Do or Die...

Last weekend my family went on a memorable river rafting trip on the Colorado River.

We spent the night in a tiny town called Green River in eastern Utah...never heard of it? Don't worry neither had I. We were oh so lucky enough to stay in the best hotel in town! Now, don't get jealous when I show you these pictures...
We guesstimated the hotel was built in the 1960s and I don't think Trev and my room had been cleaned since then.

My mom has always been super picky about the quality of hotels we stay in so of course I had to get some candid shots of her in this top of the line hotel.

The following morning we woke up bright and early and drove about an hour to the Colorado River where we unloaded our group’s 12 rafts.

The riders in my raft included my two little sisters, Jessica and Leslie, my hubby and my brother, Curtis, as commander and chief.

We had a nice quiet float and swim down the river and then stopped and had lunch on the side of the river.

After lunch...the float was anything but nice and quiet! Little did I know my favorite phrase for the next hour or two would be “Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please” while clenching desperately to the raft.

Just about every single rapid left either me or Trevor flinging from one side of raft to the other. I have the nasty bruises to prove it. There were a couple of times where I thought either Trevor or I was a goner but then at the last minute one of us would be thrown on top of the other pinning us in the boat.

On one of the rapids we got sucked in and headed straight for the rock. We went up...and over the rock...and...for some thank goodness reason we didn’t flip. I remember looking at Trevor laying on the bottom of the boat after almost being tossed out and thinking we were doomed.

All of the rapids seemed to be this intense...at least for me and Trev...just about every single rapid we thought we were done for.

There was even a moment were I thought our heads were going to be taken off. We were in between rapids and headed straight for the rock wall...usually not a problem except for we were headed for this overhanging part of the rock. The boat was turned side-ways so Trevor and I were the only ones that were going to get knocked out if the raft went under it. Luckly Trev and I were quick on our matrix skills and slide down to the bottom of the raft and watched as the rock passed above us.

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!

Thanks big bro for getting us through those rapids with the a faulty raft!

(My mom is getting the pictures from our water-proof cameras developed. As soon as I get the pictures from her I will post them.)

The Latest Slater 411

This summer I started coaching cheerleading at Elite Academy…and I can finally say I am starting to eat it up. It was a real rough adjustment for me to go from coaching high school cheer to All-Star cheer. The age difference and talent level really through me for a loop, but it is all starting to pay off. My little elementary cheer girls are starting to really catch on and I am enjoying them more and more.

This is one of the little stinkers on my squad. She is a hoot. I had the girls split up into groups and make up dances to the song “Dancing Queen” and these are the moves Bailee came up with. Definitely a dancing queen!



The gym has also asked me to start helping with their teenage squad and in the fall I will teach a tumbling class and a basic cheer class for girls that are looking to tryout for high school cheer. Life will be even more jam-packed but I can’t wait!As for Trev…I am super excited for the fellow. The middle of this August he will be going on a humanitarian trip to Mexico with the University of Utah. We are hoping this will help beef up his resume for medical school. I don’t know what I am going to do without him for a whole week though! It will be the longest period of time we have been apart since he got home about a year ago.

We are both loving life, being married, and can’t wait for this summer semester to end!

Gas money, please? … I don’t think so!

Let me introduce to you two of my most recent favorite people.

First, a lovely man that my parents, Trev, and I met at Market Street Grill a couple weeks ago. He was from Smithsville and had run out of gas on the freeway. The second man Trev and I met on Saturday at South Town Mall who…you guessed it…had also ran out of gas on freeway. They were both looking for some “gas donations”.

Hmm…I smell something fishy.

After celebrating Trevor’s birthday at Market Street Grill “Gas Man #1” approached us asking for $15 for gas money. I am the type of person that is convinced that everybody in the world is honest and genuine so naturally I gave him a few dollars (all the cash I had). I then tracked down my parents to give him some money. My mom gave him a few dollars and then asked how much he needed. He replied, “15 dollars”.

This is where things get sketchy…”Gas Man #1” then took the 20 dollar bill my father gave him AND kept the seven one dollar bills we had already given him making the grand total for his “gas money” $27.

Saturday night rolls around. Trev and I had just picked up our friends from the South Town Mall parking lot when “Gas Man #2” flagged us down. Surprise! He told the exact same tragic story of running out of gas on the freeway however, this time instead of being from Smithsville he worked at the University. I wasn’t going to be fooled this time and was actually quite rude to the man. Trevor on the other hand, got suckered in. Trying to land a job at a hospital Trevor said we would give him a couple bucks if he gave us his email address to contact him for a job. We made the exchange. I nagged Trevor all night telling him the guy was a fake but Trevor said that he was sure the guy was being genuine.

Fast-forward 5 hours later (same night). In the process of dropping our friends off at their car guess who popped his head in from around the bushes…”Gas Man #2”! Believe it or not, he started going off on his sob story that he had told us just 5 hours earlier. What an IDIOT!!! I got a kick out of it but Trevor was ticked.

Trev: “We just gave you money 5 hours ago.”
Gas Man #2: “Oh…yeah…that’s right…Well, I need to buy a gas can.”
Trev: “Right, thanks for being an honest person.”

Classic

Needless to say, we wont be donating any “gas money” in the near future.