Followers


Monday, October 22, 2012

Rafting

     Have you ever gotten really scared?  I have gotten pretty scared before, but I think this was the scariest time of my life!  Every year my grandparents invite two of us to their house for our birthdays.  If they go somewhere we get to come along.  I was invited to go rafting with them and my cousin near my birthday.  I was really excited.
     My parents dropped me off with my grandparents and we went to their house.  I stayed with them for a day.  The next day we packed up their truck, and we took off on the road.  We drove for a long time and my butt started to get sore from sitting down too long.  When we got there we unloaded the fully packed truck, and prepared the boats.  We inflated the rafts and put everything we needed for the trip on the boats.  It took about a half an hour to get everything ready, but we did it.  I climbed in the boat and we all floated down the river.
     The little blow up boat hit the first rapids for the day, and it shot forward, it was fun!  We rafted most of the day through rapids, sun, and the clear turquoise water.  It was all fun and I didn't have a sunburn yet.  We had rafted for hours before we found a good spot to camp on shore.  My cousin (Ryan) and I set up the tent then went to eat lunch.  We ate freeze dried food for lunch. I had mac and cheese.  The mac and cheese was a bit gritty but still refreshing after a long couple of hours of paddling and floating downstream.  After lunch my cousin and I paddled around in the water near the shore.  My grandpa and I fished for a while in the rapids near our campground.  I caught a little green fish.  Ryan and I played in the water till dinner time.  We ate, dug a gigantic hole in the hot sand just for fun, and then went to bed.
      The next day we packed up our stuff, filled in the hole, and ate breakfast.  While we were eating breakfast our grandma said that if we ever fell out of the boat we were to swim to shore.  After breakfast I had to go to the bathroom (which I tried to avoid but couldn't).  I told my grandma and she gave me the bucket, the fold up toilet and a shovel and told me to walk somewhere no one could see. I said o.k. and walked off into the tall bushes in search of a spot.  When I found a questionable spot I set up the plastic fold up toilet.  I sat down did my business and folded up the plastic potty.  I quickly found out that I should have gone first because when I opened the bucket a horrific smell and two flies came out.  I scooped the stuff off the ground with the little gray shovel and put it in the bucket.  I picked everything up and carried it back.
     Later after that little experience we got back in our boats and headed of down the river.  We floated down the river through more exciting rapids in search of Russo Rapids.  One rapid we went through was really fun.   It was bumpy, fast and water would splash in the boat, it was my personal favorite.  We searched and searched for the monstrous Russo rapids that everyone was saying was fun when finally we found them!  My grandpa went down first just in case something happened.  we had brought walky-talkies along so we could communicate.  Once my grandpa was down he told us when to go down.  Ryan and I were in the same boat and we went down together.  we started to paddle towards the rapids.  When our boat was in the rapids we went faster than we did in all the earlier rapids combined.  Big waves came towards us and splashed against the boat.  About half way down Ryan and I saw a big rock that made a big bump in the water.  We tried to paddle around it because we knew we'd flip over but the current was too strong.  What happened next changed the whole rafting trip for me and my cousin.
     We hit the bump and the front of the boat abruptly stopped.  I was in the front and Ryan was in the back.  the back of the boat kept going and then the whole boat flipped over.  I was under water and could not see a thing.  The water was so dirty.  I could feel the boat float away.  I floated up trying to get some air when a huge wave went over me.  I tried to keep my head over the waves.  I turned around and saw Ryan doing the same thing, luckily he was taller so it was easier for him.   After the wave passed I asked him if he was okay and he said yes.  I turned back around to face an unexpected wave.  Water flowed into my mouth and I swallowed it.  My knees hit a rock under water and I went back under water.  Good thing I had a life jacket on because I just floated back up.  I hit more gigantic rocks and went under more waves.  I knew there was nothing I could do but try to keep my head above water.  I noticed that I still had the paddle in my hands and remembered that my grandma said that if we fell out of the boat we needed to swim to shore.  I thought for a moment about if I should drop the oars so I could swim or try to swim with them.  I asked myself "if I lost the oars would I have to pay for them.  I decided to drop the oars and swim to shore.  I swam toward the rocks on the shore.  I quickly grabbed one with the tips of my fingers and pulled towards them.
     Later I saw grandma coming down the rapids in her boat and a wave of relief came over me.  I saw some of the things from the boat floating down the rapids.  My grandpa paddled toward us.  I looked over to Ryan who was also clinging to a rock.  I said to him, " that was scary."  He nodded and grandpa had paddled over to us and told us to grab on to his boat.  Ryan grabbed on and I did too.  Meanwhile my grandma was gathering up the boat and everything in it.  She found everything except a towel and Walkie-Talkie.  My grandpa paddled to the other side of the river to a little camp ground.  We stayed there for a while and hunted for rocks.
     Later we got back in the boat and paddled down the river again.  We went through more rapids but this time they weren't as exciting because I was afraid we might fall out again.  We stopped at one side of the river where we ate lunch, and saw wild horses.  This was when I realized I had a big sunburn.  The sun gave me big blisters behind my ears.  We rafted some more and went down more rapids.  Later we came to the end of our trip and put everything back in the truck.  We stopped and got lunch.  When we got home Ryan and I took turns talking on the phone to our parents about the experience.  Even though it was fun at first the whole thing was scary.
     There can be very scary things that happen in our lives and we cannot do anything to stop them.  The only thing we can do, is give the situation to God, turn and face our fears, and hope it won't happen again.  This is the best thing I could have learned from this situation.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Setting Up Toy Army Men Battlefields


     Setting up a battlefield for toy army men is effortless and fun!  All it takes is imagination, and the ingredients.  First you find a place to build your exciting battlefield, indoors or outdoors. You should do it on a hard flat floor so your men stand up. If you don't have flat floor you can set books out on the floor.  It is okay if the books are different sizes or thicknesses because it will make your battlefield more realistic, and it will make the ground lumpy and bumpy like hills.  To make your battle a little more fun, you can spread the books apart to make trenches between them.  Plastic boxes, and laundry baskets make good buildings for your battlefield.  With a little bit of imagination and smart thinking I bet that you could come up with some awesome ideas too!