Tubing at Picnic Rock

We went tubing on the Poudre River two weekends in a row. We went up the canyon to a spot called Picnic Rock- and it was quite busy! The first week was just our family and was much better than the tubing we did on Asher's birthday. The river was deeper and faster here with some really fun rapids mixed with some calmer parts of the river.

After we had lunch, we drove up about a mile or so, but since we had no idea how difficult it would be, we only had Asher and Leif go with Austin while the younger kids and I drove back down to play in the river and meet them. They had a ton of fun, so on the next run I went with them while Austin stayed with the younger three (much to Heidi's disappointment). I had so much fun and loved being able to do it with my older boys. Afterward, we came back into Fort Collins and floated about a mile of the river so that the whole family could go, but it was pretty shallow and really buggy and not nearly as exciting as earlier in the day, but the younger three could participate and had a good time.

 The next weekend, we brought our cousins Paul and Ben along and decided that Heidi could go on the more exciting part of the river. We left Trevor and Natalie with their grandma to have a fun time with her (going to McDonalds and watching videos). The river might have been a little bit lower this week (it seemed like I ran into more rocks this time) but it was still very fun. It was especially fun to have the cousins along- something that the kids always love. 

Austin has an air compressor that runs off the car's battery, so we filled up the tubes at the top of the run and Austin went with all the kids while I drove back down with Torben (stopping to get a few pictures along the way) and set up our picnic at the bottom. 

We couldn't get Leif out of the water to eat his lunch so we could do another run,

But we eventually got him to eat while he was still sitting in the river.

Heidi had a little trouble directing her tube, but Austin helped her and she had fun. She was freezing at the end, so we put her on a rock in the sun to warm up while she had lunch.

I went down with just the boys on the second run (Heidi was still too cold to get in the water), but of course Austin didn't take any pictures. Then Austin went with all the kids a third time while Torben and I took pictures then relaxed by the river at the ending point. It took us a couple trips each time to get all the kids and tubes up to the starting point, but it was a quick drive and not too bad.

At the end,  the younger kids had fun swimming and playing in the river while Austin and Paul deflated all the tubes so we could fit them and everyone in the car.