Birthday Vacation

I have the best husband in the world. My birthday was on July 23 and I turned 24.... man I feel old. I told my hubby that I wanted to go white water rafting for my birthday and he made it happen. We went to Jackson Hole and his cousin Andy was our guide. It ended up being Andy his wife Andrea and Nathan's family all floating the river.


The drive to Jackson Hole is so enjoyable. The road travels over hills and mountains covered in lush greens. It was a stark contrast against the bright blue afternoon sky. Floating along the river we saw about 6 bald eagles sitting high in the tree tops along the river bank. And a beaver building his home along the side of the rocks. I have only seen a bald eagle once or twice in a zoo but it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat. I was unable to get pictures of them because we couldn't bring cameras on the boat. Saturday evening after a short nap we walked around downtown Jackson and had dinner at the Silver Dollar Grill. It was a great historic restaurant, one of the first in the town. Sunday morning we woke up early and walked to breakfast at Jedediah's, home of delicious hand made sourdough pancakes. After breakfast we did some shopping and I visited my favorite shop, Moose Be Christmas. An amazing little shop full of amazing Christmas decorations. I love Christmas decorations, I wish I could keep them out year round. On our way home we stopped at the Idaho Falls Temple, walked around the temple, and took lots of pictures.

Wakeboarding

Saturday Nathan and I had the opportunity to go to Owyhee Lake and go boating and wakeboarding all day. We were invited by Darren, our horse shoer and his family and their brand new hurricane wakeboard boat. Nathan has never been out on the water except for his grandpa's little fishing boat. Wakeboarding is one of my all time favorite summer activities. There is nothing better than being on the water on a hot summer day.

I do give it to the man... he never gave up. The first thing Nathan tried was knee boarding just to get the feel of being pulled behind the boat. He tried about 10 times and wasn't able to get his knees pulled up onto the board. But he did get really good at just laying on the board and being pulled. After a short break he tried his hand at wakeboarding. After swallowing half the lake and pushing water like a pro it was time for another break. And then later he tried the air chair. Side note: Darren makes the air chair look super easy and is fabulous on it. He was getting at least ten to fifteen feet of air across the wake. So Nathan decided to give that a try and thirty tries later couldn't quite get the hang of it. I was then worrying that he was going to hate the water and I was never going to get him back on a boat.

After a little longer break, and watching everyone else go again on the wakeboard, he decided to give that one more shot. And he finally got it! I was so happy, he figured out how to get up like a pro and then just had to figure out the steering and balance. He said he had a good time and would do it again. Phew!!

Here are some pictures of Nathan and all his attempts and Darren on the air chair. There aren't any of me because I guess no one else knows how to use a camera. But I was figuring out how to get air over the wake. It was a very good wakeboarding day for me.