TOP TEN MOMENTS - Here are the 1st 3 (in no particular order)

Okay I am a terrible blogger. I had high hopes of blogging every moment of our vacation but that obviously didn't happen. I will try to catch you up. We are currently on the road from Island Park, ID enroute to Colorado Springs, CO. I have 10 hours to get caught up. 

We all agreed that the highlights of our trip were our 3 "excursions" and seeing animals in their natural habitat.  Here are our Top Ten Best Moments of vacation:

1 - Seeing a Mama Bear go "all Mama Bear" on a male bear that dared to get too close to her cubs. Thankfully we were in our car when it happened but just moments prior to that Barry was standing photographing the Mama and babies. A park ranger happened to pull up right behind us and he used his speaker mounted on top of his car to tell us "Stay in your car, folks. This Mama has a conflict with a male in this area.". About that time we saw the Mama scoot her little cubs straight up a tree and then the Mama came tearing across the road right in front of our car, chasing that male. They were fast!  It was amazing!  The babies were still waiting in the tree for Mama to return. We took several good pictures and Lauren has a video of the babies. I wish I could figure out how to get pictures on here. 


2 - Horseback riding through Pleasant Valley for the Roosevelt Wild West cowboy cookout. The views in the valley were truly breathtaking, the weather was perfect, the horses were well-behaved, and the dinner was delicious. At the end of the dinner a cowboy quoted cowboy poems and sang a song that he had written for the Cowboy Dinner. Then we rode back home on a different trail. It was a perfect evening. 

Dinner was a typical cowboy dinner served on heavy metal plates.  Made to order steak, corn, apple cobbler, potato salad, cornbread muffin, fruit, and (according to Lauren) the best BBQ beans ever. She claims they were even better than the ones I make?!?


3 - White water rafting was swawesome, as Carter would say. The water was low so it wasn't as exciting or scary as I thought it was going to be, but it was very fun and parts of the river were definitely scarier than others. When our guide found out that he had a Carter on his boat he asked us if we wanted to jump off Carter's Bridge. He didn't know how high it was but he said it was "only a few feet". Carter said he wanted to do it so when we approached the bridge he pulled off on a sandy embankment and pointed where to walk over to the bridge. I assumed he was going to wait for the adults to go and watch the kids jump off. But I had forgotten that we were in a raging river so obviously the current would take them downstream pretty quickly. So basically we had NO CHOICE but to jump.  As we were walking out onto Carter's Bridge I began to PANIC. It was about a 15 foot jump into 50 degree water with a strong current. I remember saying, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?  THIS IS NUTS!"

Steve Kelley jumped first and he made it look pretty easy (although he did admit later that he was scared). By this time our guide Jay had already floated down underneath the bridge and was paddling like a madman (using guide oars--really big oars that are used on both sides at a time). He was hollering, "You gotta jump now. I can't hold this boat much longer!" One thing we hadn't noticed (not that we had a chance to back out) is that there was a set of rapids just past where Jay was steadying the boat. In other words, if we didn't get into the boat before the rapids then we would have to swim through them. At this point I realized we had to start jumping. The fear of swimming through the rapids was bigger than my fear of jumping. 

In order to jump off the bridge we had to climb over the railing first. That was almost scarier than the jump itself because we were wet and climbing over a slippery metal hand railing is kinda dangerous. Lauren and Emily jumped next, screaming the whole way down. It was Carter's and my turn. He had absolutely NO FEAR whatsoever. Every gray hair on my head is from him!  I looked at Elijah and he had a look of total fear on his face and that's when I really freaked out. I asked Barry, "If he doesn't jump then how will y'all get onto the boat?" That's when trust came in. I was really scared!  He told me not to worry and that they would catch up somehow. Our guide was still yelling "You gotta jump NOW!" He was really struggling against the current. Keep in mind that this kid was probably 22....does he even HAVE a frontal lobe yet?!

Carter was saying, "Come on, Mom!" so.   We.  Jumped.  Time stood still. We popped right back up. We were all wearing Class V lifejackets; I think they are the highest bouyancy?  I'm a pretty strong swimmer. So is Carter but his little 80 pound frame was quickly whisked to the opposite side of the river from where our guide had finally pulled over to get out of the current. I think he had given up on us ever jumping. We started swimming for the raft but there was NO WAY we were gonna make it. Carter was on the left side of me and getting further away from me with every stroke. I grabbed that kid by the life jacket and put him on the other side of me. I saw that if we didn't change course quickly that we were going to miss the boat and head into the rapids. Steve, Lauren, and Emily had all made it into the boat. 

I looked Carter in the eye and commanded, "Son we have to swim harder than we ever have to make it to the boat!". I think when he heard the fear in my voice it might've gotten to him a little bit because he swam HARD. I looked over my shoulder and saw Elijah and Barry climbing down the steep embankment to get into the water to swim towards the boat. I couldn't worry about them and I had total trust in him to get my baby into the boat safely. We arrived at the raft and I could finally catch my breath before realizing that I had no strength to get into the boat. Steve and Jay basically drug my behind onto the raft. I'm sure it was very ladylike. I turned towards Barry and Elijah. Eli had a panicky look on his face. I'm not sure how they got to the boat so quickly (or maybe time stood still when C and I were in the water and it wasn't really as long as it seemed).

--- Barry here...Eli and I stepped down the rocky embankment and waded into the icy river water. It was quite shallow at first with no current, so it was hard to get going. As soon as he felt how cold it was in this part of the river, Eli started to freak out, but we had no other choice for getting back to the boat. I grabbed his hand and we swam together out into the swift current in the middle of the river where we really started to make good time. The boat tried to wait on us, but continued to drift downstream. For a brief moment it seemed like they were continuing on without us. I recall waving at the boat to make sure someone would see we were in the water. The current continued to speed us along: my hand clasped firmly onto Eli's, Eli panicking from the cold water and the now obvious predicament that the two of us would have to float at least a portion of the upcoming rapids in our lifejackets! If you have a picture of whitewater rafting going in your head, let me reassure you these weren't Discovery Eco-Challenge-quality rapids, but when you're literally just keeping your head and your scared child's head above water they were rapid enough. Eli and I assumed our feet-forward safety float and after only three or four waves crashed over our heads (making it hard for me to catch my breath, which made me nervous) we made it to the side of the boat. Eli was quickly pulled up, then Steve hauled me in. We of course were both fine, and Eli, who was worried everyone else would brag about jumping off the bridge, achieved the dubious distinction of being the only kid to swim the rapids. I think next time the two of us will just jump off the bridge.
Now back to Brenda...--- 

Once we were all safely back in the boat we all agreed that it might not have been a bright idea. But then again, we all agreed that we would have done it again. 

It was just one of those moments that I'll never forget and I'm so glad I got to share it with my 4 favorite people on the planet. Plus Steve and Emily, I'm pretty partial to them, too!

I will write the next 3 Top Ten Moments later!