Rafting the Snake River!

 This past weekend we went on a whirlwind trip up to Jackson Hole. We went with Preston's parents, Jenna and Skylar, and Rachel. We went to Jackson to go see the Bar J Wranglers perform, and to also raft the snake river with Preston's cousin as our guide.

Andrea is Preston's cousin and her husband, Andy, is a professional river rafting guide. They and their 4 kids live in Jackson Hole.

Andy had just gotten back from a 2 week commercial rafting trip down at the Grand Canyon. Yes folks, this guy is legit.

We had such a fun weekend, the Bar J Wranglers were funny as always, the rafting was killer fun and Jackson Hole was gorgeous.

Here is the Kent fam in front of Andrea and Andy's cute house right before we left to go rafting.

Don't worry, Dave wore swim trunks. And a button up cowboy shirt. What the?

We were so glad that the newlyweds (Skylar & Jenna) came with us!

 Here is our awesome river guide, Andy. He was so much fun and without him we probably would have died.

Our rafting experience turned into quite the adventure. We went down the river 2 times and the difference between the first and second runs couldn't have been greater. The first time was lovely and calm, the sun was shining, only Rachel fell into the water, and Skylar and I even jumped willingly into the water. The second time was much more thrilling.

We ate lunch after the first run and then noticed some storm clouds gathering. We still wanted to go so we all got our life jackets on and launched the boat and by that time, it was raining. By the time we were floating away from shore, it was POURING. We were drenched. It started to rain harder. Then it started to hail! It hurt!

I was sitting at the front of the boat on the second run and in the middle of some rapids I got thrown off the boat and into the water. After coughing up half the river, I got back in the boat and we continued on.

Then came the Big Kahuna Rapids. Oh boy. On our first run we went through it with only minor problems, Vicky just fell backward in the boat but we all stayed in. On the second run however, we must have hit is just right. I'll never forget that last sight of the giant reverse waterfall before me. Skylar and I were in the front and we got thrown out of the raft first. Then Jenna. Then Rachel. Then Andrea. And even ANDY fell out of the boat! Guess who that left? Lucky little Preston and 2 year old Astoria. 

How on earth they stayed in is a complete miracle. We are probably going to buy the video of the whole experience from a company that videos the rafters on the river so that we can see exactly how it happened.

Then we all had to get back in the boat before hitting the next set of rapids and somehow we did it. It was crazy. So memorable. So funny. We talked about this adventure for the rest of the day and I'm sure we'll be talking about it years from now. By the time we were getting out of the river the sun was shining again. Boy did we love Jackson.

Here we are all after the ordeal. We survived!