Up a Creek

Fortunately, we had a paddle. We took the crew on a 6-day 73-mile float down the Lower Salmon River in Western Idaho. We accompanied the Mechams, Riggs, and Johnsens on this trip, they are all veterans of the Lower Salmon and showed us greenhorns how it was done.

We departed for White Bird, Idaho on Sunday afternoon and arrived in the wee hours of the morning. We threw out a tarp, blew up our air mattress, and proceeded to freeze our tails off for the rest of the night. It was a little colder than I expected. Actually, I think Rachael was quite warm as she slept in her winter parka. Two coyotes came into the camp during the night and then hightailed it back out when one of the dogs from another group started barking at them.

We assembled our boat the next morning, and into the river we went for 5 1/2 days of floating, swimming, fishing, and camping on white sandy beaches. It's amazing how the events of a full week blur together and compress into a few memories.

Alec was kind enough to capture a few pieces of photographic evidence. Rachael took a bunch of pictures which I am sure will be forthcoming, but she is busy perfecting them with photoshop.

Here are a few action shots from the class IV rapid on the river, Snow Hole.




The trip was not without its exciting moments. Just a few hours before the above pictures were taken, we came across another group on the river. They were administering CPR to a woman that had been trapped under her boat for 4 minutes when it flipped after hitting a rock wall. The Riggs assisted with giving her medical attention and helped get her down the river to a large camping area. There they found a forest service employee with a radio who was helping coordinate fire fighting efforts for a forest fire in the immediate area. They arranged a jet boat to come pick her up so she could be evacuated to a hospital. We later learned that she made a full recovery. That incident cast a pall over the trip for a few hours. The kicker for Rachael was that I moved to another boat to help with some non-experienced rafters that had been left on their own when their boatsman went to help with the lady who almost drowned. I had Blake pilot our boat and follow me through a little class II rapid so we could get down to the camping area. After just witnessing a near-drowning, Rachael was a little on edge with Blake driving the boat.

We enjoyed getting into the water on the calm spots on the river, cooling off and "checking the prop". I amazed the kids with my acrobatic talents (don't they look amazed?). Seeing me launch into the air like this must be kind of like watching the Spruce Goose take flight.


We floated through a canyon that was on fire, as I noted before. The firefighters were out in force, with planes and helicopters working to put the fire out. At one of our camp sites, we watched all afternoon as a helicopter went back and forth to the river to suck up water to dump on the fire. At first it looked like he was going to draw water from right in front of our camp, but then he saw the kids out swimming in the river and moved downstream. In this picture, you can see the hose hanging underneath the helicopter that he uses for sucking up water. You can also see the smoke from the fire in the canyon.

All of the camping was on white, sandy beaches. It was very nice, but kind of hard on the feet. By the end of the trip, my feet were so dried out that they were starting to crack, and they were raw from the wet sand rubbing between my sandals and my feet. I guess that is the price to be paid for paradise. The Rigg's tent (show in this picture) blew into the river when a sudden gust of wind came up. Casey and Branden happened to be close by and jumped into the river to save it.


We had a great cliff jumping spot at our last campsite. We entertained ourselves for a couple of hours jumping off of this cliff. This was also the campsite where we caught the most fish. Alec and the kids dug a hole in the beach and lined it with a tarp. We then filled it with water and created a little holding tank for a bunch of little bass that we caught.

Sea Fair, See well, See fantastic

I haven't figured out Mahina's new blog writer yet, but will post anyway, boring font and all.

A few weeks ago Jeff, Cason, Carissa, and I went up to Seattle to visit my sister's family. They were up from Kentucky to visit Ryan's family. They are always so sweet and invite us for the fun. We got up there on Friday night and met Cassidy for the first time. What an adorable baby!!! She smiled the whole time and has got the cutest eyes. Tiffany knows the gift she was given and is willing to share. She let me hold her and put her to sleep. Just that was worth the trip. Sat morning we enjoyed a feast of a breakfast and then headed off to Sea Fair. We found a grassy spot right on Lake Washington and relaxed while we watched the Blue Angles perform and afterward some jet boats. We had some ice cream from the ice cream man and part of an orange for lunch. Dinner was at Karens, Tiffany's sister-in-law, where we had our choice of steak, fresh caught crab, chicken, and hamburgers. She also had out her candy popcorn. It is so good she actually started a business selling it. DElish!!! It was such a great time. Short and sweet. I can't wait for Tiffany and Ryan to finally settle here in the west. I sure miss them.

The Rodeo, An American Celebration

Several years ago the Johnsons and the Hills invited us to go to the St. Paul Rodeo for the 4th of July. Ever since, if we are in Oregon, we go. This year was no exception. The bulls were wilder than ever but we missed the clown from other years.





































I teared up AGAIN during the National Anthem. It always makes me feel such pride and love for our country. St. Paul just makes me feel like I am in "home town" America.






















Spending our 4th of July's in St. Paul has been a great tradition. I remember the year that we planned a picnic with the Johnsons to a park. I had spent a lot of time on a jello salad in the shape of a flag with the whipped cream, blueberry stars and everything. Jeff decided to have Blaze, our dog, drag the cooler to the picnic table. She took off running and needless to say the jello didn't survive. I believe we started the St. Paul tradition the next year.























During the rodeo a bull tried to jump the gates, and a cowboy got his hand stuck in the rope.
It is quite entertaining, no jello gets hurt in the process either. It always ends in fireworks and elephant ears. What a great day.

Soaring Eagles

This Tuesday for the YM's activity the priests made dinner for their mothers. I had some running around to do but eventually joined the dinner. (It was at our house.) Jeff was getting into town that night too. It was very nice. Blake made jello, others made chicken and rice and beans (I think). We played Celestial partners, with some of the questions tweeked so that we could see how well we knew each other. We didn't win but were a close 2nd place. Blake is a great son.

Speaking of... Wed we went to Blake's eagle Board of Review. Mitch Mason was his advicate and Russ Allen and Brian Merritt were on the board. Jeff and Cason's opthomologist was the head on the board. I new I had met him before. It went well and BLAKE IS NOW AN EAGLE SCOUT!!!! I can't tell you how happy I am that he is done, and with months to spare. For his eagle project he built a fence for the ACR here in Aloha. Once he tore down the other fence it was easy to see that they were not utilizing all that was available, so they changed things right on the spot. Blake arrange for a CAT to come in and flatten all of the dirt inside and outside the new fence line. Jerry Janeck had a great contact that came and did it for free. It took at good portion of a Sat. There were many great men that helped make this all happen. I sure appreciate all that each of the leaders have done to teach and help Blake become a man, especially Jeff. I sure have a great husband.

mother's day

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Okay, so I saw this draft that was never posted. So here it is. Maybe I can get caught up...

Sunday was a wonderful mother's day. Jeff mad a great breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and waffles. He bought me some plants and a fucia hanging basket. Carissa made me a clip all decorated, and Samantha gave me a great card with fruit and vegetable stickers on it. (I have a pep peeve about fruit stickers). What a sass! We played Scum (a fun card game) while Jeff prepared a great pork roast dinner. It was a wonderful day. Cason sang to me the last time for mother's day in primary. I cried. Dumb I know. We played a fun game called scum while Jeff cooked. The game is great because if you are the winner that round you are the Queen or the King. I love being the Queen. But the best part of the whole day was that my family let me take a family photo without shenanigans. I take every photo, so it is push the button and run. Last year they kept making goofy poses while I was posing so great up front. So this year, they were great. We had a hard time finding something that matched, so we decided to wear our favorite outfits. No matching at all. I just love them though. I think they turned out great for my push and run method. One of these days I will ask one of my great friends to do it, but for now, this worked. Samantha got a great picture of Jeff and me too.

Sunday Cason stressed way out about giving a talk in primary. He is so funny. It was like he was addressing the Supreme Court the way he worried. He ended up doing a great job. Monday we bought a cake and ice cream and had some friends over so I wouldn't eat my for birthday cake. It was fun. Blake had bought me the movie the Italian job. Cason gave me a new set of head phones for my ipod that I could run with. Jeff rebought me photoshop and a new MAC computer for upstairs. I now have a computer all of my own. I am so excited! I still haven't figured everything out yet. I am still learning mac talk and I am just learning Bridge (the organizing program that comes with photoshop) from tutoring video's off of the web that comes free for a month. I am learning so much, mostly how to see my day fly by. The last couple of days I have learned a lot, but not accomplished a lot. It is a good thing Jeff has been out of town, because I'm not very good company.

recent activities

The last couple have weeks have been great. First, it was my 38th birthday on Friday May 2nd. I really meant to play it up like some of my blogging friends and announce it to the world, but I just got too busy. I did call up Jeff and took him to lunch at Izzy's. We had a great time and I was able to get a couple of pictures. I still don't know how to do that without having a double chin. We knew that he had to help someone move that night and the next morning, so we enjoyed lunch together. Don't we just look great, like two crazies right out of the farm. Sat morning was a busy day. Carissa spent the night at the Lloyds so she could ride over to the Stake Activity day the next morning. Blake helped Jeff move someone and I think Samantha had Becca spending the night. Blake went to bed fairly early so he could wake up early for his SAT test. He has been studying for a couple of months now. I hope he does well. I woke up early to get ready for my triathlon. Bridget picked me up and we set off to set up our running and biking gear at the transitions locations. We went to the bathroom a couple of times. For some reason, as calm as I feel, my body rebels and takes it's own opinion and gets nervous. I didn't feel jittery or anything, just a few potty breaks. Bridget and I were fortunate enough to be not only placed in the same wave, but the same lane. That was the best. We sat there and got nervous together. She is such a wonderful friend. I am so glad she is apart of my life. The other fortunate thing is that one of the four people in our lane didn't show, so it was another lady, 5 seconds, then ANOTHER 5 secs, then me, and then Bridget. It was so nice! I was just fast enough to tail the 1st lady and drafted in here bubbles. It was so awesome. I did it in less than 10 minutes. A new record for me. Bridget wasn't far behind me. I forgot my big running number when I took off on the bike. Oh well, it didn't matter at all. I was pumping myself up to make this hill in the middle of the bike course. There is a steady incline for a while and then a hill. Right as I was going up the hill some random non competitive bikers passed me, but all in all, when I got to the top, I realized that the hill wasn't near as hard as I had thought. I raced it as fast as I could to the stadium. A fellow competitor tried to catch me the whole time, but didn't. We dismounted at the same time. When we took off running we talked for a bit, but his pace was too much for me. I had maybe 2-4 people pass me the whole race. That was awesome. When all was said and done I had done my best race ever. The best part is that I felt so good the whole race. I was positive and happy and felt strong the whole way. When I finished I stretched for a few minutes and waited for Bridget. I didn't cramp or hurt like I had other times. It made me feel great about getting older. The rest of the day was nice. Jeff came home form moving people, I got in a nap and then I went and watched Carissa play a couple of games of basketball, and later that night Samantha play in a couple of games. They both did well and it was fun to watch them. Carissa has a wedgy problem. I have bought her a few pairs of different undies. I hope to find one that will help her. I recorded some of her games, and she is going to be embarrassed.