Tighten Your Life Jacket, Natalie!

To add one more weekend trip into my already crazy summer, a small group of my friends headed up to Jackson Hole Friday night to raft the Snake River on Saturday morning. This was a pretty last minute trip, so Mackenzi and I were the only girls in a group of nine. No complaints here.

Riding family style with Adam and Justin:
(According to my friend Brooke, Justin looks like my boyfriend in this picture and Adam looks like the third wheel).


Mackenzi and Ratha crammed in the small back seat:


We hit the annoying construction that has been going on right outside Evanston and Justin and Adam had to be the alpha males and figure out what was going on:


I have no idea where we camped, so don't ask me. But we laid out our sleeping bags (and our blow up queen size mattress - Mackenzi and I sleep in style) and slept in the 40 degree crisp night air.
We woke up and headed for the river a few miles away. We geared up, took a few pictures....

Me and Mackenzi:


Ratha and Adam (Or after Brooke saw this picture - Dumb and Dumber):


From left to right -
Mackenzi, Adam, Justin, Me, Adam, Sammy, Brady, Ratha, and Brav in the front.


Mackenzi, Me and Adam:


Rafting the river was a blast! Some of the guys were on kayaks and the rest of us were on an inflatable dingy that Justin names, The Taco - because that is what it was. It would bend in half at the slightest rapid.

I almost drowned, along with pulling Justin under with me at one point. After rafting the biggest rapid of the day, we decided to float down in it. I didn't really think it through and thought this was a brilliant idea. No, i didn't realize that my life jacket wasn't tighten and that my helmet was too big for me. I just thought it sounded fun. Fun stopped the second I couldn't see the rapid because my life jacket was drowning me.

We were floating (more like drowning) down the rapid all linked together. Justin was in front of me. In my sheer panic, I grabbed on to him as tight as I could. I swallowed about 1 gallon of water but made it through without crying or having a panic attack.

All in all, it was a blast! I would do it again in a heartbeat.