The Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas

This year we decided to start celebrating the 4th a little early. Early Thursday morning we headed for the Comal River with a bunch a friends. Let's just say running the river with our kids and friends was an irreplaceable experience. I highly recommend if you are ever visiting or living in Texas you try this great adventure out. :)

Believe it or not the Comal River is the shortest river in the world. At a spare three miles, and a comfortable temperature of 70 degrees; this is the perfect river for tubing. Up above is a man-made shoot that our family thoroughly enjoyed. We had to get out of the river just to run this shoot three times. Jace and I were in our own tubes while Brandon and Kai shared.

Right after this shoot is a little three foot drop off. Let me tell you, this drop looked like a piece of cake after the shoot we had just tubed down. That ended up not being the case. Most of us had a bit of a scary experience. As Brandon held onto Kai in one arm and Jace's float with the other they went off the edge. Suddenly Brandon wasn't able to touch and they were stuck in a current.

As Brandon tried to push Jace's tube out he and Kai flipped over. Under water for what seemed like several seconds, Brandon and Kai were shot out ten feet down the river leaving Jace stuck in the drop off. As we soon discovered Jace's foot was stuck in the bottom of the tube between the board and the tube not allowing him to escape. Luckily, one of our friends had just gone off the drop off and had also flipped. He swam to Jace quickly and grabbed Brandon's upside down float that Jace was still holding onto and pulled him out.

I thought the best part of this little experience was listening to each families story of what happened. We all pretty much had the same story. Many of us lost our hats and sunglasses in the mini drop off but, I think the adults agreed if we hadn't had our kids to look after the drop would have been fun and exhilarating. Maybe next time we will play around a little more with this little drop as the kids watch from the bank.

After tubing down the river we headed to Gruene, Texas for some lunch. The best part about Gruene is that it is a little bit behind the times creating a great Texan atmosphere.

Gruene Hall is a bar and a dance hall that was built in the 1880's. It is the oldest dance hall in Texas and many country-singing stars and legends have performed here over the years.

We ate lunch at this yummy Texan Restaurant called the Mistgrill.

After waiting quite a long time the kids got restless waiting for our group of 45 to be seated so the kids decided they would climb a large tree right outside the restaurant.

Our good friends York and Stacy Richards (Native Texans) organized this trip. They always do such a great job in showing us a great time in Texas. Thanks Richard's for such an exciting adventurous day in the Lonestar State. You're the best!!