Independance Day 09

What a fabulous weekend! Jeff and I went camping in the Uinta National Forest with some of our really good friends! We had an awesome time, the food was GREAT, the dogs had a blast chasing squirrels and eating rawhides... I learned how to use our dutch oven and cooked my award winning chili.

It was so good to meet a few new friends and hang out with no pressure, no responsibilities, and no drama. It was the most perfect way to spend the holiday.

Sunday morning, we packed up our camp and headed to the Provo River for some rafting/tubing with the dogs. Russ and Elena have two big yellow labs, Nala and Aspen, and of course we have Rocky and Kaia, all 4 weigh right around 100 lbs give or take. :) I purchased life jakets for my two - even though they probably didn't need them, they were good for peace of mind though.

We got to the rental place and that's when the hilarious chaos began. Imagine 4 big dogs, super excited to be out of the car, two without leashes, the other two with make shift rope leashes... the van is leaving, hurry up, get your life jackets, the dog's life jackets, some cold beverages and HURRY into the van! HURRY! I was pretty stressed and started to nag, okay, yell at Jeff because he was diddly dallying in the trailer doing gosh knows what (we all really know, right??) We finally made it into the van, 4 dogs and 6 people. We were all thinking - what the hell did we get ourselves into, this is pure madness!

We get to the launch spot up the road and exit the van, remember 2 dogs don't have leashes and they are very large and strong - all they want is to get in the river, which is moving at a good speed - not as calm and lazy as we had imagined, so they are pulling us all over the place. It's finally our turn to get in the raft and launch away. We lifted all of the dogs in, and away we went.

Nobody mentioned to me that I would have to row, I don't know how to row, and I had no idea that was part of the deal. Needless to say, husbands were freaking out, dogs were trying to jump out of the raft, we were crashing into all sorts of branches and rocks. Augh! Admidst all of the chaos we couldn't help but laugh our butts off! It was such a great time! If someone could have recorded the fiasco, we would have won the big money on America's Funniest Home Videos for sure. I haven't had that much fun in a VERY long time. I can't wait to do it all again! Provo River here we come! :)