A great weekend up in Jackson Hole!

As many of you know, Jackson Hole is a very special place for the Vernon fam! Rich and I met up there 10 years ago, summer of '98, when we both worked up at the Lone Eagle Resort. He was a river guide for over 5 years and enjoys taking people (especially newbies) down the Snake River! We usually try to make the trip up there at least once a summer. For the past several years, our good friends Jesse and Ashly Hutcheon have invited us to go up with Ashly's family and stay in their cabin in Star Valley. It's been so fun staying in their cabin and in trade taking them down the river! So our annual trip with the Alter family was this weekend and we had another fun time!

On Friday, we decided to take the kids down a two hour float trip on the raft. This was a more calm section of the Snake, just above Hoback junction. It started out with sunny skies and it actually felt nice to put our feet in the water. Avery, Hank, Clark (almost 3) and Ava (almost 1) were troopers to wear their lifejackets and were having a great time. About 1/2 way into the float, we saw some dark clouds come over us and we were just about to make us some sandwiches on the raft. It started to sprinkle a little, but nothing major. Then...it happened. We heard thunder and then it downpoured. Rich pulled out enough raingear for everyone from the dry bag (in which I will never make funny comments on how much he packs for the river again!) Luckily Ashly brought an umbrella to protect Ava from the sun, but it came in handy for the rain too! It wasn't too bad, until the wind started blowing us upriver, the umbrella turned inside out, the pea size hale started pelting our skin, a lightning bolt struck probably just a mile away and we had to pull over on the side of a steep mountain side to run to the nearest tree for cover! Gosh sounds like fun huh? Well let's just say that our many prayers were answered and the 'perfect storm' only lasted about 10 minutes. The four little ones were pretty calm really, I think they must've been in shock or something. Right after the storm passed and we were back on the raft, both Ava and Hank fell asleep. The rest of the float trip was calm and actually not too chilly. Here are some pics!

Before the storm...After the storm...wet but still smiling!

On Saturday we ran the river twice down the whitewater section. The weather was absolutely beautiful - it couldn't have been better! Grandma Pat and Grandpa Ed watched the kids while we rafted for 1 1/2 hours. It was a blast! Avery was so funny calling Ashly's parents her grandma and grandpa! She definately didn't mind spending some time with them that day!

Well we sure had a fun time up in Jackson this weekend! Now it's back to reality and feeling a little 'under the weather!' I think that perfect storm on Friday gave me a cold...bummer!