Jackson Hole: Take Two!

This last week I got to go to Jackson Hole again. I know I went two weeks ago, but Jackson is so wonderful, I don’t mind going twice in a summer (honestly, I wouldn’t mind living there for the entire summer!) This time I went with my parents, my little brother, my SIL Liz, niece Madison, and my friend Bethany. Unfortunately, the rest of our family couldn’t come due to work, but we still tried to have fun ;)

We left on Wednesday morning and arrived in Jackson late in the afternoon. The trip was a bit long (and filled with lots of construction and accidents) but we finally got there! That night it was over to the Bar-J Wranglers for a yummy dinner and a great show!

We woke up early the next day to get ready to hit the Snake River. Maddie kept us all entertained as we got breakfast ready.

While our family generally takes a raft down the river, my dad and I have always wanted to try rafting the river in duckies (little two person rafts). Since we had less people with us on this trip we decided that it was the perfect opportunity! Dad and Eric went down in one, and Bethany and I went down in the other (the duckies really didn’t appeal to Mom or Liz, so Bethany came along to be my rafting buddy) Here we are before we set off on our adventure!

I have always loved river rafting, but never been in charge of guiding the boat! Bethany had never rafted the river before, so it was my responsibility to get us in the right place and not get us killed! I got quite the workout and ended up putting us in lots of eddies! On our first trip down I didn’t see a rock in front of us, and we ended up stuck on top of the rock! My dad and brother were further downstream, and couldn’t stop laughing. Right at the end of the first trip we hit a rough rapid sideways that almost threw both of us out of the boat, but just Bethany was lucky enough to go swimming!

By the second trip down we had gotten the hang of things and enjoyed the rapids! It was awesome! I will definitely be going down the river in one of these things again!

That night we went back to camp and enjoyed tin foil dinners and peach cobbler. I love camping food! I don’t think it gets much better!

We headed home Friday morning. It was a short trip, but very enjoyable!

Blue Lips

This week was my YSA Ward's summer activity. Around 50 of us spent three days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jackson is one of my favorite places, so I was really excited to go! We left early Thursday morning, and spent the afternoon setting up camp at the Big Elk campground. It sits on a lake that I never knew existed, and it is gorgeous!

On our way to dinner that night we drove through the center of Jackson and took pictures at the famous elk horn arch. I am the brilliant one who forgot to take off my sunglasses :)

We went to dinner at one of very most favorite places - Bar J Wranglers. For anyone who hasn't been there, make it a goal to go! They feed you tons of awesome cowboy grub, then do a show where they sing cowboy songs and make the audience laugh like crazy! Most of my group hadn't been before, so it was fun to see their reactions! The next day my sides hurt from laughing so much. I love that place!

Friday we rafted the Snake River. There were three rafts with 10 spaces in each, so we ran the river twice so everyone could have a chance. The first group to leave ran the river at 9:20 am. I drew an "R" so I got to go with this group. Though the day was beautiful, it was SO COLD that early in the morning. But we still got in and set off.

Though I have rafter the river several times (and fallen into the river several times) I have never gotten as wet as I got during this trip! Each boat had water guns, but found that the buckets meant to bail water out of the rafts were far more conducive to drenching the other boats! I was sitting up front and ended up getting the brunt of many bucketfuls of water thrown in our directing. We brought 2 other rafts into our water fight (in addition to the three from my ward), so it got pretty good! During the trip people kept telling me that my lips were blue. All I could think was "Of course they are! It's cold!".

The second group left in the afternoon, and since there was space I got to go again! We set off around 1:30. Though it was warmer, as soon as we got in the raft someone looked at me and said, "Katie, your lips are blue!" Shocker. It was a comment I heard over and over that day! Apparently my lips turn blue very easily.

The second trip down had water fights, though not near as intense as the first group. The river was ALOT rougher the second time down (funny how it can change so quickly!) so a lot more time was spent navigating the rapids. The "Lunch Counter" rapid was AWESOME (see picture above)! I was sitting on the back of the raft and had an awesome view. I always sit in the front of the raft and had no idea the back was so much fun! Towards the end of our ride we hit a rough spot of water where three people got thrown out and we lost a paddle. Chaos ensued. It was great fun! I love running the river!

That night we had dutch oven for dinner (YUM!) and warmed up around a HUGE bonfire. Then we had an awesome fireside.

Since we were camping on a lake we also had a boat with us. While one group was rafting the river, another group was water skiing and tubing. This morning I went out on the boat for a little while. It was so beautiful and relaxing! I was sitting at the back of the boat when someone went to throw the rope to the guy who was going to go water skiing. Somehow, when the rope was thrown out, it managed to wrap itself around my neck twice (don't ask, no one knows quite how it happened). It didn't throw me off the boat or strangle me or anything, but it did give me a nice rope burn. Try explaining to people why you have a rope burn around your neck! :)

We drove home this afternoon and I slept blissfully most of the way! I love Jackson!