Last Thursday is when the adventure began. Around 1pm Emily, Jenny and I headed up to Salmon, ID to go white water rafting. The three of us, plus Emily's sister went last year and we just loved it so much that we begged Emily to take us back. She just couldn't say NO! :-) We drove and drove and drove on Thursday and spent a relaxing night at her family's home and then Friday morning we were up bright and somewhat early (8am) to go to our destination. I love the Salmon river, p.s. We did a 13 mile stretch of class 2 and 3+ rapids. It was a blast. My darling roommate blogged about this adventure, so if you want to read her account as well, look here .... otherwise keep reading!
We launched and right away we knew we were going to have fun, because our guide didn't jump on the boat. Never fear, he joined us quickly. We went through a class 3+ rapid pretty quickly into the ride. Last year when we navigated it, we got stuck on a rock. This time we went through without a hitch - literally. However the class 2 that was waiting for us about 2 minutes away was a different story. I was on the right hand side of the raft behind my sister. Jenny and Emily were leading the raft. We hit cork screw rapids and the next things I knew Emily was being bounced off the raft, into the Pastor behind her and both fell into the middle of the rapid. Thankfully they were both rescued within a minute; unfortunately her sunglasses are lost to the never ending rapids of the Salmon river. It was hilarious. Since he is a pastor he just announced to the whole boat that he was only trying to baptize her. Emily kindly declined. :-)
The rest of the trip was wet and fun. We had no catastrophe's but we did have 3 of the 8 knocked off the boat. It was awesome. We are so doing it again next year; however, this time we are thinking of doing a longer stretch of river. BRING IT!
me, Emily and Jenny at lunch time (avoiding the bees), but also getting a picture with the wonderful water in the background.
Emily, me and Jenny just enjoying ourselves (maybe a little TOO much)
The next day we went on a 2 1/2 hour ATV ride into the Bitterroot Mountains. It was beautiful. The cows in the middle of the road were hilarious and the hill that nearly took my life was something I will never forget. Okay, okay, it didn't really almost take my life, but I was praying hard the whole way down it. I kept thinking "I can't die, I'm not married!" Probably one of my favorite parts was driving the ATV's down the interstate and it was NO BIG DEAL. Love small towns.
The pictures are in an awesome order, but oh well....
The pictures are in an awesome order, but oh well....
The hill that I had to go down on the other side. I had no idea what was awaiting me as I was blissfully unaware and taking this picture.
One of our first stops. Wanted to just get a pic of the three of them, but Emily's dad was on the movie quickly! Can't blame him. We had a lot of ground to cover.
The four of us, finally ready to go!!!
oh yeah - we are cool.
Unfortunately all that playing led to my back having the worst muscle spasm I have experienced in probably 12 years. I was able to get myself from Idaho to Utah without too much complaining and then it all came out. Huge crocodile tears. My mother (my sweet mother) called my chiropractor on Sunday night (8:30pm) and asked if we could come out. He worked me over - turns out my pelvis was completely out of whack. Go figure. I told him I was going to Lake Powell in less than 12 hours. He wasn't so sure that was a great idea, but gave me permission to go.
My sweet parents came with me to that appointment and as I laid there on the table bawling, my dad stuck his foot out so that I could hold onto it. I LOVE MY FATHER! He is the best.
I woke up the next morning absolutely determined to go to Powell and after some intense help from my brother Jared and sister Jenny, I was able to get myself into my car and we were on our way. We went down with a group of people from my ward and it was AWESOME! Brother Frazier was a SAINT to take us crazy, 13 kids, to the Lake for four days.
Unfortunately I have no pics of my own, so as soon as I get others I will post them, because my camera died about 15 minutes into the journey. This was my first time so everything was cool. The small canyons, a house boat, anchoring, slide off house boat, two wave runners, wake boarding, tubing with 3 or 4 on a tube, cliff jumping, making real meals with WAY too much food, playing Ipod Idol, laughing, watching fun movies, getting back rubs, having my back finally stop hurting from some AWESOME yoga, embracing the 81 degree water at 7:15am and again and again and again, finding out random things about each person who went on that trip - most of which I did not know before, realizing that people can work together and make things go smoothly, watched a sunset that took my breath away on the red rock, gazed at the stars and was wishing that the moon wasn't quite so bright, tan.
Oh it was just amazing. So so so grateful that I have this summer off and was able to have that experience. THANKS A MILLION Brother Frazier!
as long as your single you might as well enjoy it!! what a fun adventure!!! hope you are 100% all better, dance is starting up in a month!!! :) can't ait to catch up with you!
ReplyDeletemeg :)