Snake River 2013

A couple weeks ago we were able to go on Max's family rafting trip. I didn't go last year because I wasn't ready to leave Charlie for a full week. When we go rafting there is no contact with the outside world so there would have been no way for someone to let us know if our baby needed anything or if there was a question concerning him. This year my mom mentioned that she would be willing to watch Charlie. She also has a lighter work load in the summer so it worked out really well. Anyway, I know this blog post is supposed to be about rafting and not my babysitting arrangements but that seemed like such a large mental obstacle for me to overcome that it is significant to me to write this. I love being Charlie's mom and I'm never really looking for ways to spend time away from him. Anyway, Charlie was going to have a blast no matter what and my mom was going to enjoy the Charlie time.

He seems more than excited to go to Grandma's house for a week. This was about a half hour before we were actually ready to go!

So I was able to go on a week long getaway with my husband and only feel slightly guilty that someone else was taking care of my busy boy.

we got permits for the Snake river this year. I've only been rafting on the Snake once and it was amazing because it is the warmest river and has the biggest rapids. The downside of going to this river is that is is that farthest from home and I'm not a big fan of the old vehicles we use to get there.

We Left on August 25th just before noon and set out on our way. We got to ride in the old rickety truck with rafting frames piled high over the top of the truck. About a couple hours into our drive, we found that the old truck wouldn't start after a rest stop. 2 out of the four cars in our group had already left so we were stuck with not much mechanic knowledge. Luckily some nice travelers took the time to help us get our car started again. I just really love those selfless people!

Anyway, we got to the shuttle/check in stop just after sun set. After check in we headed to the campsite along the river. It took as awhile to find it in the dark but we eventually did.

Once we got there dinner was already made for us so we ate then set up our bed under the stars and hoped not to be eaten by the bears. We were able to see lightening in the mountains as we fell asleep which was pretty exciting. We only got a little misty rain on us during the night. Enough to keep me awake most of the night but oh well. It was fun to listen to the fish jumping in the river.

 Day 1:

We were pretty excited to spend a lot of time with our Nephews. Not only are the super fun, they are amazing helpers. Here they are putting our bed away for us. (PS at this time Max's rib was still in a lot of pain and I was all nauseous so their help was much appreciated.)

I loved waking up to this view each morning. 

 Then we drove down to the put-in where we leave the cars and start our trip on the boats. As the boats were being prepped and loaded. ( a very long, and sometimes stressful) process. I made lunches for everyone.

I then didn't take out my camera for a couple days but oh well, just too much fun!


We rafted for a couple hours to a sandy spot along the river. We were only going to be here for one night so we didn't bother unloading our tents and just slept under the stars again.

Day 2:

We woke up, ate breakfast and started loading up the boats. While the boats were being loaded, I made lunches to put on each boat to eat on the river. We had a big group of people this year so it was quite the process getting everything loaded up.

We enjoyed our time on the river once the sun made it over the mountains. Brayden and I rode on Max's boat who is an excellent oarsman and has never flipped his boat when I have been on it. Brayden entertained us the whole way with made up songs and telling us about all the recent you tube videos. We had a lot of fun getting soaked.

Once we got to our next campsite we were able to stay there for a couple of days so we really set up camp. Max, leveled out the perfect camp spot for us and we set up our tent. We then enjoyed some time in the water. We swam out to the jumping rock and jumped off once into the river. It's scarier than it looks to jump off the rock...even with a life jacket so we only did it once to say we did. The weather was so hot so it felt nice to just jump in the river whenever we were getting too hot.

Days 3-5
These days were all a blur because we were in the same campsite so here are some pictures from that.

Max and I brought floaties to take out after dinner for a nice little romantic time on the river.  The current, along with the back eddies sent us on a perfect loop and we ended up back at camp without much swimming. 

I think Annette is showing off her many bee stings here. The bees were crazy! Even I got stung. 

Annette and Shannon enjoying the famous pumpkin bread. 

The bee killing brigade. Spencer with a dustpan, Max with a fork, and Jeff with a water bottle.  It was amazing how many bees they killed. 

We were all hungry when dinner time came but this made us laugh. Brayden stared longingly at the frying pan while grabbing his belly waiting for dinner to be ready. 

 Brent brought a slack line to try out. It was hard finding a non-rocky place but they found a decent spot. It was hard as it got darker.

Brotherly love.

 Night time meant game time.

On one of the nights at this campsite, we had a massive rain/thunder/lightning storm. The storm was traveling down the canyon and passed right over us. It was pretty scary but also exciting. I didn't see the lightning bolts as I would have been soaked if I opened the tent window. It did constantly light up our tent though. I'm glad everyone in our group was alright. We stayed safe on our huge rubber air mattress.

Our last full day at this campsite we held the 2nd annual Snake River Olympics. Max and Brent did most of the planning. There were lots of events so it was dark and a lot of people had already gone to bed when it was over but it was fun. The events included: Team swimming to the jumping rock, lawn darts, Frisbee golf, shot put, hit the pine cone, rock skipping, acrobatics,and run around the camp, Everyone picked 3 events to participate in. Each were scored and then prizes were prepared.

The first event was swimming to the rock. Look at that V-formation!

Spencer/Justin were the winners

This funny 93 year old man was excited to participate in lots of events. He was good too!

Mitch doing the lawn darts. 

Mitch and Brent doing the Acrobatics

Jeff and Me

Max...perfect form!

 The shot put pictures were my favorite...so I put a bunch on here. Enjoy

Lisa giving it her all. 

When we finished the Olympics we decided to do the closing ceremony and prizes the next day because we had lost half the group.

The next morning was time to pack up the boats for the last time and row down the rest of the river. Brayden rode on our boat some of the time but then floated most of the time while holding on to our boat or his dad's boat.

 On the last day, we didn't pass through many big rapids so there were a bunch of times we could jump out of the boat and float for awhile.

I'm kind of madly in love with this scruffy river guide!

Max let me row for awhile so his sore rib could rest. I'm not too coordinated with the rowing thing but I feel like I made some improvement!

 At the take-out we met up with Max's cousin Jeremy and his family. They live in Idaho, about 2 hours away. Jeremy and Krystel got married around the same time as us and had their first child (Joy) around the same time Charlie was born. They brought us root beer floats! Now if you've every been on a week long camping trip you will now the luxury of ice cream...or ice water for that matter. Seeing little Joy made me even more excited to get home to my Charlie. Overall I felt that I did fine a week away from him. I knew he has in good hands with my mom and my friend Kerri taking care of him. It was weird at how natural it was to adapt to my old childless ways of making my own schedule. And doing whatever I wanted. It was great to spend so much time with Max out on the river with few distraction. I guess this could be considered our Babymoon.

Here's the group just before we headed home. 

It took forever on the drive home. We ended up reaching uncle Jay's house at 6 am the next morning. We went immediately to our house. Brent and Lisa and the boys came over too so we could get a couple hours of sleep. I couldn't sleep much because I was so eager to get my baby boy so I got up around 9ish to get my first real shower in a week then Max and I headed over to be reunited with our baby. We were happy to hear how well he did spending a week with Grandma.

Thanks to everyone who works so hard to make these trips happen!