White water rafting and the stars.....

Have you ever signed up for something that you thought would be exciting and alot of fun and then wished that instead of "actually" doing it, you could just have the fun, feel good effects of it without "actually" doing it?

After riding the rapid rivers at Walt Disney World and Universal Studios several times over the last few years, we were ready to expand our horizons and raft the Colorado River!  We were almost pros by now considering the amount of times we fought the rapids at the parks!  We were finally going to be able use the "moves" we all know we have to fight the rapids, but were unable to due to the ridiculous restraints Disney and Universal put on us.  Free at last!  Free at last!

Well as we were struggling into our 2nd hand, faded and worn life jackets, while following the just woke up bus driver wearing the once white thoroughly stained t-shirt, onto an old white school bus, a thought crossed my mind.  We weren't at Disney or Universal and we could actually DIE out there.  Being swept out of the boat as we were falling, at least 20 or 30 feet, down the waterfall, hitting our head on one of the many rocks strewn throughout the river and end up floating face down the entire length of the river. 

The feeling of hyperventilating was creeping up through my stomach.  The bus lurched forward and the main guide, a young hung over girl who talked way to much about her annoying mother in law than her actual job, proceeds to tell us that it is about a 20 minute ride up to the drop off point.  It was a windy road, no guard rails and narrow.  I think this was preparing us for what was to come.  Thankfully there were only 9 of us so we would have our own boat of 4, a smaller boat, easier to hold onto if we capsize.
 

 

 

The drop off point was surrounded by beautiful mountains. The sky was clear blue and the temperature was perfect, warm with a slight breeze.  Maybe things would be ok after all!

 

 

 Our guide was going to be Katie, thankfully she was not the hung over girl on the bus.  She was all of 100 pounds soaking wet, recently transplanted from Michigan , about 18 years old and this was her first summer being a guide for the River Rafting Company.  She chose this company to work for because you didn't have to pay for classes on how to be a guide, they actually taught you by taking you out one time and seeing if you can handle the river or not.  Really?  Really??   I was not feeling so secure when we climbed into our inflatable boat. 

 

 

As you can see by the smiles on their faces,  my three family members were completely oblivious to the fact that this may be the last time we see each other breathing!

 

                                                                        

There were 4 "Rapids" that we went through.  Katie classified most of them as "2's", which for you novices out there mean they were terrifying for at least 5 minutes.  All in all it was a really good experience.  I think I was more worried about and focusing on not losing Gabe out of the boat when we went through the rapids than anything else.  When we were just gliding like in the pictures below it was so peaceful.  We could take in the scenery around us and be thankful that we were there.

 

 

We had amazing scenery all around us as we traveled the few miles down the Colorado River.

 

At the end of our journey was a simple picnic of sandwiches. 

 

 Joe and Gabe stayed in the water a little bit longer, it was colder than expected and was very murky, but they had a ball.  Gabe did really well on his first rapid, he wasn't nervous or apprehensive at all. 

 

Our adrenalin was wearing off and everyone just relaxed and talked while drying off.

 

 

We were headed back down the mountain, which was easier than going up thankfully!  That or I was just to tired to care at that point.  We were all safe and had a great time.  Take that Disney!

 

After showering and dinner, we packed our thermos with Hot Coco and headed up to the Arches National Park to check out the stars.  There were alot of people scattered all throughout the designated area. We were able to watch the sun set over the mountains.

 

Balancing Rock at night!

It was one of the most magical experiences we have had yet.  We were on top of the world!  It felt like you could reach up and touch the sky.

 
 

 

 

There were shooting stars and meteor showers all across the sky.  The Rangers had the telescopes set so we could see the Moon and Saturn's Rings.  I loved seeing how excited Gabe was over the whole experience, it was an awesome sight to see.

Today was an "aha" moment for all of us.  It was one of those days were we realised how lucky and blessed we were to be living the life that we have chosen.  Not many people are able to do what we are doing and we need to remember to not take it for granted.