Jacob's Moab Birthday

Insert from Chris, just because he was so excited about his first backcountry call: "On Tuesday at 19:00 we were paged to a mountain biking accident on a remote trail north of Moab. The other EMT and I staged our ambulance near the trailhead with search and rescue and we headed out on their ATVs to the scene. It took almost two hours on the rugged trail to reach our patient, but fortunately it was only a fractured clavicle and not critical. We administered some pain meds, put his arm in a sling and took off on the bumpy ride back. By the time we returned to the station it was around 01:00 in the morning.

One of the SAR rhinos for backcountry patient transport.

On my previous shifts I haven't had very exciting pages - I've been a "call killer." So I was pretty stoked to get my first backcountry run! Due to the remote nature of Moab's surroundings, I'm looking forward to many more interesting calls like this."

Now back to Dani: The highlight of our week was definitely when my brother Jacob and three of his friends came down to visit! Jacob's birthday is June 7th, and he talked some friends into carpooling down to Moab the weekend before to celebrate it in Moab. Chris and I planned some fun adventures. They left Provo around 7pm Friday night, and when 11 o'clock rolled around we were anxiously waiting their arrival when I get a call from Jacob telling me that they were going to be a bit late... "Where are you guys?" we asked. "... about 14 miles outside of Saint George." "Uh......"

Yep... St. George is 5 hours away from Moab, on the opposite side of Utah! Apparently everyone in the car thought somebody else in the car knew the way, and nobody bothered to say anything. Luckily they drove safe and the crew finally arrived here around 4am.

Knowing how tired everyone was, we let them sleep in a little as Chris and I ran over to the warehouse to borrow some river gear. Once everybody was awake we ate a good breakfast and then headed down river road to ducky the daily (a ducky is a two person, sit-on-top, inflatable kayak). Since nobody else had river experience Chris and I kinda got into "guide mode" with a safety speech at the put-in and step-by-step instructions on how to run all the rapids. We all had a lot of fun enjoying the river, and nobody flipped.

Jacob and Carley in White's Rapid

Our boat bent in HALF when we got surfed in the wave!

A quick lunch followed the river and then we headed back out to play. We originally planned on going to left-hand (a waterfall with limited cliff jumping) but thanks to it's popularity in town and online, it was too crowded to enjoy. We chose instead to hike up right-hand which is a much better kept secret. At the end of the hike there's some natural waterslides, and though the water was really high with snowmelt there was still a small section we were able to slide down. Afterwards we went to the much larger (and crazy fast thanks to all the flowing water) natural waterslide by the power dam. Everyone had a blast sliding!

                                         

Our busy day of exploring combined with their late arrival wore everyone out, and we spent the night with snacks and a movie. After church Sunday morning we had a family lunch and I surprised Jacob with a birthday cake. Jacob and I have always been HUGE Harry Potter fans, so it was only natural that I drew inspiration from Hagrid for his birthday cake.

It was sad to say goodbye, but I'm so grateful that Jacob and his friends were able to come visit. They all agreed that it was worth the 9 hour drive here, so we must have done something right as hosts/tour guides. We're just glad that it only took them 3 1/2 hours to get back to Provo.

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew