We thought of you nearly every moment this last week. So many memories of you on that river. What made it even sweeter was that I have all of those pictures clear back to our first trip in 2006 when you were young. We even stayed at one of the same campgrounds as we did before when there was a fire across the river as our evening entertainment. I had pictures to prove it and we tried to duplicate them. The Brady's were there too, except for Dallen and their Mom. Sydney and Maryn got in the duckie together to duplicate an old photo of them. Derek and Maryn are married now and had their spouses with us. They were great and so are their younger 2 kids whom we hadn't met yet. Samantha and Sariah had so much fun with the kids. I think Daniel was pleasantly surprised as to how much fun and adventure the week really turned out to be. I think he'd love to come again, and so would Janeen and Larry. Adam and Daniel rode on the Brady's 18' raft (which really was almost too big and harder to maneuver) the first day and they got wrapped up or highsided against a giant boulder. It was filling up with water and so they had to climb out onto the rock. Matt, our sweeper and "professional" oarsman came behind them to help. We had pulled over below the river and around the bend so that Dad could go and help. We felt helpless and worried as we couldn't see anything. Then we started seeing things floating down the river like their water bottles, Daniel's ziplock bag with his possessions, their map book, their boat's air pump, and their tent. We are able to collect a few of those things and luckily the most important. The passengers had to jump into the water and be rescued by Matt's throw rope. That was a little frightening for them but miracles happened that day. In the end, the men had to flip the boat upside down in order to get it off the rock so when we reached our first camp, their stuff was all hanging out to dry. Sydney loaned them her sleeping bag and just slept in her blanket and tarp. We all have to pull together in that kind of situation. If you two remember, the first two days are pretty frustrating and technical because of all the rocks and boulders. Adam was trained on Matt's boat how to Oar and became pretty good. He didn't go through any class III Rapids but got us through some pretty technical class II's. By the end of the week, Samantha liked riding in Rich's boat sitting behind him and being his "navigator." I think he liked having her. Personally, it's becoming a little more stressful to me that I don't think I want to go on the Middle Fork again. We got hung up on enough large boulders in some pretty fast water, especially Pistol Creek and Tappan Falls, that really made me wonder if we'd ever get out without having our boat flip. Maybe I'll go on the Main with you guys someday if they ever get a permit for that.
Anyway, enough about the river...how was your week!?!? Do members of the church even observe the 24th of July like they do here in Utah? I hope you have a great and relaxing or fun p-day. We can't wait to read about your week's happenings. Let us know if you need anything from us. Now it's time for me to go out and mow the lawn!
We love you both so much!
Mom
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