Life with Abba is never dull

During a stop for lunch, Abba and us kids went to investigate if there was a stream nearby that we could go wading in. After a short walk, we found a swamp instead. Disappointed, we were faced with a choice. Keep looking, or go back. We decided to keep looking. A friendly man told us that there was a bike trail nearby that led to the stream. But there was a 7-foot chain link fence between us and the bike trail. 

Not discouraged, Abba looked for a hole in the fence. We found one, but there were way too many weeds and thorns and bushes. So, even though we all were wearing flip-flops, we decided to climb over the fence. The only problem was we had Ellie and KM and Jackie with us, and none of them could climb the fence. So Abba tossed Ellie over the fence to Steven, who caught her. Then he threw KM over but she was heavy enough to knock Steven down when he caught her. Last he tried to throw Jackie over, but she was way too heavy. So now we had another decision. Should Jackie turn back, or should we all keep going? We decided we were all in it together as a family. So Jackie climbed on Abba piggy-back and he tried to climb the fence.  Did I mention he was wearing flip flops and the fence was 7-feet high?  He made it most of the way up but then his toe got stuck in a link and his hand got caught on the top sharp part.  We thought he was going to rip his toe off and pierce his hand with the fence as he tumbled his way back down. 

Again, not one to be discouraged, Abba told the rest of us to wait while he and Jackie walked all the way around the fence.  Once we were all together again on the other side we found the stream but we couldn’t find a nice place to go down to it. Abba went down first but lost his flip flop in the fast moving current. So he sprang back up the slope and dashed down the river bank. He finally leapt back into the river and caught it just as it was about to be swept away past some big rocks. Eventually, we all got down to the river and had fun playing and wading. But Abba wanted to get a picture of all of us in the middle to remember this adventure. Since Jackie was wearing shoes, Abba lugged a big rock out into the rapids so she could stand on it. But she didn’t feel safe on it and grabbed onto Steven, who knocked into me while I was holding Ellie, and I then tumbled into Ruthie… and soon we were all soaked. But in the end we did get a picture!

So why did this adventure happen? That’s easy: it was because Mom stayed in the trailer to read a book. J

~Mary Anne (& Roy)