We had our annual rafting trip last month. Charlie got to go again while Miles spent the week with Grandma Sharolee. Both boys were so excited about their separate vacations. My mom picked up Miles a day before we left so Charlie and I could finish up shopping for our meals and packing our rafting bags. The next morning, Max was gone getting all the rafts and frames and coolers loaded up at his uncles house, Charlie and I made car lunches for 16ish people then went over to meet at Max's uncles house. It didn't take much longer before we were on the road. We made it safe and sound before it even got dark. Brent and Lisa and family family were already there and had gourmet fajitas all ready for us. They weren't able to spend the week rafting but they came to our starting point on the river to camp for the night and help get all the rafts ready. We enjoyed our tasty dinner, set up camp and went to bed. I fell asleep putting Charlie to bed so it wasn't a very eventful night.
The next morning, we were served incredible omlettes from Brent and Lisa. We packed up are gear and spent the next couple of hours loading and tying the gear to the boats. We were finally going down the river around noon. Charlie loved it so much more than last year. He didn't get afraid when we hit the rapids. He laughed hysterically (cheesily) when he got splashed. Oh yeah, the water is absolutely freezing! Like, I'm pretty sure it is from a freshly melted glacier. It is incredibly hot in this dessert so a little splash wasn't so bad but I didn't love getting soaked. Luckily Max is a pro on the river and can navigate the rapids excellently so we never fell in and we didn't get too soaked. At one point, during a slow portion of the river. Charlie was getting so hot and asked if he could jump in. We were both surprised by this because he has always been so timid about the water. We decided to run with it. Max jumped in first and I threw Charlie to him. The moment Charlie was immersed, he screamed and knew he had made a mistake. He reached out for the boat struggling to get back. He dried fast and didn't do that again the rest of the trip. At one rapid, we needed to scout it. We were the last boat to go through it so we stayed up at the scouting point, Max brought his phone and took photos of the others going through it.
Here is Jordan's boat.
Uncle Max's boat.
The phone didn't come out a lot on the river but while we had it out, these pictures were taken. Thanks Brayden!
And somehow, I look like a giant in this photo!
We finally got to our campsite around 4ish and ate a much needed lunch. We unloaded the boats, set up the kitchen and our campsites. Then the following days are a blur since we stayed at the campsite for 4 days. On one of those days we took coins up to the railroad tracks. I realized I only had Armenian coins which was kind of even better since I wasn't really going to be using them. We went up to the tracks and laid them on the rails!
Brayden came with us and he was so helpful!
After our little walk to the tracks, we were sweating like crazy so we went down to the river to get a little cooled off. Max set up the hammock in the little shady spot. Charlie played on the river bank.
Our days were usually filled with food, sitting around, an occasional dip in the frigid water, and hammock time.
And here's another dip in the water.
I never submerged my full body in the water. I figured my baby would get hypothermia or something, at least that was my excuse, I guess I didn't have a problem letting Charlie jump in the water.
And i just want to point out how much he has grown up since last year, he would never have done this a year ago, it would completely freak him out. I was excited to see the growth.
And then after some good water time we had some great hammock time, life is tough on the river right?
And then it was dinner. We eat well on the rafting trips. Everyone contributes a couple meals and there is always delicious meals and plenty of food.
Charlie was often a little stinker about the unfamiliar foods. It totally surprised me because he usually isn't very picky and many of the foods he grumped about were things he liked at home. Anyway, we had to do a whole lot of bargaining to get him to eat. Weird kid....he should have been starving from all the running around and swimming.
Charlie's #1 phrase during this trip was "will you play with me?" He was the only little kid, then there were a couple teenagers. Brayden and Justin were especially kind in taking the time to play with him so he wasn't stuck with his boring parents the whole time...although I think Charlie actually likes us a lot.
Charlie was always worn out by the end of the day and asleep before the sun was down. And there were a couple nights where I was too.
Another fun thing we do when we are rafting is hike up the river a little bit and float down through some lighter rapids on inner-tubes. We did this last year with Charlie and he SCREAMED the whole time and we figured he would be completely traumatized and never try again. Max had gone up a couple times with some of the older kids then later decided to try again with Charlie. They didn't hike far at all, and they had their "rowing sticks." this time so Charlie loved it. I opted to stay out of the freezing water again.
Lunch around camp.
Max got to go on a rescue mission at one point with some of his cousins. A metal fishing boat had got caught on a rock up river and tipped. The people were all safe but their gear was floating down the river so Max hiked up and floated down catching anything they could. They found a handful of things but I can only remember the oar and a sealed bag of beef jerky. Max loves projects like that though, so it was an exciting afternoon for him.
We then wanted to hike up the mountain to the flag. It is a pretty intense hike and shouldn't be done in the middle of the day because of the heat. We had wanted to wake up early to do it like last year, but we are the worst and waking up early if we don't have to. (That's why I never exercise in the morning) As evening was coming, we decided to start up the mountain. It was still quite hot but the sun was going down behind the mountain so we knew it would cool off soon. But starting out it was hot, and we were sweating, and my poor heart was beating so fast as we went straight up a
mountain cliff! At least that's what it felt like. I was grateful that Charlie wanted a good amount of breaks because I wasn't sure my pregnant body would make it. We just kept going at a snail pace. As we went up the mountain, we were moving faster than the sun would go behind the mountain on the other side of the river. It made for a nice bright hike but it continued to be a hot hike, while we could see our campsite far below shaded.
One of many breaks!
After some intense inclines, the trails get a little flatter, which is always a pleasant surprise.
And after about two hours of huffing and puffing we made it to the flag on top of the mountain with the last bit of sunlight going behind the mountain.
It is such a satisfying and victorious feeling.
And here is the baby belly on top of the mountain, I think I was 16 or 17 weeks at this point.
At the top we took lots of photos, ate some Gummy Bears, and threw rocks over the cliff to listen to how long it took to land. We ran down the mountain (except the super steep parts with loose rocks) and it went much quicker. It was also much darker since the sun was completely behind the mountain. When we were near the bottom, he saw Jordan and Uncle Jay coming to find us, it had gotten pretty dark but the moon was bright so we hadn't even pulled out our flash lights yet. It was nice to know that they were worried about us and came to the rescue. And it did take us a bit longer to get up the mountain than it would a person with normal length legs or an empty uterus.
The family had saved us some dinner so we gobbled it down in the dark then went to put Charlie to bed. Max put all the teenagers and young adults (we are no longer young adults since we have both hit our 30s) to work cleaning the kitchen area which was left a mess and we were in charge of breakfast in the morning. It was an awesome group effort and I was so grateful we didn't have to wake up to a messy kitchen.
And Charlie usually woke up somewhere other than his bed...
We got up and started making our breakfast, sausage and eggs and cheese on english muffins with cantaloupe.
Selfie with River Grandma Annette!
Charlie trying to get Brayden to play with him....
on our last night in camp we were blessed with a beautiful sunset. I felt the cellphone photos didn't really do it justice, but there you go!
We got up early the next morning and packed everything up. The boats were loaded in pretty good time and we were on the river before lunchtime!
And I'm pretty attracted to our river guide.
Charlie liked to have his turns rowing the boat
We stopped for lunch halfway through and Charlie got to pee on a dead rattle snake so that was a momentous occasion. We continued on our way and had a couple big rapids right at the end. On one of them Charlie flew high into the air but luckily I was holding onto his life jacket so he didn't get far from me. He thought this was pretty funny. On another rapid, just before the last big one, Charlie pinched his leg on the boat frame and became pretty upset about it so by the time we hit the last big rapid, he was in a pretty bad mood and cried at the end of it. He got over it eventually and he got so happy to see his cousin August at the end waiting for him. Lisa was there with August and Emmett to pick up Brayden and it made for the unloading and packing up process so much more enjoyable since Charlie had another kid to play with. This process seemed to go relatively smooth, Charlie and I were able to help dry the boats and squish the air out of them. Then we got to go to The Oasis for dinner. Their milkshakes are something we look forward to the whole rafting trip. It took awhile to get our food but we finally did and filled out bellies before the long drive home. And they have these new face-in-hole photo ops.
And that is the end of a fantastic rafting trip. And I have no idea what will happen next year since I don't think I will be ready to leave the baby for a week and it would be a lot of work for Max to take both boys on his own since Max is also in charge of a lot of the logistics of getting the boats up and running and loading up the cars. We'll just have to see how it goes!
