Day 12

We lazed about. There was ping-pong and goofing off, but we mostly just did nothing. Coach worked quite a lot and the kiddos swam, played on the playground, and generally relaxed. By the end of the day, we all had a bit of cabin fever. The girls did braid all their hair the same.

We ended the day with an early dinner followed by movie time. Tomorrow looks to be more exciting!

Day 13

There comes a time in every Coach’s life where he must motivate his team to perform outside of their normal abilities. Throw them at something they cannot handle in an attempt to make them rise above it. Today was the day!

The team rose early. LadyCoach did her usual workout while Coach did some work. After breakfast, we all piled in the car and headed into Glacier. We turned down a narrow dead-end road. At the end of this road was not death, but inflatable boats and paddles. Today TeamHovis would conquer the Upper Nooksack River. The steady rain on the people-hauler was not a good sign. Yet it seemed to be keeping with the theme. Our faithful guide, Paul, met up with us and recommended we postpone our trip until the afternoon. Coach accepted. LadyCoach wanted some coffee so we headed over to the Wake ‘n Bakery where all parties “Get Sconed”.  Never fear the high was produced with nothing but coffee and sugar. We headed back to cabin for some naps and work. Mission Accomplished.

At 3pm, we were once again off for RAPIDS! Wild and Scenic River Tours was a great outfitter and we were blessed enough to have the owner, Paul, be our guide. He sent the rest of his guides off on a week-long rafting adventure on the Selway River in Idaho. Awesome!

We all got geared up. PJ was adorable and so packed with gear that she had to waddle everywhere. She was in good spirits and everyone was excited. We grabbed a group pic and loaded up in a fantastic old Ford van from the 80’s.

When we arrived, Paul tried to put the fear of God in us, telling us about the three rules of rafting: Stay in the boat. Stay in the boat. Stay in the boat – generally making the kids eyes go wide. It was AWESOME! Let’s go already!

The Nooksack is a fantastic river dropping over 60 feet p/mile. We ran some great class 3 (maybe 4) rapids with almost non-stop Class 2 and Class 1 between the big ones.  Gman and Em were giggling and hollering in excitement. Gman, in particular, had a blast yelling Yahoo! and WOAH! from start to finish. Coach and LadyCoach had a blast as well. PJ, on the other hand, was non-plussed from the start. We put right in at a rapid and she held on to the OS lines rigged up on the inside of the boat for dear life for a good 45 minutes. No amount of discussion could get her off the floor of the raft, so she took the brunt of the water coming in the boat. Finally, we grabbed her by the jacket and put her between the coaches. All of a sudden, she was having a great time. No more constant water in the face. She was so full of adrenaline the first half of the ride she actually dozed off while shooting some rapids in the latter half of the float. Head bobbing while we all paddled like crazy and yelled for fun. A bald eagle paid us a visit flying down the river all proud of his majestic self.

About midway through, Paul candidly revealed that the only reason he took the tiny one on the difficult stretch of the river was our Texas roots. “All the Texas people always ask to go harder and bigger”. No surprise there. Feel free to ask PJ about whitewater rafting – she’ll tell you all about it. Adventure complete! Paul drove us back to our car in a vintage 70’s bus that had been “decorated” for decades. It had a tape deck that worked. Impressive!

We spent the rest of the day warming up in the hot-tub

See you tomorrow!