Biggie's Annual River Trip

So, I realize its almost 1am as I am beginning this post. But seriously, I've been so busy lately that if I don't do it tonight, another week will pass by and I'll be more than 2 weeks behind in my posting! And I'm sure you wonderful readers would hate that! :)

You may be wondering about the title. Let me explain. At the beginning of July I received a phone call from my friend Amber. She was inviting me to join a bunch of other people for an annual river trip. She only knew a few people herself, but the guy in charge, Brad Biggerstaff (aka: Biggie) told her she could invite as many more girls as she wanted. So, I of course went! Well, Biggie has been doing this river trip every summer for about 10 years and his dad owns the boats, so we have to pay him a very minimal amount to cover the cost of hauling all the equipment up to Alpine, WY and then we do our own food! Talk about a great deal!

We arrived late Thursday night and set up camp in the dark. That was exciting. The next day we ran the Snake River twice and went out for dinner, then back to camp. There were only about 20 of us who were there that first day, but Friday night our numbers doubled! As a result, most of us only got the chance to run the river once on Saturday, some people were lucky enough to go twice. Saturday night, we drove up to Jackson Hole, went to dinner, got some ice cream, then went to the Cowboy Bar for some country dancin! Let me tell you, drunk people can provide some great entertainment!

This river trip was a great weekend and I hope I'm lucky enough to go again next year. If not, I'm sure I'll find some other fun thing to do. Enjoy the pictures!


Day 1, Run 1


Day 1, Run 2



Day 2, Run 2 (my only Saturday run, but so worth the wait!)


And yes, I did pay for copies of these pictures from the Float O Graphs place. But hey, I wasn't about to take my camera on board and they did such a nice job with the photography!

Update on My Mother

Many of you have called to ask how my mother is doing, so I thought it was probably time I post something about it.

On July 9 she had surgery to remove a portion of the tumor for a biopsy. Last week when my parents met with the oncologist, they learned that the sample of the tumor which was removed showed no results of even being a tumor according to the tests at the pathology lab! How does that work? We were not quite sure how to react to this news except wait for their appointment with the neurosurgeon.

Well the appointment with the neurosurgeon took place on Monday and at that time they decided to do another surgery on August 12. They are hopeful to remove a good portion during this surgery, about 80%, and send some of it to the pathology lab again to get new results. Once the pathology lab informs the doctors of what type of tumor it is, they will know which type of chemotherapy will be best. It is likely that chemo will be the next step in her battle after the surgery. However, there is still the possibility of the gamma or cyber knife.

There are some definite risks or side effects with all of these future procedures so I ask for your continued prayers for my mom. Our family is continuing in faith and trust in the Lord. But is important at this time to try to keep up the intensity of faith that was shown at the beginning. We want the Lord to know that we will do all we can to keep our mother with us and for her to keep all her mobility! Thank you for your love and support. My family appreciates it greatly, and we have all been touch to learn just how wonderful our friends and family are. Thank you.

Luke 8:50 "Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole."

Construction

I just have to say that Salt Lake is under construction. And I don't mean one section of it; I mean ALL OF IT! I'm pretty sure there is not one good way for me to get to or from work and completely avoid construction. Regardless of which route I take, I hit construction-- I-80, I-215, Sugarhouse, Van Winkle, 33rd South, oh and 45th south doesn't work either because it bottlenecks at 13th E. Most of the construction I pass is due to the bridge replacements on the freeway, but do they have to do all of I-80 at once? All these closures and detours and... Ugh, I am so ready for it to be done. The one I will be most grateful for when it reopens is the 700 East exit from westbound I-80.


I work on 700 E so that was the easiest way to get to work, but now I have to exit at 1300 E and fight all the other traffic because there weren't enough lanes to begin with, but now that's where they're building the new bridges and even redoing that overpass too! It is such a mess.

Utah. You can't get there from here.

Reunion Recap

Last week, we had my entire immediate family in town for a family reunion... good timing with my mom's condition, right? Anyway, we did a lot of fun things together for three days. Monday we went to Snowbird and had fun doing a small hike, alpine slide, zip line, and just being together.Zip line

The twins couldn't stay awake for anything!

Oh, those poor grandchildren were having such a hard time!

With Eliza on the Alpine Slide

Tuesday we headed up to Echo Resevoir for a day of boating. Wow, its been 5 years since I wakeboarded last, and it was totally obvious! I don't remember having so many rough falls in one day before.This was their first time on a boat

Again, its been 5 years. I know I look way too concentrated.

Wednesday we went to the pool, but I was so tired that I fell asleep before we left, and woke up about the time everyone came back. Oh well, I guess I didn't need to be more sunburned than I already was from boating the day before. Thankfully, I was careful about burning and it all tanned over in a couple days and never peeled! I love when that happens!

Well, after 3 wonderful days of relaxation, it was back to work, blah!

Clothing Stickers

Ya know when you buy new clothes, how there are always the hidden stickers with your size on it? Well, earlier this week I was at the Gateway picking up a dress for my niece. As I was riding up the escalator from the parking lot, I noticed that the guy in front of me still had the "36, 32" on the back of his new jeans. The best part about it was that he was on a date!
I wanted to take a picture with my phone, but I couldn't remember if it made a clicking sound when it took the picture and by the time I could have changed it, I was sure the couple would be gone. I've been thinking back to that moment all week and SO wishing I had a picture of it! Next time I will be sure to have the sound off on my phone camera.

Going Private

Uhgg, the inevitable has finally come to pass.

As I'm searching for new career paths and sending out resumes, I decided I prefer to have my personal life unsearchable. And while I changed the settings for my blog not to pull up when searching my name, I have friends who have linked to my blog from theirs using both my first and last name... and that still comes up in a search, totally defeating my purpose of not letting mine be googled.

So at last, I will be going private in a few days. I hate that phrase, and I've hated when other people do it. Unfortunately, it may be a little too open to let just anyone view my blog these days. I think I have most my friends' email addresses to invite you, but just in case post it after this blog and I'll delete the post after I get your email address. Love you all!

-Rach

4th Festivities

Last night, I went with a bunch of friends to see the fireworks in Murray Park. We were trying to meet up with some other friends, but couldn't find them and the fireworks were about to start. So somehow in a matter or minutes, we managed to find a great spot to watch them between trees and directly in front of the river. It was a new experience having the running water and the fireworks together. It was very refreshing!


One guy who was with us mentioned that he'd never sat so directly under fireworks and we all just laughed thinking that was funny. But when firework remnants began falling around us, we were all surprised! Thankfully, they were only little dust particles. One which was much larger fell right into the water in front of us... it was still even burning until it hit the water.

After the fabulous fireworks, we grabbed our swimsuits and got in Cammie's pool and hot tub. What a great ending to our nation's Independence Day.