Swim With Your Feet Up

Well, the Sisters Four split again. This time it was Sarah and Sage who went to Colorado for a whitewater rafting adventure while Anna and Tera stayed here to take care of the home place and go out to eat and bowl and watch movies.



Sunday morning early, the two of us and our brother John and friend Hannah loaded up the van and trailer and headed to Howard, Colorado. We took the shortest route, which somehow ended up being very, very long - and I'm sure that had nothing to do with pulling over twice so that the van would be still enough for Sarah and Hannah to play "The Impossible Game" on Hannah's iPod touch. Also, tip of the summer for you other road trippers: "100 Days and Nights" in New Mexico is not a festival. And it's not fun.



We made it to camp a bit before 7:00 pm, and set the home base for the next nights. It was fun greeting friends as they made it into camp: Lance, some of the Hartmans, some of the Dortignacs and Jeremy and Caleb all made it by midnight and everyone was ready to hit the river the next day.

What a great trip! What a wonderful time! What amazing friends!

We didn't lose a single person out of the raft - which is a first for us - but we wonder if that had something to do with how cool the weather...and especially the water...was. We had a great time at the swimming hole...skipping rocks and staying as dry and warm as possible.


Sarah did the food for the trip, with help from the campers. It was fabulous...but did I really have to tell you that?





The first day went really well. We did a section of the river that we've done for three years in a row, with a lunch stop at Salida...and ice cream at a great little coffee shop in town. Mom and Scott met us there for lunch, and Courtney came a bit later so she could complete the day with us on the river.






We had a good day on the river, but the second day was even better. We skipped what is normally our second section, and did a 12 mile run that had quite a few class II's and III's. More excitement than any run we've done on our own yet. The guides did a great job, but it was a pretty funny moment when one of the boats (I won't say who was guiding) got stuck on a rock right in front of about 50 other rafters who had pulled out for lunch. EMBARRASSING!!! One of the professional river guides on the bank asked if we were training or just playing around. I should have told him we were training. He then asked if we'd done "Three Rocks" before, a bigger rapid that was coming up. As we shoved off we told him we hadn't and his parting warning came ominously out over the water as we drifted away, "SWIM WITH YOUR FEET UP!!!"

Three Rocks and Spikebuck were really exciting, but none of us had to put that warning to use. Yay!!! Our take out point was just before the Royal Gorge....but I think we all really wanted to just keep going. Maybe we'll tackle that next.

The only injuries, besides sunburn, happened when John backed right into a cactus. And then poor Hannah H. did the same thing, just so that John wouldn't feel so stupid and alone. Isn't she great!

We had a great time on the river and off. What a super group of people! We played games and took pictures and had some wonderful devotions that were encouraging and uplifting. We prayed together and sang songs and ate food and laughed until we couldn't laugh anymore. How could it get any better than that?

A big thank you to our amazing, responsible, diligent, incredible organizer and river guide:

He really is THAT amazing.

Are we having fun yet??? I'm so ready for next time!!!

Until then....take care, be safe and

SWIM WITH YOUR FEET UP!!!