Jackson Hole

Mike and I had been waiting for the kids to all be old enough to go whitewater rafting.  They are now the perfect ages.  We went with some of our favorite people:  Sean, Julie, Courtney and Katie.

Jessica was not quite as excited about getting wet as the rest of us. 

Once we got going, our guide let the kids take turns sitting on the front of the raft.  They all took turns and got smashed with water.  Surprisingly they didn't fall off.

A few people got pushed in.  Here, Mike and Sean are pulling Drew in after he was pushed in.

The best part was at the "lunch counter rapids."  Julie and one of our guides fell out the one side.  Drew was so busy watching them that he didn't attend to staying in the raft himself.  We were all watching Julie and then we realized that Drew was floating away from the raft on the other side.

Much to his disappointment, at the beginning, Christian wasn't given a paddle.  As soon as the kids started moving to the front of the raft, he got a paddle and worked it.

It was such an adventure.

We also had some fun at the pool.

Bev tried to get some reading done for a big book report that was due.

Chicken fights are par for the course.

My kids love having such willing cousins to play with.

More chicken fights.

and some water acrobatics.

We went into Jackson Hole to see the town square.  We watched a staged gun fight.

We also watched all of the squirrels in the town square.  

That was fun until we found this little guy that was really sick.  He couldn't walk--my unprofessional diagnosis was either some sort of back or leg injury or something neurological.

We (me and the kids, while Mike rolled his eyes) talked about what to do.  They wanted to take him to the animal hospital.  I suggested that he probably just needed to be put down.  I then totally traumatized my kids by telling them that there are different ways to put down an animal.  That made Bev cry.  I went to find someone in charge to take care of it.  When I came back, they were all okay.  Apparently, with some help from Mike, they all decided that the squirrel was not injured, he was drunk, and just needed to sober up.  Christian even said that he thought he saw a beer can nearby.