Tanyard Creek

On Wednesday mornings during the summer, one of the moms at Providence plans activities and adventures for Providence families. My friend, Sara, and I decided to try it out this week so we can start meeting some of the other moms at Providence (http://www.providence-academy.com/). We packed all the kids in my minivan and drove up to Bella Vista to Tanyard Creek. We all had a picnic lunch together and took a short hike up to the creek so the kids could play. Neither of us had been there before and I was expecting a creek creek (the 2-5 inch deep kind) not a river creek (the rushing waterfall, shoulder-deep kind). This is what we found...
Apparently, no one else was expecting this much water, either, but we've had a lot of rain this year and all the water levels are up. It really was beautiful, we just had to watch our kiddos very closely to make sure that our young kiddos stayed in the shallow area away from the current. The older kids were climbing up to the top and riding down the rapids like a water slide. It looked like a blast!
Justus and Audra stayed on the creek banks mostly. Justus spent most of his time throwing rocks into the creek.
Audra loved playing with this bucket and a big walking stick that she found. She spent half an hour pretending that she was fishing with it.
Titus and Avery spent most of their time swimming in the creek. I even let Titus climb up to the side of the waterfall, but this is as far as he went. Maybe, next time we'll recruit Daddy and all wear swimsuits.
Sara with Finley, Avery, and "Baby Neufeld."