floating the frio river

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wow, what a fun weekend that was had…deep in the heart of texas! we ventured to the frio river, near concan, texas so we could “float the river.” i have never done this before and was naturally a little nervous (because that’s what i do) but it was a total blast! we stayed at a great cabin and it was super affordable at only $28.50 per person for 2 nights when split 7 ways. yes please.

frio river cabinit also came complete with an epic collection of VHS choices so naturally we had to watch jurassic park and harry potter & the chamber of secrets (!). someone else even suggested and i immediately gave him a hug.

frio river vhs collectionmy new rule: if there isn’t an animal print blanket on the wall…then it’s not a real cabin. thank goodness this one qualifies and we fit in seamlessly with it.

frio river deer blanket chelsea avery ryan averynow, let’s get to the tubing part. here’s a tip for you…make sure you bring plenty of rope (not 2 semi-broken bungee cords and 3 feet of string) because you will need to tie these suckers onto a car, preferably an SUV.

frio river tubingthis is what it looks like when you only have the supplies listed above and you have to pull over a lot:

frio river tubes on carafter changing locations about 3 times because there is a pretty intense drought going on…we finally found water deep enough and used “happy hallow” services to pay $5 to park each car and then $6 per person for them to shuttle you up a few miles and then the river brings you back to your car. totally the way to go (and you can buy doritos in their store before you leave…that is what the 7 of us ate for lunch). unfortunately, i am not cool enough to own a water proof camera yet (hint hint) so there are no action shots of us on the river. i think i said “ohhhh i wish i had a water proof camera” about 19 times because it was sooo pretty there! here is essentially how we looked and what nature looked like:

thanks www.texastubes.com for this great picture!

thanks www.texastubes.com for this great picture!

the only difference was that i somehow got the tube with the cooler-tube attached to it. at least that meant i always had access to cold beverages and doritos. we did have to get up and walk about 40% of the way because it was so shallow in places but i just counted that as my workout so it’s all good. floating on the river for 4 hours and only eating doritos for lunch certainly works up an appetite so we had some serious grilling afterwards. here is my first course consisting of one of the most delicious hot dogs ever (you either love these or hate them…i’m a lover), watermelon and those little circles in the back are okra!  the second course consisted of chicken fajitas but food and messy fingers won over taking a picture.

frio river camping foodwe also got to play with 2 dogs over the weekend, cinco and sonoma and here were there faces as we were eating. watermelon almost came out of my nose i was laughing so hard. she sat like that for a good 5 minutes.

frio river dogsnaturally we had to finish out the night with indulging in s’mores! we only had short little skewers so you had to be pretty dedicated to stick your face that close to the fire. to show my dedication, i had 3.

frio river fire s'moresyesterday morning we got up early and found a swimming hole (how texan is that?!). well actually it was more of a “sitting hole” because the water was so low but it was gorgeous.

frio river chelsea and ryan avery*note about the above picture: at first i was all like “ew, i don’t want to put a picture of me in a bathing suit on my blog and every see that my stomach is a little pudgy because it’s full of hot dogs, s’mores and doritos” and then i had a little talk with myself and it went something like this “hey. you have a rockin’ body. you work hard to take care of it and it takes care of you. it functions the way it’s supposed to, my legs/arms/fingers all move when i want them to and i’m healthy. so screw you society/media for making me question, even for a second, that i shouldn’t be proud of the way i look.” and then i posted it. and yes, i wear sun glasses over my real glasses.

we really did have a great time this weekend with some wonderful friends (even though none are pictured because my hands were often holding hot dogs or s’mores) and it was fun to experience something new in the summer. this is probably my #1 favorite thing about texas summer!

the new wifestyle: enjoy the summer. go on adventures and stop being self-conscious in bathing suits!

questions:
1) last movie you watched on VHS?
2) favorite summer time food?
3) do you have an annual tradition for summer time fun in your family?

2 Comments

  1. kate

    August 6, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Chelsea, I read your blog! I hope you are proud@! You are smokin hot so you flaunt that bikini bod!

    • chelsea

      August 6, 2013 at 6:26 pm

      kaaaaate! i’m SO PROUD and SO HAPPY! yay! thank you for the compliment…the hotness comes from it being at a heat index of 108 in that picture thanks to texas. ha! thanks for commenting 🙂