It all began Thursday evening: Brittani, Jackie, Rebecca, and I went to Olive Garden for Brittani's birthday dinner. We were all starving so the food was great. After a little digestive rest, we made our way to the Freedom Festival in downtown Provo. We got there pretty late so a lot of the booths were closing but there was still a lot going on. We walked down the street and finally found the bandstand. We waited for the next band to set up and had no idea what we had ahead of us. The next band was a Christian rock band. They were pretty good. Their finale was the Lord's Prayer. Yeah, awesome.
When we got back home, we decided that instead of camping out for the parade on University Avenue, we were going to campout on the "back deck". The back deck is the patio behind the apartments on the last row of Chatham Towne. Rebecca and I brought out our mattresses to share with Jackie. There were a few other people out there on mattresses and lovesacs, etc. It was so nice to be sleeping outside but someone was playing Rock Band in the park and we could all hear it all night so I don't think anyone got very much sleep. We were all awakened by the race going on in the park and no one could sleep after the starting gun went off. After watching the race and some hot air balloons, we went back home to make breakfast for the group. After breakfast, Rebecca, Jackie and I laid around and watched Newsies. I think we all fell asleep at some point.
After resting we got ready for the next adventure: floating down the Provo River. About 10 of us met up to make sure we all had tubes to float on and after driving around Provo searching for more tubes, we decided that some of us would have to share. We got to the river and the water was freezing! It probably wouldn't have been that bad, but it wasn't the sunniest day either. Rebecca and I had to share a tube and it wasn't that bad after we got situated. About half way through the trip, there is a bridge. The bridge is legendary for it's level of difficulty. Rebecca and I thought we were going to make it through no problem but when we hit the post, we lost our balance and fell out. The current was too strong and we couldn't stop ourselves. Luckily, Chris grabbed our tube and held on until we could get back in.
Highlight of the trip: Matt and Wyatt sharing a tube. Because we did not have enough tubes, Wyatt and Matt shared the biggest tube. They were so entertaining to watch. They floated near me and Rebecca for the first part of the trip and we laughed so hard every time we spotted them. It's hard to share a tube; you have to find the perfect position so that each person is comfortable and so you won't fall out. Every time we saw Matt and Wyatt, they were in a different position and they were really struggling to get comfortable. At one point on the trip, we floated past a group of drunk guys who were hanging out on the bank. When they saw me and Rebecca float by, followed by Matt and Wyatt, they started yelling. Most of it was incomprehensible but we all caught the phrase that made us laugh, "you got it all wrong!" I'm pretty sure he was referring to the fact that the boys were sharing a tube, but I could be wrong... Good thing we know how manly those guys are, otherwise they probably would have had their man cards taken away...by the drunk guys.
The next leg of the trip was a little harder because Rebecca and I were not in our original, comfortable positions so we were constantly adjusting, risking falling out again and we were freezing. As we got closer to the end, we got kind of separated from everyone. We were in the middle of our group but no one was near us, they were either really far ahead or really far behind. We had been doing really well avoiding hitting things. We went over a few big rocks and Rebecca saved me from being decapitated from a huge log. We got really good at avoiding the bank but at one point we hit the bank, lost our balance, and fell out of our tube. The tube got stuck on the bank and the current carried us away too quickly so we couldn't even grab on to it to stay afloat for the rest of the trip.
The last leg of the trip was bad. The river was not very deep so we had to keep our legs and feet off the bottom to avoid injuries and we had to keep our heads above water to avoid drowning. We were so lucky to be so close to the end of the trip. After about 5 minutes of struggling in the river, we saw some of our group on the bank ahead. I was so happy to see them but as we got closer, I realized that we weren't going to just float to the bank, we were going to continue down the river unless someone rescued us. As we started going past the bank, Rebecca started yelling for someone to help us. Some random guy, that was not in our group, was sitting on a huge rock in the river and he finally jumped in and grabbed us and brought us back onto land. We could barely walk because we were so cold and our muscles were tired of swimming down the river. the few people in our group that were there came over to make sure we were okay. We assessed the bruises and scrapes and determined that we were fine and just needed to warm up and rest. We waited for the rest of the group and walked back to the park where we left the cars, deflated the tubes, and headed home.
The next adventure of the weekend commenced that evening. After a nice, relaxing barbecue, we decided we should probably figure out where to watch the fireworks. After throwing out a few options we decided to meet up later to finalize the plan. We met up with a bunch of people from the ward on the back deck and the plan had been formalized: we would drive everyone to the Riviera Apartments in two cars, the drivers would drive the cars back and take Chris' scooter to the Riviera, where it would be hidden. Pete had heard about the roof access there and scouted it out earlier to find an empty roof. As a driver, I rode with Chris on the scooter and joined the group on the roof of the Riviera. We had a great view of the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. It was one of the best fireworks shows I had ever seen! After the show, we all walked home and then watched the boys play with fireworks.
The next adventure: rope swing at Mona Lake. This is one of the scariest things I have ever done. We drove to the lake with a big group from the ward. I had full intentions on swinging on the rope but when we arrived, I had to think again. The rope is about 20 feet long and I almost didn't do it. I knew I couldn't leave without trying so I finally got in line with Sarah. Climbing the tree was scary enough, then you have to stand on this board and grab the rope. Then you have to swing out over the water! I couldn't hold on to the rope when I swung so I totally fell into the water as soon as the rope swung down. It was still fun but I was determined to redeem myself. After checking out the smaller rope swing on the other side, Rebecca and I got back in line for the big rope.
As soon as I got to the top of the tree, I freaked out. I didn't want to mess up again but I knew I couldn't back out with the rope already in my hands. I jumped off and did exactly the same thing again. I was so mad but I knew it was because I freaked myself out. Luckily, everyone still thought I was brave for trying the swing twice (most of the girls didn't even try at all).The rest of the day was really enjoyable. We stopped for food on our way back from the lake and went to the pool for a little while. We decided to just watch a move that night so Rebecca and I made caramel popcorn for the group. We ended up going to Chris' house in Lehi where they have a home theater. We watched the Da Vinci Code but it was so hard to stay awake because it was late and the theater was so, so warm. The drive home seemed to take forever and I could not wait to get in my bed, go to sleep, and dream about all of my adventures.
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