White Water Rafting

We went white water rafting for our first time on Saturday.  We have a friend who is a trained guide.  He and his wife took us on the American River.  I can be a chicken but am trying to not let my fears stand in our way.  Of coarse, I was worried our boat would flip but knew it probably would not.  Our guide has never cleaned out a boat before.  Well, on our first rapid (the meat grinder) our boat tipped.  We did not have enough rowing power with the 3 kids to get our boat where it needed to go fast enough and got stuck on a rock!  Scared me to death!  I was so worried about my kids.  We all had life jackets and the kids had helmets.  Cameron freaked.  When you go over you are supposed to keep your feet up and pointed down stream.  Cameron held onto the raft and I held his jacket and the raft.  Cameron kept saying, "Feet up and forward" over and over.  Our guide pulled me back in the boat and I said, "Don't get me get my kids." Everyone was fine and back in the boat in a matter of a few minutes!  Poor Cameron was so scared after that he sat in the bottom of the boat for along time and would not row anymore.  The other kids were fine and Conner thought it was fun and wanted to do it again.  We got to the next big rapid (when I say big it is called the trouble maker and is a class III + so beginner but big for us) we pulled off before going down.  We walked Cameron around and set him on some rocks because he did not want to go on it.  Then, there happened to be an LDS group rafting and they sent two teens to row with us so we would have more man power.  We made it through the trouble maker without any problems.  Cameron was ready to go after watching all these rafts with smiling people come through this big rapid.  I guess he decided it looked like fun.  He got back in the boat and sat up front the rest of the way rowing.  He decided he would go again next time.  The pictures are from the Trouble Maker they have a camera crew there and we bought the CD.  We had a fantastic day and the raft tipping only added to the experience.  It was so funny listening to our kids retell the story.  Cameron thought Conner was crazy for enjoying the flip and smiling.  Cameron said, "Yea, Conner was over there hallucinating."  They loved it.  Jared now wants to become a certified guide.  So, I think we will be going again very soon.