FLoAt TrIp 2009

This past weekend we went on our annual Float Trip down to the San Rafael Swell. It's a big group of friends that get together to float down the San Rafael River on tubes and drink beer. It's a lot of fun and this year was better than last. The river was much higher than last year (no picking your tube up and walking to the next part of the river) and flowing much faster. Last year it took aroudn 3-4 hours to get down to our camp and this year it took about 2 hours.

The first couple videos are of the Slip N Slides into the river. Of course, the dangers of sliding into a river are rocks, landing wrong, and just plain fun (atleast for boys). It was pretty damn funny to watch them go down it. They were trying to do flips and some were sliding down and going through tubes before hitting the water. No videos of that though!

Of course the first day we are down there my allergies decided to knock me flat down. I think I had almost every drug known to us for allergies in me and yet still couldn't control them. It all started on the drive down and continued to get worse as the day went on....Zyrtec, Claritin, Benadryl, no help! I did actually float the river that day and did okay on the water but as soon as I was out of the water, the runny nose and sneezing came back. I pretty much just layed in my tent away from everyone and kept my tissue box by me. I hate allergies! Stupid wind, dust and cotton from the cottonwood trees! Of course as soon as I decide to go to bed on Friday night, our zipper on our tent decides to stop working. Well at that same moment, the wind picked up and was blowing dust everywhere. Needless to say, we were not happy with the situation. I didn't get any pics of our day on Friday due to the above situation. So the rest are from Saturday and Sunday.

Below is my brother after our first trip down the river on Saturday.

In the far back a game of horseshoes is going on. I, of course, sat under my sunshade out of dusts way so I could watch the game. Mindi and Dom doing some sunbathing. Wish I could do that....but I am tan for my coloring.

Steve enjoying some pasta salad while watching the game.

Sitting in the shade! This year I decided to man up and drink some beer down there. I enjoyed myself and had a lot of fun. I do open up a lot more when I drink.

This was our beautiful view. It was beautiful all day long and then decided to get stormy later on.

Brett and Juice aka Julie

Loaf, Jon and Luke

Brett, Allison, and Bug aka Jocelyn

Luke and Big Jugs aka Becky

Steve pregnant with little Jesus

Beautiful rainbow after a little bit of stormy weather. We didn't get rained on though.

Our drive home in our hot Taco! Love that snorkel....oh yeah and the driver! My brother was in the back seat not feeling too hot from his partying the night before.

Allison, Becky and me

All in all, we had a fabulous time. I enjoy seeing all these people once a year. Some I see more than others but it was a lot of fun. Our first day we floated down the river, I was the last to get down the river. I don't know why my tube decided to be so slow and hit the dead parts of the water but it did. The next day we floated twice. We decided to go down as a group and actually hold on to each other. I think that makes you go much faster. My brother has a raft he goes down in and I swear I thought it was going to pop when the group hit a tree branch sticking out of the water and he happened to take the brunt of the impact. Half the group had to go one way and the other the other way just to get around the tree. The second trip down the river, Becky and Allison had arrived so it was fun to have them on the river too. Poor Becky, her tube popped half way down the river. But we all survived the trip...except for Drew's truck.