Alaska Day 3

Ok, sorry for the delay in posting about the trip.  We were busy and I got sick so.....

Well, day 3 we all relaxed most of the day.  Brian finished building and filling the sandbox for the kiddos.  It looks great.  Patrick had the most fun, taking handfuls of sand and running over and throwing them in the kiddy pool.  That looked real good by the time we left!  Sorry, Steph and Brian.  Hope you got it cleaned out!

Later in the day, we rented a raft to float the river.  Now this is a good story.  So Steph asked me if we would be interested in kayaking down the river.  I said that would be cool, but I don't think so because I didn't want to fall over.  That water is FREEZING!!!  So she called around and someone told her to raft because that is almost impossible to flip.  I told her I didn't know how to row, and she said not a problem, all you have to do is float because of the current.  So I agreed and we packed up and left.  On the way to the river, we saw these moose...

Once, we got to the drop in point, we set up the raft.  And got started on our journey.  Steph and I were in front with Jacob and Toby between us.  Brian and Teddy were in back with Jamiee in the middle holding Sarah and Paddy.  As soon as we pushed off, Teddy said grab your oars!  What???  I said wait, no one told me I had to row.  He said what?  So he tried to give us a lesson in rowing once we were on the river.  We just keeping spinning in circles and couldn't stay in the middle of the current.  We ended up on the left side of the river heading straight for a tree that was going to behead us.  There was no way we were going to miss this tree, so I put down my oar, and knocked Toby down and then landed right next to him.  Steph somehow grabs the tree and is yelling at Jacob to fall down and we eventually end up on the other side of the tree.  Toby is soaking wet because there are little holes in the bottom of the boat to help it's buoyancy.  Sarah and Paddy are screaming.  I said, Ok, I'm done.  Wish we had a camera so you could see all this.  Looking back it is pretty funny, but during it not so much!  We had to continue at least until the next drop in/pull out point, so Jamiee and I traded places and of we went.  Teddy gave instruction before we started off again and it was better this time.  We mostly managed to stay in the middle of the current.  So we eventually got to the pull out point and we lived!  Here is a couple photos of the raft from before we left and Teddy trying to calm Paddy.

So, it was a great adventure.  Now, here are a few points.  If someone had said that it was sort of like river rafting without the rapids, I would have understood better and said, let's leave the kids at home.  I was more worried about their safety and the two little ones especially were not having fun at all.  And once we figured out what we were doing, if we didn't have the kids, I think I would have kept going.  Teddy, Brian, and Jamiee decided to continue down the river by themselves.  They had fun!  Here are a couple more pictures.  My boys throwing rocks in the river (a favorite past time of the Rozell kids) and Teddy leaving to float the river.