Braving the rapids...

Ah, isn't vacation fun?

We took Jessie and Derik on a white water rafting trip yesterday up at the BSA high adventure base camp near Salmon, Idaho. There were eight of us on the trip--my father-in-law Don, my brother Jim, my sister-in-law Tammie, my brother-in-law Dustin, Kyle, Jess, Derik, and me.

After an enjoyable first hour or so, our guide steered us onto a rock and into a whirlpool, the boat ending up vertical instead of horizontal (though it didn't tip all of the way over, thank goodness). Almost everyone was vaulted from the boat into the rapids, and it was dang scary! Jess, Kyle, and I somehow managed to stay in the raft (but then Jess and Kyle were thrown from the raft a few minutes later, and Jess swallowed a bunch of water). Jim, Don, and Tammie were all caught by the whirlpool's undertow and thought they were goners, though the river was nice enough to eventually spit them out--cold, half drowned, and shaken, but still alive. Dustin ended up under the raft in the whirlpool and was the one who pushed us free. Derik managed to swim unharmed through the rapids, and we picked him up down stream a ways. Apparently I, with all of my mother instincts kicking in, repeatedly screamed "where's Derik?!!?" as we were righting the raft and trying to retrieve people, not stopping until Jess pointed him out bobbing along past the rapids down stream; I don't remember doing it.

After a few minutes that seemed like a nightmarish eternity, we were able to retrieve everyone and finish the trip, but it was one heck of a scary experience! I don't know how willing either of my children will be to go on a raft trip again any time soon. Derik says the trip was fun, but if he ever does it again, he'd like to do it on a calmer river. The jury is still out for Jess on whether or not she'll willingly ever step foot in another rubber raft for the purpose of braving the rapids. I can understand that.

The weird thing is that it was still a fun trip--minus the almost drowning part--and it was extremely kind of Don to set up the trip for us. Today I'm simply phenomenally grateful that everyone's alive, so grateful I can't begin to express it! Talk about guardian angels!!!