Idaho 2017 Day 7

This day ended up having a harrowing adventure in the afternoon. We started out with trying to go down the river, but there weren't enough rafts for us all to go. We then tried going to the reservoir, but the road was a bit too much for Amy's van.

The views were gorgeous though as we were driving around!

We admitted defeat and went back to the cabin for lunch. After lunch was over, we called the raft place again and we were able to go! Amy and Spencer stayed at the cabin for his afternoon nap.

Ruby ended up falling asleep on our way to the river.

There were a lot of shallow spots at the beginning and so we would hop out and push the rafts (or in my case canoe) along until it got deep enough. With the sun shining, it was hot and it felt really good to be in the freezing water.

Jonathan and I were in the canoe, while everyone else filled up the two rafts.

Not long after we started, there was a moose along the river. It was too far away for us to get a picture of it, but we saw it! Chris, Annie, and Amy had the four little girls in their raft and my parents had all five boys. The boys were way louder than the girls.

The kids had a great time getting wet and trying to paddle along the river.

After awhile, some of the kids switched around. Ty got in the canoe with us and Kyle joined the girl's raft.

I saw some baby fish in the slower parts of the river.

Ty was impressed with how fast the canoe went, but he had to sit still so we wouldn't tip over. He ended up going back into the raft with my parents. Not long after, we saw another moose.

There's a dark blob on the grass and that's the moose.

To speed things up, Jonathan and I towed Chris and the girls for a bit. Then we slowed down to do the same for the boys raft. At that point, the weather turned and we were out of sight from Chris's raft. It started sprinkling and we were still about two miles away from where our cars were. Jonathan and I were doing our best, but we were paddling into the wind and it was now pouring. We were making no progress, so we pulled over to the side of the river. The younger boys were panicking (especially when their flip flops would come off), but we tipped the raft over to protect us from the storm. We hunkered down, but things weren't getting any better. We said a prayer all together and then said silent ones. Things still weren't getting better. Dad asked if we had our phones and if they worked. Jonathan pulled his out and was able to get through to 911. He was able to tell them where we were and that there were many other people stuck along the river. That helped calm everyone down knowing that people knew where we were and that help was on the way.  Garrett was upset at first that the storm didn't go away immediately after we prayed, but not long after the call to 911 the hail turned back into rain and he shouted that our prayers worked! It hailed a few more times, but we were all more optimistic knowing help was coming. We were worried about Chris, Annie, Amy, and their group of kids, but we knew they were capable of taking care of all of them. We were also grateful that Spencer wasn't with us because it would have been so hard on him. Jonathan and Dad stayed out from under the raft and when Jonathan saw a break in the clouds up ahead he had the boys get out and see that the storm was going to be over soon. Then the most exciting part was seeing Chris from Idaho Fish and Game hiking his way towards us. Garrett got so excited that Jonathan had to hold him back from running towards our rescuer! He gave the little boys a blanket to get warm in and his jacket to Tyler. Chris told us that not far down there was a dock with more people with plenty of blankets to warm us up. Jonathan and I took Seth and Garrett in the canoe and sped off to get them warm and my parents had Ryan and Tyler in the raft with them. We made a turn and saw the dock covered with EMTs helping others out of their canoes and giving them blankets. They took the soaked life vests off of the boys and gave Seth a blanket and Garrett a heated one. I didn't notice until we were in the hot tub that his lips were purple. They told us we could go and sit in the ambulance to get heated up. As we got to the ambulance, Chris (my brother) came running towards us and told us Annie had the van just a bit further down. Amy passed us along the way looking determined to get to her boys. We climbed into the van and Annie and I started exchanging stories about what happened. They were worried that something bad happened because of the ambulance. We made it back to the rest of the cars and to the cabin. Almost all of us got into the hot tub to warm back up.

The boys were fantastic. There was a lot "I hate this" and "This is the worst day ever", but they are determined to be eagle scouts so they can be calm and prepared like Grandpa and Uncle Jonathan.

Garrett's heated blanket. He kept saying in the car that is was warming up his neck.

We spent the rest of the evening in our PJs and watching movies.

Charlotte ate a cucumber like corn on the cob. Ruby saw her and came over and announced that she liked pickles hoping to get a bite. I told her it was a cucumber. She said she liked cucumbers. After some persuasion, Charlotte let Ruby have a little bite. Ruby said she liked it. Kids are weird!

And that was a crazy day seven.