Rafting- Last day in Stanley

I was cold last night again.
At least the girls slept well.  This was the 'pack up and leave' day.  So we got up, had breakfast, and started to pack up. 
We were in a hurry and a flurry and then by around 11:30am had gotten most of everything packed up.  We didn't need to be at our mates place until 1pm and so started mellowing out and just doing things a little quieter.
The kids played and we slowly gathered the rest of the things around camp together in our cars.
We decided to go to our friends (Heather and Dave) place a little early and just hang out and run around.
When we got there we met the guides and got fitted for life jackets.  Then we just played.
Here's their website below:
http://www.therivercompany.com/
Emiko was too little to go and so I stayed behind with her and knitted, surfed the web, talked and played with her.  It was a nice break and super relaxing.  Sure I would've rather been rafting but it wasn't a bad thing to just get to sit and relax for a wee while.

Dru offered to stay behind this year with Emiko but I refused his offer.
Now call me strange, but here are my thoughts....................worst case scenario.
If something (highly unlikely) were to go down out there on the river, I know Dru would do everything (including dying) to save our children (not that I want that to happen) For whatever reason (crazy) that gives me HUGE comfort when sending my children out on things like this.  Dru's a quick thinker, smart, fit and committed to our kids, I'm not as talented in some of these areas.  I also can't ask that of the guide, or the Johnsons. 
Dru looked at me weird and said "Alright", checked again a few times to see if I was serious and then let me stay behind with Emiko.  I'm sure we'll get to go next year.
Like these crazy thoughts into my weird mind?
I know you all think I'm a free range parent, which I am, I'm no helicopter, but I'm not a complete 'free range' when it comes to certain things..............like water activities.
I DO love my kids AND want them to be safe and so will sometimes take the necessary steps to make sure that's going to happen ;)

Photo's for your enjoyment.
Johnson crew.

Johnson/Nakaya crew.
Love Takeshi's face in the above shot.

I love how's Dru's mostly serious and Luke is laughing and having fun.
I'm sure Dru was having fun but the pictures are pretty funny.

There's a smile from Dru.

They had this awesome hammock/swing in their front porch that I hung out on.  I need one of these.  I'd honestly fall asleep.  It was so nice.

When they got back we purchased a couple of T-shirts and said our goodbye's to each other.  The Johnsons' were heading back to slc and we were going the opposite direction to Boise.
We also gave all around hugs to our mates, Heather and Dave and thanked them for their kindness this weekend.  It was really nice to have them around and help us out so much.
It was sad to leave, I'm not gonna lie.
It was SO MUCH FUN to be there and I LOVED it.
We made great time coming home and went out to an anniversary/birthday dinner for our family.
More on that in another post.
That's the END people.  That's the Stanley trip for 2014 and we loved ALMOST every minute of it.
Whoooooohooooooo for camping and having fun.

Saturday in Stanley

So today was a good day.
Everyone slept in until around 9:30am which is unheard of right?
 I think everyone was a lot warmer/tired this night and it showed.
We got up and made some breakfast and cleaned up a little.
Then the Johnson's took care of our children while Dru and I headed out at around 11:30am to go mt biking on the Fisher Creek loop trail.
We were excited.

The trail is almost 17.5 miles round trip and worth every mile.
You park your car at the bottom of the trail then get on your bike and head down the road until the turn off.
Then it's a double trail up to the 'real' trailhead.
It was a nice ride on the double trail until right at the end when we got close to the 'real' trail head in the pic above.
That was some of the steepest riding I've ever done.  Luckily I'd been mt biking in Utah at 4 to 6 thousand feet and so I was somewhat adjusted.
Stanley is around 6000 feet + and so that gave me a slight advantage from just coming from Boise and it's 2000 feet.
I wish I'd gotten some video footage of us climbing that.  Amazing.
Once we got to the trail head we had some of the scariest downhill I've done.  I kept thinking 'don't die, don't crash, take your time, no rush'
There was a cliff on one side and the wind pushing me towards it and the trail was less than a foot wide the whole section.
There was a technical section that I took my time down as well.

But then we got down that first part and it was easy breezy for a while.  We got to look at the beautiful scenery and take it all in.
The good thing about a loop is NO ONE'S COMING UPHILL.  Man I LOVE that fact.  There's nothing worse get getting a good grove and some hiker/runner is coming up with their unleashed dogs and you've gotta figure out a way not to give them a handle bar in the guts.
Our mate said that this used to be WAY more beautiful but the fires got to it last year.  Sad!!
I still thought it was amazing.

Stopping to take a selfie in the beautiful mountains.
Love this man.

He kept taking these pictures of me.  Sorry about all the butt shots man.
Then Dru and I took a couple of videos of the down hill and some of the riding, for your viewing pleasure.

I can't believe how fast Dru is on the downhill.  I was scared for him and he's not quite as fast as his mate up here who used to be a downhill racer.  I just can't believe the speed that Dru and Bo and these men get down these trails.  It's scary and I'm glad I'm not witnessing it actually.
This was my first time watching him do a little downhill and I'd prefer not to know.

 

SIDE TANGENT:  Dru went mt biking last night with his buddies.  These guys are legends on the bike.  They all have this app called 'strava' and for a lot of their down hill they're in the top 10 and Bo is in the top 5 on the Boise trails.  They're all pretty awesome and it's great fun for Dru.

Last night they decided to shuttle and do an awesome downhill ride 4 times over.  They were loving it.  There were 2 crashes and one flatty.

Dru was one of those crashes.  He flew over his handlebars and landed square on his head.  Thank goodness for helmets or he'd be toast.  He walked away with a few scratches and that's it.  Then he shuttled down 3 more times and did his fastest times!!!

Honestly people..................................men are crazy and I'm glad that Dru is alright and I wasn't there.  There's some things that are better that I just don't know or see for myself.

Anyway this ride was one of my most favourite rides I've done.  It's so beautiful and a good variation.

Then next downhill part was simply amazing.  

Dru and I had so much fun.  We hope to be able to do this trail every time we come up.  But that'll all depend on babysitters now won't it.

Thanks Johnsons'.

We came back to camp and had something to eat and then went down to the water again to go for a swim.
But there was some excitement that was going on.
This family pulled in and their car started on fire.
So people started getting water/fire extinguishers and trying to put it out.
It kept burning for a LONG time.  People started getting scared the car would explode.  Dru said that it's highly unlikely but all the same we kept the kids back and allowed the adults to figure it out.

I've never seen anything like it.
The mother had taken her baby out and put it on the side of the car.  Dru took the baby and brought it over to me far away from the car as well as the other two children.  I stayed with the kids then had a talk to the mother for a while.
You can see the fire {below} in this picture.  The mother was a little distraught (understandable) and so I gave her a hug and Dru's phone and she started making calls to various people to try and figure out what they wanted to do and how they were going to get home.
The firetruck and people didn't get there until it was all over and the car was safe.  The majority of the work, if not all of it, was done by strangers and onlookers.

 

After a while we got back to swimming and having fun and got these pictures of Emiko being cute.

I guess we can't get enough of this girl.  We got home and had a great dinner by the Johnson's and then dropped the gear off to our friends and hung out for a little while.

We then hung out around the fire and talked and laughed all night. Yuki was in with us this night and so Emiko had a buddy.  It worked out fine.  I think the kids were pretty tired.  It only took a wee while and they were all asleep.
I loved talking around the campfire.  It's a highlight of camping that I look forward to every time I camp.
Today was awesome.
Love Stanley/camping/Johnsons

Stanley camping trip (Thurs/Fri)

So I had around 24 hours to unpack, repack, wash dirty clothes and get some kind've 'order' (year right) for our camping trip we were planning for Thurs through Sunday in Stanley Idaho with the Johnsons.
We were excited, but there was a lot to do and after we came home, quickly ate, took Masaru to rugby, re-packed the car, fell into bed, I simply had the next day to figure things out.  Let's say it wasn't pretty and today (Tuesday) I'm still sitting in a house that looks like a tornado hit it.  So if you'd like to feel good about your housekeeping skillz, come on over and view the mess for your self esteem pleasure.

Dru had a meeting that went OVER on Thursday night and it sucked.  Fortunately the Johnsons had gone to Stanley SUPER early and were there at 11am and quickly were able to save us a double camping spot.  Someone's 'chair' was there but the ranger took it out and gave it to them.  Lucky man cause the camp site was awesome and so perfect for us.
We were really grateful the Johnsons did that for us because we didn't end up getting to Stanley until around 9pm.
They'd set up camp and it was still light so we were able to set things up and play for a bit until we got the kids down for bed.
The Johnsons have a HUGE tent and so all our kids bar Emiko slept in there with them.
In the morning when we talked everyone was cold except for Takeshi and Dru.  I'm not surprized about  Dru but I am about Takeshi.  That kid is always cold, but I guess he had enough clothes and blankets to be fine.  Who knew.  Yuki never keeps her blankets on, so no surprizes there.  She maybe a thrasher.  She's never got her blankets on.  Emiko seemed to be ok.  We'd dressed her in her snow suit with PJ's underneath.  All the kids had double layers and liners etc.  I guess we had to reassess for the next night.
I was freezing as well and so I got up and thought I'd been run over by a bulldozer.  I felt like crap.  I'm getting too old, but I like camping so sucked it up. 

Look at this awesome hammock that the Johnsons brought with them.  It was a hit and it was my goal to have a turn in it and you know what?  I never went in it the whole time.  Sad.  But everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

We got up and had a sweet breakfast that the Johnson's brought and played for a bit until we'd warmed up a little.

We had enough firewood for Luke not to have to start searching the woods and knocking down trees.  So he could relax a little.

We were camping close to a river and so that was a hit for the kids.  It wasn't deep and had this little cove were they could catch fish and play and have fun.

Sitting and watching the kids play.

It was around 25 in the night (Fahrenheit) (-3 Celsius)and then during the day would get up to 90 (32 C)   Crazy difference right?  So once it was hot we went down to our mates place and picked up some kayaks and paddle boards and headed to the lake to have some fun.
Man it was so great to have some toys to play with.  Pure entertainment.  We all loved it.

Great shot of almost everyone.  Luke and Emi on the side there, Tess and Kate on the paddle board with Masaru in the Kayak and Dru with Takeshi in the other Kayak and Yuki and Ella in the front on a blow up toy that held it's air for a couple of seconds hahahahaha

Look at this place!!!  So pretty. I took a panoramic shot {below}

Dru on the paddle board.

Luke being a great cuzzie.

Takeshi and I hanging out.  Great shot of my 'strong' legs ;)

Dad taking the family on a Kayak trip across the lake.

Luke and Masaru having fun together.  Like I said in the Lagoon post, Masaru loves Luke and Luke is good to him.

They decided to play a little frisbee together.

I love this shot of Takeshi just relaxing on the paddle board while Auntie Kwistin does all the hard work.

Emiko had the only life jacket and goggles.  Hahaha she cracks me up.

We had such a great time out there and stayed till close to dinner time.  We had enough time to pack up, come home and get started on some food for the night.

After dinner we had a little birthday cake for Ella and Takeshi (more on that on another post) and then decided to go listen to some 'live' music and get a WONDERFUL ice cream from the local place there.  Here the kids are testing Chris' patience levels.  It was relaxing and really nice.
We dropped the Kayaks and paddle boards off to our mates place and then headed back to the camp ground.
We got the kids in bed then stayed up and talked around the camp fire for a while then headed to bed ourselves.
The sleep was MUCH better for me and I was warm the whole night.  Yuki got up in the night though with a sore leg and so Kristin had to get up and give her some medicine.  I felt bad about that, so we changed the sleeping plans for the next night.
What a great day.