We Survived Westwater!!

So by now you've seen quite a few blog entries about one of our favorite summer pastimes, rafting.  And other than nightime adult birthday floats, we almost always take the kiddos.  And it's great.  It really is.  But it's also a looooootttttt of work.  Like, a lot.  So a few us thought it would be great fun to have an adult overnight float trip.  And it was.  A lot of fun that is!

BZ and I left the kids in very good hands.  Megan is a Ft. Lewis college student that babysat them a lot that year.  And Bennett's in love with her so that helps with the separation anxiety.

Brett and I headed up to Utah with our good friends, the Erwins, and met quite a few new friends at the put-in.

The way the float is laid out is that there are five easy breezy river miles followed by five death defying river miles followed by five more easy miles.  So our plan was to launch in the early afternoon and get to our campsite after the first five miles, set up camp and relax.  And this all worked perfectly.  Except I was nervous about the next day's float.  Really really nervous.  Brett had flipped our raft on this difficult stretch a couple of weeks ago and I have known that a number of people have died on this river.  So really, I feel like my abundance of nerves was justified.

It was really pretty on the water but it was hot.  Really hot.  And we didn't bring sunshades for this trip because of the whitewater.  So this was literally the only shade we got all day.  And it lasted about 15 seconds.

But we got a make-shift shade tent set up at camp and then proceeded to cool ourselves down by making hand-cranked beer-garitas and drinking them with lots of ice.  It was luxuriant and delicious and oh so relaxing. Except I kind of kept thinking about the next day's float.

There were lots of funny stories and lots of inappropriate humor.  

There were even a number of times that the boys reminded us of exactly how close they are to our toddlers in maturity.  Which is not to say that we didn't laugh hysterically at them as they behaved badly.

We had a pre-birthday celebration for Jill.  Danny and the boys grilled chicken, BZ made her dutch oven lemon bars and I brought the tutu!

And then it was time to go to sleep.  Which meant that in 10 hours we would be rafting.  Through those really scary five miles of rapids.  Gulp....

And you know what, I almost started bawling and begging for my mommy but I got on that damn raft and I rode through those rapids like I owned them!  well not really owned them but i do think i was pretty bad ass And it was a BLAST!!  The water level was perfect and my captain was perfect and I got totally soaked and it felt amazing.

And that Ska Euphoria at the end of the run felt pretty darn amazing too.

hip hip hooray!!!!  it's over and i survived!

And of course when you survive something that momentous, you must celebrate.  As much as you possibly can for five easy breezy river miles back to the cars.

brett's celebrating on the inside in this shot

Thanks for making this possible Megan.  We love you and can't wait to see you in January!!! xx