Idaho

"Utah" Trip 2012:

On to Idaho! It was raining on July 5, which was the day my mom had planned for us all to go up to Lava Hot Springs for the day. However, as anyone can guess, running a river on a tube in the rain is not wise nor fun. We had to cancel, but made plans for the next day. Grandpa Jack was staying there and agreed to hang around for another day so that we could meet up with him. Sadly, Mandy had to work, so she was the only one who couldn't mix it around to go. She was able, though, to come the night of the 5th to hang out and drop off the kids. 

Soooo, that meant Grandma Movie Night! 

Mandy got some good snuggles in with my kids before she left and we got a nice visit in over at Grandma and Grandpa D's. 

Dinner, popcorn, movie, bed.

The next morning, Tessa's left bottom tooth had reached a point of looseness where the thing was like a drawbridge. She was afraid of giving it a yank because it was going to hurt. I wouldn't bother with it when it was just a little loose, but when it is just hanging in there ---well, give me a go at it! I quickly popped it right out. There may have been an, "Ow!", but that was it. Very little blood, and we're good. We bagged up the tooth and knew the tooth fairy would be on her way to Grandma's that night. Tessa asked several questions about the tooth fairy. When Tessa asked, "What if the tooth fairy isn't even real?" 

I answered, "The tooth fairy only brings money to kids who believe in her." Aaaaand that was the end of the questions. :)

 Lava Hot Springs. I didn't know it was a city. I thought it was just a water park. I never claimed to be bright.
We met up with Grandpa Jack and had a nice lunch provided by Mom and Duke.
Grandma snuggles:

Jon, Chelsy, and Jolynn (Breckin was in SD with his dad) came a little later, so I caught some pictures of Jo with great grandpa too:

Love her diva sun hat.

 Mom, Paige, Jolynn, and Chelsy:

 The river runners!

 This day was a mixed bag. We didn't scout the river and left it up to the fact that people run it all the time so we'd know when to get out. Jake, Tessa, Cole, and I took a four person tube, Jon and Chelsy had a double, Duke had a single, and I don't really know beyond that. We hiked up a little bit to get in so we could make the ride last longer, so getting in was a little more difficult than it needed to be, but no big deal. The river was more rough than I thought it would be, but fun. I held on to Cole's life jacket, white knuckled. Just a couple minutes into our river run we saw Grandpa Jack waving his hands and yelling something to us on the bridge/ledge above us. I couldn't for the life of me hear what he was saying over the river noise but looked around to see if there was something ahead or if we'd gone too far or something. I suddenly saw Chelsy a little further down standing in the water and thought, "Oh! We must need to get out here." But it didn't look like an easy place to get out. The river was strong and up to her waist. She and I grabbed hands so she could help us stop and get out. That wasn't happening. Our weight combined with the force of the river about had our arm sockets yanked out and we broke hold. Which means she fell over and started getting pushed down the river and slammed into rocks in the process. She was finally able to stand up and get to the side of the river. I felt so bad that it was my fault she had gotten hurt but was trying to figure out how to get us out since I saw a couple other tubers up ahead getting out of the river. Then I heard her yell that Jon's shoe was floating down the river. She tried to grab it but failed. I tried to grab it and failed, but I yelled to a guy stopped at the bank up ahead to grab it. He did! He was able to throw it to the other side of the river where Chelsy was.
The four of us were still on our tube (I had Cole on my lap), so Jake must have been holding on to a branch or something since we were stopped. That was when I noticed my brother, Jon, in the water having a really rough time. He is a strong guy, but the river was having its way with him. He was having the hardest time getting to shore in that fast, deep water ....without shoes too. Duke showed up on his tube and was trying to get to Jon. Jon still had the double tube, which was forcefully trying to yank him down the river. Duke was able to grab the tube and pass it over to Jake while I reached out to get my brother. Seeing Jon worn out like that scared me, but once he was up on shore he was able to catch his breath.
He got his flip flops back, but his hat was gone, his sunglasses were gone, ...and his wedding ring was gone. He said he had grabbed onto a rock and felt it slide right off as he slid off the rock. I was sick to my stomach about it, Chelsy was in tears, and I think Jon was relieved he hadn't drowned.
We kept going over the whole intense thing trying to figure out what had gone on and wishing we'd been better equipped. Duke took off down the direction of the river flow so he could find out what had happened to Breanna, Dallen, and Kaeley. It turned out they got out where they were supposed to get out. It also turned out that Grandpa Jack was hollering down to us about a better place to get into the river.
Oh.
The hand waving and hollering were a little confusing, as was the couple of tubers getting out ahead of us. What a sour miscommunication. The next hour was filled with should have's, but the reality of it was that unpleasant things happen and all we could do was learn from it and be glad that something worse hadn't happened.
As you can imagine, Jon and Chelsy didn't much feel like going down the river after that. I was suddenly scared to go, but got over it enough to go one more time. I was still a bit disturbed, so I retired at that point. However, Mandy's kids, Jake, and Duke were able to make the most out of the time we had the rental tubes and had a great time. Jon and Chelsy bought a ring for a few bucks at the gift shop for Jon to wear, because they're cool like that. Love to you! (and wishes for extra money for a new ring)
Mom felt like she'd failed somehow (family trait), but it was just one of those things --I can only imagine what the bottom of that river must have in it. We were all grateful for her efforts in getting us together. Jon, Chelsy, and Jolynn took off later, as did Grandpa Jack. Mom and Duke took the kids to the gift shop to pick something out and then for ice cream. They had such fun. And we had such fun hanging out with Bre, Dal, and Kae.
We zipped back to Preston to see my grandparents one more time. My cousin Aaron has been staying with them before he heads back to Utah State in the fall. I was happy to see him. He's a good guy. Quiet and unassuming with his curly pony tail, that kid (I guess it should be "man", but that's just too weird) is a tall wiry mass of muscle. He runs for Utah State, and he's fast.
I grabbed a picture of him to prove I actually saw him: