sj discovers the river, boating and tubing

Yesterday, our friends invited our family down to the river to ride on their boat.  The boys have only been on a boat once, but it was when they were 3 and 2.  They have no recollections of their first boating experience.  We had the talk with them about the necessity of life jackets.  My husband and I thought this would be a problem, but thankfully they wore them without a single complaint.  After they got their life jackets on, we were going to head into the boat.  SJ and Bob were so excited that they jumped off the dock into the river.  They are both great swimmers, but it is a river.  I started to worry for nothing.  They were fine and had a great time.  We eventually got in the boat and our friends took us for a ride.  SJ and his friend went on the tube first.  I was nervous about him falling out.  I know he had on the life jacket, but the thought of his little peanut head floating in the vast river made me a little uptight.  He was laughing and yelling to our friend to go faster.  The kids took turns riding on the tube.  My husband even got in the tube with SJ.  Watching him fall out of the tube caused the kids to go into hysterics.  SJ did fall out a few times and was yelling for help.  At first, I thought he was struggling, but he was crying wolf.  (He does this at the pool too...I am waiting for a lifeguard to jump in to try to save him!)  After they were done tubing, we went back to the dock.  The kids continued to do jumps and cannonballs off the dock.  SJ was getting brave and did a front flip off the dock.  We did have to stop him from that, since we were concerned that he would hit his head on the dock.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.  SJ already asked me when we were going to go back!