Alaska: Water, water everywhere!

Although it rained almost every single day of our trip...we made the most of it and enjoyed every bit of this beautiful state! I felt like I was in another country from the moment we landed, (and you practically are where Alaska is located!) And the fact that it was light outside pretty much 24/7 was trippy and took me a few days to get used to! That's why it is so green and gorgeous up there! I am by no means a gardener, but long to be, and seeing how lush and wonderful Jill's garden was, makes me wish I could get into that sort of thing. Who knows maybe I will when we are back in Utah!
Anywho, so alot of our activities included water! Our most fun, and also most terrifying one was white water rafting down the Eagle River! So, we were under the impression that guides were going to take us down the class 4 and 5 rapids, but OH NO, only one guide showed up who took the older children who were with us in his boat, and the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves in the remaining two boats! It was safe to say that I wanted to pee myself, and I think I did a little bit while we were going down!
Thankfully, we all made it alive! Jacie and Nate were the only ones who fell out, but they were pulled back in right quick by Aaron! We all had either dry suits on or wetsuits, and the water was 35 degrees! The guide scared the poo out of all of us by telling is that once we fell in to get out ASAP, or else we could get hypothermia! And he went on and on about not getting caught under logs or getting your feet tangled in rocks or you would drown...and then to top if all off, as we took off he said " just do what I do!", and they floated off into the scary fog and WE COULD NOT SEE HIM! How were we to know what he was doing around rapids if we couldn't see him? Our raft went right into some huge rapids, but somehow we never flipped over, but I was cussin up a storm! haha...sorry Mom :)
Once we were done our 45 min ride of terror and into the warm cars on the Army base, I could finally stop shaking! I am not sure if it was from the adrenaline rush or from being so cold from the water! But, it was good experience none the less!
Spooooky fog! This was our drop in point!

me surveying the water and probably thinking "what the heck are we doing??"
the Butikofer women! Don't mess with us! :)

my father-in-law getting suited up!

Jess and his bro pumping up one of the rafts..look at that booty!

The gang finally suited up and ready to go! It was about 10 pm when we finally got started!!! we all look SO HAPPY

woo hoo! We're alive!!


Another fun watery thing we did was hike up to some waterfalls called Thunderbird Falls. The funny thing about this hike was that Aaron had told us that it was totally flat and we could absolutely bring strollers and their mom's wheelchair! Haha! It was an extremely uphill gravely pathway that went for over a mile! Whoops... so we had quite a work out getting all our strollers and Kathryn's wheelchair up there but it was worth it! The scenery was gorgeous and for once it didn't rain!

takin a break

Thunderbird Falls! Cal had HAD it with this hike!! Look at that face! I love it :)

The Monday we were all there we had a really fun FHE where everyone had to perform a talent either as a family or individually. Jess and I told jokes, because we determined that we had no talents! haha! But there was some excellent piano playing, guitar pickin, even a little nose-kazoo courtesy of Mary :) Then afterwards it started POURING outside and what better way to end an FHE then dancing in the rain!!! We had speakers and everything!


Sorry for the loooong post! More to come :)