Our annual rafting family reunion was reinvented this year. Max's uncle has been working hard on his ranch house in Central Oregon, and he also broke his back a couple months ago. So instead of spending a week on the river and camping as we go, we went to stay at Uncle Jay's ranch house and took 2 rafting day trips. This was a fun way to do it. And there are a lot of fun things to do in the area. Jay had his kitchen mostly installed so it was a lot less like camping this year! A week before we went on this trip, my amazing sister in law volunteered to watch Edwin. We were originally planning on bringing Edwin and rafting with him but it was also Miles' first time rafting so we thought it would be good to focus on Miles and make sure he feels safe.
We arrived at dinnertime on Monday night.we got to play with some cousins we don't see very often, Max's cousin Jeremy was there with his family, which includes 2 little girls the same age as Charlie and Miles. There was also Emmett and August arrived soon after. We were able to check out the progress of Uncle Jay's ranch house, it still isn't done but it has a kitchen, and walls, and covered plugs, and running water...for the most part.
The boys ran wild around the ranch while Max and I set up our room. We visited with family for the evening then went to bed.
The next morning, we had a late breakfast and a slow morning. Once everyone was ready (much later than expected) we made our way to the river to do a day of rafting. This is Charlie's 4th year rafting, and I was surprised at how confident he was in the boat. Last time he went rafting, I wasn't there, since I was home with a baby Edwin. It turns out that he's grown up a lot and knows how to stay in the boat.
I did save him from flying out of the boat a couple times. He liked it a lot at first, but also, the first day we were rafting was a little colder than usual and once we were splashed with the cold water, it felt incredibly cold for a couple minutes. Miles quickly learned that he didn't like that.
At the slow points in the river the boys (and I) got to row a bit. They really liked this.
Since Uncle Jay couldn't raft this time, he drove along the river and stopped to take pictures of us at each rapid and had lunch waiting for us at one of the stops.
Miles begged to go in Justin's kayak. we finally let him on calm water, then Justin took him through some rapids. And he was so far ahead that we couldn't see them and it terrified me. We took Miles back shortly after! Thank goodness the kayak didn't go upside down!
This is Bud Lewis, a 98 year old family friend. He went down the rapids the first day and just barely stayed in the boat the whole time.
Anyway, We got back late and ate some dinner. We put our sleepy kids to bed and we were about to go to bed when Uncle Jay let us know that one of the rafters, Mike, had been injured going through one of the big rapids. Mike didn't know how bad his injury was so he hadn't let people know but, during the rapid, he had slipped off of his seat and hit his hip on a bar from the frame. Later in the evening his hip and butt and leg kept swelling and he was in debilitating pain. He couldn't sit up or anything and it turned out that we were the only ones that had a car where the seats could lay all the way flat and turn into an ambulance. It was about midnight, and Max along with 2 other drivers and Mike starting the hour drive to the nearest hospital. Max actually wasn't planning on going but the hospital was a small one and they would need extra man power to carry mike into the hospital in the middle of the night when the ER was short staffed. So they made the drive and I was terrified that Max was going to fall asleep at the wheel. (There isn't much cell phone service and it was a last minute decision for him to go so I had no idea who was with him at the time) Luckily he went with a group and they were able to stay awake. Once they were at the hospital, they found out the swelling was starting to cut off his circulation and he needed to be life flighted to a larger hospital. Max remembered to take a selfie sometime around 2am.
And there's a nice blurry photo of life flight
Anyway, Max came in around 5am when the sun was starting to rise, so when the boys woke up, I got up with them and ate breakfast, amazing breakfast burritos made by Lisa!
Once Max was up, we went around on the UTV which is always super popular with my boys.
Later in the day, we made our way to the secret river bend on the john Day river. This is a much warmer river and a calm private area where we got to play in the river and wash our hair! We brought all the floats and played for a long time and had a picnic lunch!
This is always a highlight, the water just feels so nice, especially after being in the Deschutes river which is so much colder!
Once of Max and Paul's challenges was a swimming race. I was pretty proud of my husband for winning this one!
Note: I didn't document the running race where my husband did not win...
Anyway, we got back late and weren't really hungry for dinner so I gave my kids some muffins and yogurt and put them in bed. Then we celebrated Mitchel's birthday with Cake and ice cream.
The next morning was going to be another rafting day and then we were going to leave directly after rafting to go to my family reunion. In the process of packing up and getting ready to leave (which once again, took way longer than it should have) Charlie found a frog friend!
Not as many photos were taken during our second rafting trip but Jay took this video of us going through the rapid. Lisa has a..uh...talent? for falling out of the boat. She flew out while holding 3-year-old Emmett. She held on to the boat as much as she could even when it twisted her arm because she was trying to keep Emmett out of the cold water. But my favorite part of this video is that as soon as Charlie noticed Emmett and Lisa were out of the boat, he instinctively went over and started pulling Emmett back in the boat. No one had asked him to. Jay has continued to praise Charlie for his heroic instincts since the trip. haha! Lisa and Emmett survived, and thanks to Lisa's strength, Emmett barely got wet.
Mumzie rode along with Jay and met us at the takeout.
We then we were getting packed up and tried to go to our favorite restaurant for milkshakes and burgers but found out it was about to close so we tried a new restaurant and we weren't nearly as satisfied. It ended up taking forever and we got a late start driving to my family reunion and arrived after 1am.
But wait, what happened to the swollen hip guy?! Did I miss that somewhere? Was he okay once he was sent to the other hospital? Anyway, a good trip even if it wasn't the same as usual!
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