Recovery and Rivers

We had a great family outing at the Burley Idaho Spudman Triathalon. Logan, Justin and I participated in the 1 mile swim (my wave was cancelled due to a drowning of one of the swimmers ahead of us), a 26 mile bike race, and a 6 mile run. The whole family was there with the exception of Clay and Brittany who had to work but did include my sister Suzan. After the race, we attended the Twin Falls Temple Open House. The grandkids were really reverent and it was such a beautiful building. Parker, Dallin, and Landon are below on the Temple steps. After the two nights, the girls were joined by Brittany and we traveled to Boise to stay at the Marriott there by the river. We went floating down the Boise River, (where I broke every boating rule I know), accidentally popping the raft Kelsey was in, seeing river otters, eating licorice , and laughing our heads off. We went to the play "Oklahoma" at an outdoor theater in the mountains and just had fun talking, eating and hanging out. My sister Suzan, daughters Ashley, Kelsey, Staci, Brittany and I all had a blast.[Photo]Ric is continuing to get better. At his last doctor appt. he was given permission to start putting weight on his leg. He has begun physical therapy and is relentless in his persistence for recovery. Last night we went to a wedding reception and he only used one crutch. He is getting stronger, today he even washed a couple of pans for me. Yeah...a first in 8 weeks. I am stoked and so is he. ( Not about the dishwashing however.) We completed the cement work in the yard and now we are getting the sprinkling system in. Somehow, our yard has grown since we bought it. It looks much, much larger. I am wondering who will be mowing and doing the weeding. I really hope it is not me. We built a deck while Ric was been broken and we really appreciate all the kids did to help with it. Ric even sat and a stool and drilled in nails. I learned to drill those long screws in too and did a pretty good job I must say. With Ric in recovery, I did the Rogue River in Ore. without him. I missed him the whole way because he would have loved it as much as I did. The mountains there are spectacularly green and lush with streams and little waterfalls everywhere. The water is cool and clear. It was hot and the water felt great to cool off. The river was class III and two IV's. I think one of the IV's was a III and I paddled that in my IK (inflatable kayak). I took one swim. Mostly because I loaded my boat stupidly and after I removed the ballast in front had no further problems. I hate to swim, but felt better when the other IK paddlers took their turn at least once. I didn't paddle Blossom Bar and just rode in the raft with Nancy Seamons. There have been 2 deaths there this season and I didn't want to stress out Nancy. She rowed it perfectly. It was lots of fun. We hiked, swam, ate, jumped off rocks into clear streams and used water cannons to spray passengers on the motor boat cruises on the lower part of the trip (they started it and finished it too when the boat put the stern toward us and gunned the jets, totally dousing us with a rooster tail of water). It was a great river.Last Friday, I did a quick day trip with Nancy on the Westwater section of the Colorado. It is III's and IV's too. I just was a ballast the first section with the rapids. I was thinking as we were flawlessly sailing through the rapids that I was going to have to go with less experiences rafters in order to see carnage. At Sock it to Me rapid, Nancy's oar hit a rock and popped out, we were swept in the wave train to "Magnetic Rock" and pinned against the rock. The raft started to flip while Nancy was struggling to get the oar in place. I yelled "High side!" so we threw ourselves on the edge of the tube and were able to keep upright while we pushed the raft slowly off the rock. One of the boats, came down and bumped us off at the end so all ended nicely but it was a thrill for a moment. I rowed the last 10 miles which was good experience for me since we are acquiring a new raft in Sept. I am excited to get Ric and I out there. I envision Ric rowing with all kinds of gear and me paddling along in a kayak. Sounds great, huh?!
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