It was really nice to have a slow pace for the morning.  Today, we are going rafting on the Arkansas River with the kids’ Physical Education teacher, Mr. Dinkle who is a guide at River Runners at Browns Canyon in Buena Vista, CO.  We had a chance meeting when we were out shopping for our trip and when we mentioned our trip he invited us to come see him, so we worked it into our plans to have an adventure with him!

After all the heat and sun we’ve had while hiking and adventuring lately, the one day we plan to be on the water is predicted to be much cooler with scattered thunderstorms!  Just as we were preparing to leave for our river adventure, it started to pour.  And…we must have left the sunroof open.  Thankfully, we noticed right away and no harm was done.

I had called Momba to let her know that we put her down as our emergency contact and to keep her phone charged up today!  We chatted for a while, caught up and will look forward to seeing her & Dadoo soon upon our return.  The weather looked ominous, but we headed over to River Runners and hoped for the best – and it was!

We got ourselves geared up in wetsuits, jackets and helmets.  The kids squealed when they caught sight of Mr. Dinkle and went running for hugs.  It was certainly nice to see a familiar face!  We loaded up on the bus and that in itself was exciting because our kids don’t ride a school bus.  We got our safety talk and climbed into our raft with much chatter and storytelling.

We started off in the rain.  The water in the river was low due to little snowfall over winter, so the run was more low key than it normally would be.  We had fun ramming another raft, surfing on a rock, and the sun decided to come out.  Andy and Ethan jumped in a couple times, and at one point Ethan pushed Andy in from a rock instead of jumping in with him!

The river run was over all too soon, and the kids were begging for more.  Ethan declared that he will someday be a river guide so he can raft every day like Mr. Dinkle.  We all piled back in the bus and we asked Stan to join us for dinner back at camp.  It was the last night of our big adventure and we prepared a rare camping feast of steak, ribs, stuffed jalepenos, salad and a Mexican rice type thing in the Instapot …which I forgot about as it was depressurizing.

After dinner we made “s’more cones” and sat around our little rocket stove as our campfire.  It was one of the few times on the trip that we actually sat around in our camp chairs and it was such a treat to have company and conversation.  I’m pretty sure it was the highlight of the trip for the kids.  They were so tickled to see their teacher and Ethan even got a hat to match his.  I’m so thankful to have shared the day together, and know it is something they will not soon forget!