....