Idaho Bound Day 1

I only dreaded one thing we had to do before we left on our trip to Idaho; saying goodbye to my baby! Charlie is currently with Grandpa and Grandma Nagel having a blast. She barely even notices that I'm gone. What's worse is when I come back I hit back to my work rotation and will be away from home again for another 7 days. Miss her terribly but having a blast with the older two. We talked on the way here about taking Charlie to Disneyland next year and I think we both agreed that its her time. Can't wait to see those cute eyes light up when she sees all the princess' from the Disney movies! It will be a special time for her.

Our first night here was unscheduled because we didn't know what time we would get here. Good thing it was, because we barely had 10 minutes of sunlight left to set up our tents at Farragut. We all shared one site (next time we will get two), and had 3 tents. Packed house!! We stayed really warm thanks to Grandma Abston's awesome blanket made out of Grandpa Abston's old pants. We love that blanket for camping. It is so thick and heavy! Val and Ethan were given more responsibility this year. I refused to double check their bags to see if they brought the right clothes. Val froze the first night because her warmest PJ's consisted of a tank top and thin sleep pants. She learned a good lesson, and the next night mamma gave her some suggestions that kept her plenty warm! Saturday morning we went white water rafting with a guide named "Scary Jerry." He was awesome. He was the most senior guide so we took lead and showed the other five boats how 8 people when rowing together could smoke out any competition. All the kids got a chance to "ride the bull" aka sitting on the front with only a rope to hold on too. Jeremy chose to take his turn riding the bull during out trip down the TOE NAIL rapids. Apparently those rapids are a 3 on the intensity rafting scale. We hit the rapids high and hard and no matter how much the crew "dug in" we still lost Jeremy off the front of the boat! He went under the boat and came back out the backside. I instinctually held out my oar just in time and he grabbed on and nearly took me into the water with him. I pulled him back to the boat and Scary Jerry and I pulled him in! I think he was pretty freaked out;( Later when the river calmed down CJ and Valerie went out and swam in the cold water (she's such a water baby). The rafting trip took 2.5 hours total. Loved it and pretty much thought it was the highlight of our trip!! Afterwards we went to Mckenzie River Pizza Co and ate Willow Creek sandwiches. Great 1st night...