Motorcycle trip and River Rafting!!

First things first, Dan had been wanting to take Cade on a motorcycle trip. The original plan was to take a 4 day weekend and go to Mount Rushmore. It's only 8 hours from us, so if you split it up it's not a terribly long trip on a motorcycle. But as it got closer to when they were supposed to go things just weren't quite lining up for a long trip. We decided instead to book our rafting trip that we got off of Groupon, and then have Cade and Dan take their motorcycle trip down to the rafting site and we'd meet them there the next day. It was only 90 minutes away so it was the perfect beautiful drive and the campsite was minutes away from the rafting site. Here are the pics dan took of his time with Cade!

We really try to have experiences with our kids that will turn into memories, not just buy things. I know they had a great time together and it will be something they'll both remember!


And.... Another bucket list item crossed off for 2015!

We have been wanting to go river rafting for awhile now. Anytime we were traveling we'd pass the river rafters and say, "That's looks like fun! We should do that some time."

Well we finally did.

But as a preface, I have to admit that I was really really nervous. See, it rained HARD the entire month of May. Not just passing afternoon storms, but all day rain. Colorado had wildfires the first two years we were here, then last year we got what they called the 100 year rains. But then what are these called? Not sure, just torrential and non-stop.  This meant a few things: There's still lots of snow on the mountains, and the river levels were record high. The few days leading up to our scheduled rafting trip several people died in the Arkansas River-- the river we were going to be rafting in. Scary!  The company we were rafting with told us that last year the highest the river got to was 4800 cubic feet per second (CFS), and that was only for a few hours. When we got there the river was almost at 5400 CFS and had been there for days, with still 100% snow pack, meaning over the next few weeks it would only get faster and higher. Ack!

I asked them if they honestly thought our boys would be safe, and they promised a modified route and felt extremely confident that the boys would be fine. Dan felt good about it and I trusted his gut. I mean, I'd never even done this before so I was nervous anyways.

Let me tell you, it was fast, it was cold, there were class II and III rapids, but we had SO much fun! The boys were laughing and truly enjoying themselves the entire time!

Pictures!

Yes, we rafted under that bridge!

duck!!!

I love the look on the boys' faces on that one. Here's a close-up!

We will definitely do this again! If you're in the area, check out Rock N Row rafting. They were GREAT with the kids, knowledgeable, helped us feel safe and have fun. Their prices and service were awesome!

Loving our summer so far! :)