The scary, but happy ending rafting trip

I have been feeling like I need to journal more.  Hence the revival of this blog.  This is my chance to write down the memories and experiences I have.  So while this is an experience that when I think about it scares the crap out of me, it needs to be shared.

On Saturday, August 16, 2014; we as a family went on to run the Heber river on a raft and tubes.  We went with Joel's sister Wendy, her husband Kym, and daughter Angie; plus Joel's sister Robyn and all her kids (Izzy, Ethan, Alison, A.J.), and grandad (Joel's father).  There was 5 tubes and then the rest of us fit in the raft.  So all together there was 15 people with all the kids and adults.  It was a calm day, a nice day.  And everyone was excited and a little nervous.  Earlier in the summer we had driven to Yellowstone as a family and on the way we stopped to watch the snake river at a place called the Big Kahuna.  Nice big section of rapids.  Because of that Luke was so sure he was never going on a river in a raft.  Weber River has no where near the size of rapids as the Snake River.

So we get to the our loading point.  Everyone gets fitted for an appropriate sized life vest, lathers on the sun screen (expect Joel forgot his legs :)), and get ready to get in the raft or tube.  Luke and Erika were a bit nervous.  So I stuck close to Luke and Erika gravitated to Grandad.  Then we were off.  And we had a blast, hit some rapids, got wet, and generally just had a great time.  There was a little lagoon on the side that several people got out to swim in.  Kym (Wendy's husband) was an excellent guide.

Everything was fun and awesome until it wasn't.  After the lagoon a ways there was tons and tons of tubers.  Making it harder for Kym to move the raft the way he wanted.  We started heading into some rapids with lots of rocks/boulders surrounded by tubes.  There was not many places to put down his oars and steer.  We got pulled down the river by the rapids, hit a rock, and everyone but Kym and Alison got dumped from the raft.

I was suppose to be hanging on to Luke, but we had a very loose grip.  Luke you will remember did not want to go on this trip.  Luke also did not want to get wet or dunked under water.  When you are around water it is hard not to get wet, but I did hope we could save him for getting tossed out of the raft.  When we hit the rock, all I could think was Luke is going to get wet.  Then oh no, Erika's going to get wet.  And all the other kids.  I tried so hard to hold on to him.  I figured if we were together he wouldn't be so freaked.  That planned didn't happen so well. As soon as we hit the water we were pulled apart.  I started heading down the river pulled by the rapids.  All I could think was I lost Luke.  I lost Luke.  I lost him.  Sadly I had thoughts, paranoia of him being gone.... has in dead.  Or seriously hurt.  It is hard to think it and terrifying all at the same time.  I know no one is ever ready to plan a funeral for their child. And I feel bad that my thoughts went to there, how am I going to emotionally coup with this.  These thoughts were scary.

I popped up and started floating down the river.  I then noticed that Erika had clung onto Grandad.  He saved her from being swept away.  She attached herself to him and was not going to let go.  Which was great.  So grateful for Grandad for being there for her.  So I got pulled down the river a ways and saw Joel had stopped in his tube to see if he could help.  I just cried to him that I lost Luke.  He yells is Luke in a green shirt.  I could not remember, sadly.  Joel keeps yelling is Luke in a green shirt.  If he is the one in the green shirt, then he is on the raft.  I finally find my footing on the side of the river. I am able to stop to turn around and look at the raft.  Sure enough there he is.  I just sat down on the rock on the side of the river and let out a sigh of relief.

Erika and Grandad floated up and sat down next to me.  This was when I started to panic again, because Erika was screaming that her back hurt.  I was sure she had done something serious.  We sat there together and tried to calm down.  Then the raft floats by and sure enough there is Luke on the raft. I could hear him crying.  But not all my kids were on the raft, some one was missing.  I start scanning the river looking for Tori.  Oh my gosh there she is still in the rapids on a rock.  She seems okay.  Several tubers try to help her.  But she just gets knocked into the water and pulled down the river like the rest of us.  Joel tries to grab her.  I am still trying to calm Erika, so I was no help.  Tori just floats by and luckily was saved by Robyn, a little bit further down.

The raft had stopped even further down.  So now we need to make our way down to the raft.  I then realize I only have one shoe.  One was swept off my foot.  Oh well, not much you can do now.  Time to climb up the river bank, which is sharp rock and prickly plants.  Erika has no shoes, she was just wearing flip flops that she took off in the boat.  As we are climbing up, there was a van with two very nice guys that had stopped on the side of the rode.  They wondered if there was anything they could do to help.  They offered to take us to our cars.  At the time that was just what I wanted to do.  I did not want to have to get in the water again.  Erika did not either and I was sure Luke was freaking out on the raft.  So we said, 'Yes, thank you.  A ride to our car would be awesome'.  I should have calmed the kids down and gotten back on the raft.  They say the rest of the river was very calm.  It would have been good for the kids to try again.  Maybe.

The gentlemen in the van drive us to the raft.  So I can scoop up Luke.  And anyone else who wants to be done.  I just needed to hug Luke, I felt so terrible that I couldn't hold on to him when we got dumped from the raft.  At the raft I grab Luke, Amber decides to come with, and Robyn plus two of her kids.  Grandad gets out of the van and gets back into the raft.  I just sat in the back of the van and looked at all my kids knowing that this scary experience could have been worse.  I doubt myself, was I a bad mother for not teaching them to try again?  When you fall off the horse, aren't you suppose to get back on.  Was I a good mother for wanting to protect them?

I can't change the way I reacted or what happened.  I can only think how we were incredibly blessed.  Blessed with the safety of all the kids.  Blessed that we took the time to find fitted life jackets.  Blessed that we took the time to say a family prayer before we entered the river.  Blessed that there was two nice guys who were willing to help.  They had people on the river and were working they didn't have to help us.  Blessed that no one was seriously hurt.  Erika's back was fine.  Luke was alive.  Amber got back in the raft and was safe.  Tori was spotted on a rock and safely floated down the river.  There was one loss and that was Luke's glasses.  They got pulled off his face.  But even that was a miracle because his glasses had been giving him headaches and didn't really fit well either.  So we were able to get him in for an eye check up 2 days later.  Also, we were blessed to have a spare pair of glasses for him at home.

I got several bruises and scratches up my legs.  My capris got ripped.  Also, other blessing because I had decided to just wear exercise capris and a t-shirt (thinking I wasn't going to get wet much).  So that could have been my skin ripped up, instead of my capris.  I had bruises for several weeks.  Some of the still are there, but very faint 3 weeks later.  But it is a reminder to me that my family is all safe.  We were protected and allowed to live on.  I slept terribly the night the accident happened.  I relived the events over and over.  I felt bad I let go of Luke.  I am not sure what more I could have done.  I can only be relieved and happy to be alive.  I hope my kids understand that water is not scary.  We can prepare ourselves to be safe in the water.  We all followed the rules and did what we needed to do.  I am grateful again for the kindness of others for helping us.  It is little or rather big things like this that remind me of my Heavenly Father's love for me.  He has blessed me with a wonderful family.  He has blessed me to be surrounded by so much love.  For that I am so grateful.

This experience made me ponder about this life.  Life is short.  I have work to do to keep myself on the path to returning to my Heavenly Father and living with my family for eternity.  I have work to do, but it is not hard.

San Francisco part 2

Our second and last full day in SF was so fun.  We had decided earlier we were going to ride bikes across the Golden Gate bridge.  So we got up, got ready and head downstairs to the bike rental shop right outside our hotel.  We got fitted for our bikes and some instructions.  Then we were off.  Joel and I were not in any race or going for speed/time.  Meaning, we stopped along the way several times.  It was chilly out, but quickly warmed up.  I had to stuff my jacket in my back pack.

Here we are entering the bridge.  It was a bit overly crowded, but we took our time and didn't have any major conflicts.  The whole ride from the bike shop to the ferry dock where you catch the ferry back to SF was only about 8 miles with a few small hills. A nice little ride to feel like you did something instead of sitting and eating all vacation.

While riding across the bridge we watch a helicopter actually fly under the bridge.  It was so crazy, like right out of the movies.  Across the bridge we made our way to the little town of Sausalito.  There we locked up our bikes and helmets.  Made reservations for the ferry ride back to SF.  Then set out for lunch.  For lunch we got two sandwiches and split them to share.  After that we had about an hour to roam around the cute little town.  We were really not in the mood to souvenir shop or shop since we did a lot of shopping the day before.

So we parked our selves by the ocean and watched the waves and boats.  It was so nice again to relax and soak in the sun.  After a while it was time to get our bikes and board the ferry.  We had talked about just riding the bikes back, but decided the ferry would be fun too.  It was a short boat ride with great views of the SF sky line and Alcatraz.  The ferry ended up dropping us off at Pier 1, so we got to ride our bikes all the way back to the bike rental shop.  Not so bad, if only the other bike riders were moving faster.

Back to the hotel to clean up and change out of our sweaty bike clothes.  We crossed the street to Hyde Pier and checked out some more awesome boats.  We decided the one above looked like a pirate ship. Can you imagine the size of the masts on that thing?  We then decide we deserved some ice cream. Where else to get yummy ice cream, but at Ghirardelli Square.  We split a yummy chocolate chip cookie, chocolate ice cream sundae.  It was amazing.  Should have taken a picture.  Is it weird to take pictures of your food?  I can't decide.

Then it was time to walk off some ice cream calories and see some more of SF sites.  Walked up an extremely steep hill.  Counts as a good workout.

 Then we walked down Lombard street.  This house on the street and the most beautiful flowering vine climb up it.  Just the color of the house with the pink flowers, amazing.  I loved it.

At the bottom of Lombard looking up.  So cool.  After walking around we hit up a little family owned sushi shop.  Those are our favorite places to eat.  The off the beaten path restaurants.   The sushi was good. And I can not remember the name of the place.  Walked back the the hotel and kind of settled in for the night.  When we realized it was far too early.  So again we walked the streets, bought some gifts for the kids, and had some fresh mini donuts at a store in Pier 39.  They were not great, but maybe I was just too full.  Stayed out until my feet were nice and tired.

The next day was suppose to be uneventful... Just a ride to the airport and an airplane ride home.  Joel did awesome and asked the hotel if there was any deals for a ride to the oakland airport.  They hooked him up with a shuttle.  Which was actually just a town car and we were the only passengers.  Talk about a nice sweet ride to the airport, much more comfortable than our ride from the airport.  So we got to the airport nice and early to check in.  We had time to get some lunch and get to our gate.  Only to find out 30 minutes before boarding that our plane was delayed.  The bad news kept coming.  The plane front brakes were not working.  An important part of the plane.  Our time kept getting pushed back further and further.  We were so thankful to finally be able to board the plane.  And thankful to have a plane take us safely back to Utah.  The pilot explained to us that they end up taking of the front wheels and replacing them.  We finally made it back to the Utah 5 hours later than we had hoped.  It was kind of nice to have a mostly empty plane, many people had to find a new flight.  Anyway, not to let that sour our wonderful trip.

I am so thankful for such a wonderful husband for taking me on this fun trip.  I really loved San Francisco!  It was even more fun to be there with Joel.  I can not say enough how lucky I am to have a husband who enjoys doing things with me.  We have similar ideas on travel and both enjoy exploring.

San Francisco- Birthday Surprise part 1

I had to share my wonderful birthday surprise weekend.  My sweet husband told me a couple of months ago that he was taking me on a birthday get away.  I had no idea where we were going until the Monday before we left.  (We left on Thursday.)  Tori let it slip that I was going on a plane.  Which I had no idea, so Joel told me we were flying to San Francisco.  It was nice to be able to pack appropriately, since SF weather is cooler than Utah in August.  I was so excited about my surprise.  SF is somewhere I have wanted to visit.  (Joel has been to SF for work a few times, but I have never been with him.) 

So Wednesday night, Joel was checking our reservations and plane tickets and realizes he has scheduled our flight for pm instead of am.  There was a few minutes of panic and phone calls.  It would have really been sad to only have one day in SF.  He finally gets us on stand by for an morning flight. We just hoped and prayed that we could get on the flight in the morning.  Very early the next morning we make our way to the airport.  You know how grumpy those airport assistants are well she was all business, until Joel told her we don't fly much and this was suppose to be a birthday surprise for me. She worked her magic and got us two seats on the flight.  What a relief! 

A short flight later and we were in Oakland.  Joel decided to not rent a car.  From the airport we took the airport bart to the bart and rode the bart to the end of the line at Powell St.  Our plan was to take the cable car from there to our hotel, but once we got there we realized that was going to be difficult.  For one, there was a long line for the cable car and about an hour wait.  Too long after a long day of travel already.  Also, there was so many people that it would have been a pain with our luggage.  We found a taxi and took it the rest of the way.  Our taxi drive was an awesome driver and zoomed all over the streets.  The taxi only ended up costing as much as two cable car tickets would have.  Perfect.

It was our lucky day because our hotel room was ready to check in.  Such a relief again.  Our trip started out so stressful so it was nice to finally be here.  We checked in, dropped our bags, and went to find some lunch.  We stayed at the Argonaut Hotel right across the street from Fisherman's Wharf.  It was the perfect location.

Argonaut Hotel

Our room looked like this, except we did not have an ocean view out the window.  We could only see concrete and other room windows out our window.

For lunch we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf.  We split some fried calamari and a crab sandwich on sour dough.  Both were just okay, but we were starving so it worked.  We then walked around for a bit.  Spotted Alcatraz.  Sadly you have to book tours up to 2 months in advance so we did not get to go on a tour.  Would have been fun.  Guess we need to go back for a visit in the future.

Alcatraz

We also admired these awesomely huge war ships.  The top is a submarine and the bottom a battle ship, I think.  They were both cool looking.  After we had got our fill of sight seeing we decided to go clean up and get to my birthday celebration shopping trip.

My tradition every year for my birthday for over 10 years now was to get a whole outfit for my birthday.  I used pinterest for my inspiration.  Below is my inspiration photo.

From our hotel we walked across the street to the cable car station and bought tickets.  Then we rode the cable car all the way to the top where there is a 7 story mall.  I bought my shoes at target at home. They were also part of my inspiration.  After we had got my whole outfit, Joel told me that I could just keep shopping and get more clothes if I wanted.  You don't have to tell me twice.  I ended up with 2 pairs of jeans, a sweater, a shirt, a skirt, 2 pairs of tights, 2 scarfs, and 4 layering tanks.  (the tanks were only $2 each, huge score)

My birthday outfit from my pinterest inspiration.

The little extras I bought.

My other pair of jeans, I love these, with some boots I bought at home.  Can't wait for colder weather to wear them.

After we shopped our hearts out we rode the cable car back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.  I wore my new outfit.  Can I just say how much I loved the weather in SF.  I think I could live here and be happy.  It was so perfect.  60's to low 70's, lovely sweater/ layering weather.  For dinner we ate at the restaurant in the hotel: The Blue Mermaid.  We both had a bowl of crab and corn chowder and sour dough bread, then split a beet salad.  It was so yummy.

After dinner we walked around just enjoying the evening.  We spotted Johnny Depp on the street.  Too bad he was only wax.  Watched the seals fight over sleeping spots on the docks.  Walked through Pier 39. It was just the perfect evening and perfect birthday surprise from my amazing husband.

Johnny Depp outside a wax museum.