Reason #1: I came home from camping with my family on my birthday (Sunday, August 14) to find my favorite birthday meal cooking in my home! Amanda had made ham, potatoes au gratin, corn on the cob, and rolls! For dessert, she made me my favorite pie: strawberry rhubarb! And she brought chocolate cake for everyone else to eat, too! It was such an awesome surprise!!
#3: I was given some wonderful gifts: a pedicure, haircut, and haircolor from Amanda, a digital photo frame from John, a new flowering plum tree for our backyard from Josh, hand soaps from my mother in law, a homemade apron from my mom, and chocolates from my boys! I loved all of my gifts!
#4: I gifted myself a trip for four on a half-day float down the Salmon River the day after my birthday, on Monday August 15. It was on my bucket list, and I decided it was finally time to do it!!! It was one of the highlights of my summer!
#5: I booked the float trip with a local company "Rawhide Outfitters", and they were great to work with!
#6: If I were trapped on a deserted island with three people, I would choose Josh, John, and Amanda. And those were the same people I got to spend all day with on my birthday float trip!!!
#8: Well...I thought we ALL looked ridiculous at the time. But now that I can see a photo of all of us together from that day, I realize that I was the only one who looked ridiculous wearing it!!! The life jackets actually seem to fit everyone BUT me! However, I did get a good laugh out of the way it fit me!
#9: John came back from being gone all summer on my birthday! I was so happy to have him back home! Just like me, he had also never floated that section of the Salmon River! We were so excited!!!
#10: Amanda and I laughed so much that day! By the end of the day, our faces hurt from smiling so much!!!
#11: Josh and I had gotten into an argument the night before the float, and I was sort of mad at him all morning. But he still treated me like a queen when we were floating, and I appreciated it so much!
#12: John decided to ride alone in a ducky (inflatable kayak) for most of the float. He did a fabulous job rowing it! I was so proud of him and I enjoyed seeing him doing it so well!
Reason #13: Before we came upon the first major rapids, he said "the worst thing that's happened so far is getting sunscreen in my eyes". Amanda and I laughed so hard when he said that!!!
#14: I sat across from Amanda and Josh--I loved my view!!!
#15: The weather was beautiful, our guide was so much fun, and the other riders on the boat were friendly(2 from Texas: Bitsy and Rollins, and 3 from California: Ginger, Lorenzo, and Olga).
#16: Our guide wanted me to 'ride the bull' first--which means sitting at the very front of the boat and holding on to just a rope as we go over some white-water. I walked up to the front of the boat, sat down, and when I held onto the rope, I accidentally flopped over backwards inside the boat! Josh and Lorenzo helped me back up and we all got a good laugh out of it!
#18: Bitsy said the funniest comment after she "rode the bull": she said one time she went waterskiing with her gynecologist, and he told her...well, never mind, I'm not putting what he told her on here, but we couldn't stop giggling about it the whole rest of the day!
Reason #19: After everyone else (who wanted to) took their turn "riding the bull", and all of them doing it effortlessly, I decided to take one more turn doing it to prove that I could do it without flopping over. I got up, sat down, and then my foot got twisted in the rope, and I fell backwards AGAIN! Except this time I couldn't get back up, so I flopped around with my awkward life jacket and all my weight hanging upside down, and everyone got a good look of my chest hanging out. Ginger said "thanks for the show"! I felt so dumb! But once again, everyone got a good laugh out of it!
#20: I was so excited when we hit our first major rapids at Pine Creek!!! And this photo proves just how excited we all were! We all look SO happy!! (Although, now that I think of it...Steve (our guide) did tell us there was a photographer, so maybe everyone was just smiling for the photo!!!)
#21: I couldn't stop screaming on the rapids!!! And nobody ever even told me to shut up! (p.s. i love this photo. see how josh is working so hard rowing in front and i'm doing nothing but screaming? that's how we react under pressure, too: i freak out and he works through it.)
#22: John tipped over only twice during the float, and the first time was on the Pine Creek Rapids. We watched it happen, and he sort of got hung up on a rock after he tipped. The rock took a little chunk of out his leg (which meant the sunscreen in his eyes was no longer the worst thing to happen), but he was a trooper and got back on the ducky all by himself without needing assistance.We were all amazed at his abilities! I was cheering for him and so proud of him! (This photo was taken right before the first tip-over.)
#23: Right before a section of smaller rapids, half of us in the boat decided to jump out and go for a swim. Our guide told us to lay back with our feet up to avoid hitting rocks as we floated over the whitewater section. I tried and tried and tried, but my feet just kept getting dragged down. Amanda was floating next to me, and she kept trying to swim towards me so that we could hold hands over the rapids, but I felt like I was barely floating and so I kept kicking her away. I learned later that my lifejacket wasn't on tight enough, which is why I felt like I was drowning. Anyways, after we made it over the rapids, we had to get back in the boat...so the guys in the boat pulled us out of the water one by one. I screamed and freaked out as Josh lifted on my jacket to pull me out of the water, and the jacket went over my head and I couldn't see a thing as I was pulled into the boat! Amanda's jacket also wasn't tight enough, and as the guide tried to pull her in over and over, it was over her head as well, and the straps kept digging into her arms and she couldn't get out of the water. Josh came over and lifted her legs in. John, in the ducky, saw what a silly sight it was and couldn't stop laughing! It wasn't very funny at the time, but it's one of our most talked-about memories from the day that we laugh about now!
#24: Because I was the first person of the 3 groups to request a float trip that day, I got to choose in advance the food we all ate for lunch. I chose our main entree and dessert. When we stopped for lunch, we had barbecued chicken and salad and fruit and crackers with dip and all of it was super tasty!!!
Reason #25: Everyone sang "happy birthday" to me at lunch time, and I was the only one to have a second piece of the most delicious strawberry pie I've ever had. Rawhide even gave me a gift: a mug with their logo on it! How thoughtful of them!!!
#26: We convinced John to ride out the rest of the float trip in the raft with us after lunch, and I was so glad that we were all together for the end!
#27: I took this photo, which is my favorite one from that day. Every time I look at it, even now, it makes me smile! I love these 3 people so much!!!
#28: I wanted to have a good photo of the four of us together, but trying to get that 'perfect shot' turned out to be quite the task. Fortunately, Olga (who took these photos) is a professional photographer, and she wasn't upset that I kept wanting more photos taken. Unfortunately, however, I don't think any of these are the 'perfect shot'.
This one is a good photo of everyone except me...it looks like my lifejacket is choking me!
This one looks like we're all having a hilarious time, but due to some water on the lens, it appears like my white skin and John's bald head are reflecting abnormally large amounts of sunshine
I think this is the best overall of the 3...what do you think?
#29: On the last stretch of the river float, Josh and I were the only ones to jump in for one final swim. It was very romantic, and non-traumatic like the first swim of the day had been!
#30: After we arrived back in Salmon late that afternoon, the four of us decided that we were enjoying each other's company too much to depart just yet, so we went out for dinner at Dave's Pizza. It was so yummy, and as we ate, we reminisced about the awesome day we'd had and all the fun we'd enjoyed together and we laughed about everything all over again!
Reason #31: Even though it was John who paid the dinner bill, he let Josh and I take the pizza leftovers home, and the boys ate it all up for dinner! I was glad to not have to come up with something to make them for dinner after being gone all day!
#32: Josh gave me one final birthday gift that night, and it was the perfect way to end the funnest birthday of my life! (I was in need of some new shower gel, and he got it for me! What did you think I was talking about?!! ;))
2 comments:
River rafting is a blast. I need to get up there next summer and float the Salmon.
Sounds like a great day! Buying yourself a gift is an excellent idea. I think I need more information about #18, and of course #32 made me giggle! I hope 32 is the best year EVER!
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