Colorado Day 2-we conquered the river

How's todays title? A little more exciting? I tried:c)

The girls didn't wake up as early on the second morning. We had sufficiently worn them out. I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that we also went for a 4 mile bike ride along the river. No pictures of that though. I couldn't snap and ride and they kept leaving me behind!

When I'd talked to my Dad about what we'd do while there he'd mentioned floating the river. There was a tube rental store in the town close to his house. After breakfast we loaded up and headed there. The store didn't have many cars around it so I knew we'd be getting a fast start. Turned out that was because they didn't open until 1! Hello. Do people not want to float before lunch? We drove into Fort Collins and tried another place. They only rented rafts. Hello. They let people raft unsupervised?? We finally ended up at a tire place and spent $100 for 5 inner tubes. We looked at it as investment. Lots of years of enjoyment for the pool. Right?

My Dad was afraid to damage his only pair of glasses so he offered to drop us off and be waiting at Picnic Rock to pick us up. What he ended up doing was stopping every half a mile and checking on us. Thank the good Lord. We certainly needed it.

But at first we were all excited and ready to go.But after the first set of rapids, 2 minutes in, Kennedy had flipped, scratched some places, and was crying. We worked through it and were off again. I must say though, I wish I'd done a little research. The river is very calm, and low, but still the rapid areas are rough. We ended up walking a few of them. Also, with two parents and three children, someone was left unattended. I was able to hold two hands through most of it though.

Now, some of you might have tubing experience and be questioning something right now. Yes. A broken coccyx, an inner tube, and a low river are not a good mix. Yes, I (and the other four) hit almost every rock in that river. There's only so long that you can hold your tushie up high enough before your abs scream at you and you relax just for a second.

About 1/4 of a mile in and McKinley had had enough. Luckily Dad was waiting with the sag truck (as Shawn called it) and she happily climbed in and took over the camera. Which meant I got several pictures that looked like this.I had my cell phone with me in case of emergencies and snapped this picture of the two who hung in there for the whole two mile, three hour trip.Can you believe the view? It almost made me forget the rocks. Luckily I had the bruises to remind me.After McKinley left Shawn had the most comfortable ride.Several more rapids, a bajillion more rocks, and we were glad to see the end. It had been an amazing experience though.

After our adventure was over we settled in for lunch on the bank at Picnic Rock. We didn't really know which one of them is the actual picnic rock, but they were all beautiful.Everyone else got right back in the water after lunch.Well, everyone except me. I did this.When we'd been floating we'd seen a ginormous rock that people were jumping off of. Reagan told her Daddy (not me you notice) that she wanted to jump off of it. They headed that way. I caught on, freaked out, and also headed that way. At this point McKinley decided she wanted to do it also. I don't think I was breathing at this point. They started the swim and climb and I stood in the shallow water and freaked out some more.

See why?They watched for a long time. The teenagers slowly went one by one, but each one spent a long time thinking about it. As Reagan started getting in place my head started shaking back and forth.I was scared. I kept yelling to Shawn to not let her do it. I really don't know if I helped sway her decision or not, but she decided not to do it.

This guy didn't do it either.What a relief. But as I was beginning to breath again McKinley started getting in place to go.

But before she went, Shawn decided to do it. I was imagining all sorts of horrible things as he dropped.But he made it. And immediately started the climb back up.

And then, my little fearful 13 year old went for it.As she came out of the water toward me she told me she was fine. She'd prayed all the way down. Guess she thought that would make me feel better. Kennedy was upset that she didn't get her bed. McKinley didn't think that was funny.

And as we watched this floated by,Shawn went for it again. I kept looking for the AFLAC duck.After all that we were all worn out and ready for some down time. We headed back to Dad's and laid around.And enjoyed a visit from this little lady. What a day!