Adventures and dangers

One of our summer traditions is to "raft" down the Provo River. I use "raft" loosely because the rapids are calm, and for most of the float you simply kick back and admire the beautiful canyon scenery. It's a great trip and we usually do it a couple of times each summer.

We embarked on our latest trip on 4th of July morning, and we were having our usual great time. About halfway down, there are a pair of bridges that most people pull out for (i.e. paddle to shore, take their boats out and relaunch after the bridges). Feeling like "expert" rafters, we decided to try raft under the bridges. As we approached the 2nd bridge, our raft smacked sideways into one of the support beams. As we did, the raft popped, water rushed in and we were forcefully flipped over by the current (Nathan, Jacob, Jen and Mike were on this raft....Anna was wisely rafting with Aunt Kim and Uncle Chris).

The water was FREEZING. The river is produced by snow melt -- I have never been in water so cold. As we popped up out of the water, Jen and Nathan were close together, Mike was by himself....and Jacob was nowhere to be found. Those ~3 seconds where we could not see Jacob were possibly the worst 3 seconds of my life. He finally emerged from under the flipped raft, screaming his head off, and all of us made our way to shore (with the help of Chris and Lauren). Once there we were able to calm Jacob down, laugh about the experience a bit, and endure the ridicule from Grandma Terri (whose raft also flipped). When I saw Jen laughing at the situation while pulling a frightened Nathan to shore, I knew again that I married the perfect wife.

I asked the kids today what they learned from this experience. I loved their replies:

1) Family is there to help us. If something goes wrong, they can help "pull us out of the water."
2) Adventures can be both fun and dangerous, so you need to be careful
3) If you are prepared you will be safe. The kids had life jackets on, and we are very grateful for that.

Great lessons that I am sure we will remind them of continuously for the next several years. :-) The only harm that came from the accident was a lost camera, lost wedding ring (Mike), 2 pairs of lost sunglasses and 2 hats. We still have 3 children though. :-)

After calming down from the float trip we celebrated with a great fireworks display.