Arrg! There be PIRATES on the Colorado!

For our last bit of excitement of the summer, we went camping with our fabulous neighbors.  I have to say that throughout my life I have been blessed with some of the best neighbors anyone could ever hope for - and our current neighbors are no exception.  They are some of the best people I know!  We are so lucky. 

Our neighbors Hayden and Lindsay participate in an annual "Pirate Float" down the Colorado with a bunch of their friends, and we elected to tag along this year.  Our other neighbors Travis and Sarah also went.  It was fantastic!  We traveled about three hours west of Centennial, to BLM land and a campground called Radium, which is right along the Colorado River.  Our little Cherry Dr. group camped together, which was great.  In total there were about 40 people in the big group, most of whom were very skilled rafters - and then there was the five of us - clueless.   But boy did we have fun!

The boys went fishing on the first run of the day.  We all went on the second run - we had the raft quite full - the five of us, Travis and Sarah from next door with their bulldog, and Hayden as our captain with his golden retriever.

Michael was the hood ornament!

Lindsay is a master standup paddle-boarder.  The woman is amazing.  Here she is heading down the river trying to straddle their golden retriever and somehow still standing upright.  That adorable dog wanted so badly to be with Lindsay that she kept leaping out of the raft and swimming to her - made the experience a bit more challenging for Lindsay - but left me super impressed. 

 We had the opportunity to go cliff jumping on that run - and everyone in our family jumped except Gabi.  I was probably the most scared - but I couldn't let my six year old think her mommy wasn't as brave as she was!

 It was REALLY, REALLY cold!

The second day we rode in a paddle boat with Sarah and captain Mac and his wife Jenny (who are the fabulous master planners for the whole shebang) - we stopped at the hot spring along the way and Luke had the chance to try the SUP.   Travis paddled and Luke stood up.  Luke thought it was awesome.

Sarah made sure that he got back into the boat.  It was super fabulous to have six people parenting three kids!

Then it was Michael's turn.  He paddled down the rest of the way to where we stopped - fell three or four times, but did really well - and he loved it! 

We saw lots of beautiful bald eagles flying around.  This one cooperated and perched so I could take its picture.

Because Michael was on the SUP, the girls had the opportunity to paddle.  They thought that was so exciting, and managed to help a little!

Our summer officially ends tomorrow, as Michael reports back to work in the morning, but what a amazing way to end it!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends!