Outdoor Adventures!!!!

We've been super busy this last week. Last Saturday we went white water rafting down the Snake River. I heard something about Hoback...canyon, I think it was. Not sure but it was up towards Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was super fun. Some friends of ours from church pitched the pay to rent a 9 man raft and a couple of those friends were certified guides on the river (very handy, especially when the river is running fast and deep - which it was). There is a company that takes pictures on one of the rapids. It was called Lunch Counter. (Who knew? They name rapids!) All around a very fun trip including when we hit a rapid our guide hadn't seen before :-).

That same Saturday Dana's brother Aaron and his family came to town from Colorado.

MONDAY
On Monday Aaron, his wife Michelle, Dana and I went kayaking down Henry's Fork of the Snake river (no rapids this time). Aaron and Michelle were in one boat and we were in another. Didn't take any pictures of that trip. Darn.

TUESDAY
Craters of the Moon is a National Preserve in Idaho. I don't think it really looks like the moon but who am to say? I've never been to the moon. There was a ton of lava rock and neat caves to go into. Aaron and Michelle's daughter, Haley, loved the caves! She was a little explorer going through openings that noone else in the group could fit through (Shown in the picture with the caption: Haley the cave monkey).

"Haley the Cave Monkey"


THURSDAY
Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Family Reunion at Dana's uncle's place.
In Jackson we wondered around looking at the neat shops and took a few pictures. We found a bear chair - very cool. That night we went to the reunion and had huckleberry ice cream. Yum! A lot of Dana's dad's family was there. There are so many of them that it's taken me some time to meet and get to know everyone. It's actually proven to be kind of tricky with the littler ones because they change so much from year to year. I love meeting more and more of Dana's extended family.

Bear chair!

In front of the antler arches

Aaron and Michelle in front of the antler arches

FRIDAY
Aaron has been into guns lately and brought one from Colorado that he wanted to fix up. By Thursday all of the parts he had ordered had made their way here to Idaho and that night Dana and Aaron worked on getting it all put together for shooting on Friday. Also a couple of weeks ago Dana bought a stock for his .12 gauge shotgun. It's an adjustable re-coil reducing stock. That means the back end of the gun can be made short enough for me to shoot more comfortably and the kick back when I shoot the gun is bareable. This was our first time trying out the new stock and it worked beautifully at first, but by the end of the shooting session the stock was wobbely and we both had little rasberries on our cheeks from where the gun would hit us in the face.

Friday was the end of our adventures with Aaron, Michelle, and Haley the cave monkey. We'll miss them but we hope to get to visit them in Colorado before our summer break ends.