White Water Rafting

Where do I begin? Lets see, lets start with a couple weekends ago...this will be a long post!

Friday Night (the 20th) My sisters finally got here...we stayed up for a while & chatted it up until we went to bed.

Saturday morning, Mike had to work, Cathy went to hang out with some friends, so Wendy & I shopped & hung out for the day. Saturday night, we went to Springville to pick up Jason so that he could hang out with us. What a fun weekend...Hangin out with my family!

Sunday we went to Church & then had My parents & Grandma over for dindin...What a great day! I miss my family!

Monday I had to go to work, & when I got off work, we discovered a problem with my car...the Wheel barring had gone out on it which meant that I couldn't drive it to Jackson Hole! BUMMER! Good thing Cathy stayed behind to go with me. We packed up the car Monday night in preparation for the drive Tuesday morning (early).

The is a pix of Lunch Counter (the BIG waves this year)

Now comes the fun stuff...Tuesday we left the house about 6am & drove up to the East Table campground along the Snake River (in between Hoback & Alpine) We stopped at the Big Kahuna & Lunch Counter pull out to watch our boat go through the rapids...it was great. Tuesday afternoon we (Cathy & I) were on our first run of the week. Those Lunch Counter waves are bigger when you are going through them in the boat, as opposed to looking at them from the rocks! What a difference.

Wednesday was more river running & going to Granite Falls & Jackson Hole. It isn't letting me upload pictures, so I will try again later.

It is so beautiful up there!

Thursday is when it really gets good. The boys (Mike, Ben, Tyler & Sarah - she can be a boy, right?) Arrived the night before so it was there first run. The first run of the day was great, but we missed Lunch Counter a little to the left...oh well, we always have the afternoon run, right? The afternoon run, we were all nervous, well at least I was! We got into Lunch Counter & we hit it PERFECT, but by the end of the rapids, there wasn't anyone left in the boat! It had kicked us all out! So to my near death experience. The 3-4 Wave got us & knocked me out first. As soon as I was in the water things kept bumping into me whether it was someone or a paddle, but I was running into things. All I kept thinking about in the water was the last thing my mom said to my dad before we left "I have 4 kids on that boat." I didn't think I would ever take a breath of air again. I finally came up & was away from the boat, choking on the air because I was just "breathing water." I saw my dad & yelled for him. I lost my contacts, bandanna & paddle & was trying to remember what we tell the "newbies" to do when they fall out! They had EMT's sitting on the rocks that were throwing ropes, but they didn't throw them far enough for my dad or I to catch them, so we still just floating in the water, trying to be rescued! I started swimming to the other boat that was with us & they finally got me. As soon as I was on there boat they said "Alicia, you have a big knot on your head" that is when it started to hurt! They got my dad & our boat finally got up to them & we headed down the river the rest of the way...This story isn't over...there is more!

The is the bump on my head after we had were back to camp

After we got back in the boat, we were all EXHAUSTED! We still had 3 rapids left before we were done! We went through Champagne fine, then Cottonwoods alright (we were still a little shaken up) Then the McNasty (that is what I call it) It has a bad back curl, not fun. We really were not paying attention to my dad guiding & calling out orders, so we hit it & knocked Sarah & Cathy out & Wendy was halfway out/in. I was ready to get off the ride then! Needless to say we were all really scared after that & took the rest of the week slowly!

I couldn't go on any other runs because I lost my contacts & couldn't see, but all in all it was a really entertaining week. We laughed, we cried & we got out butts kicked! We got home Saturday night & had a lot of Laundry & cleaning to do, but what a great vacation...I will try to upload photos later...if it will let me. Let me know what you think of my near death experience!

Bear slept all the way home...he was tired!

Wendy & Jason, if you read this, leave me a comment! Love you!

This is my bump on Saturday evening after we had gotten home & showered.