The Characters You Meet on the River!!

I know it's been almost a month since posting. Mike and I had a great week long vacation (the longest I've seen him since April!) at the beginning of the month which I'll have to get to in another post, because TODAY I want to talk about the characters I meet on the river!

I've had some funny moments on the river and thought I'd share about the time I was french kissed on the river, the nudity on the river, and plain ol' laziness on the river!

We've been experiencing EuroMania here in Moab. From the end of May and up to this point we've had most of our guests coming from (in order of frequency) France, Germany, Holland, England, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Brazil . . . I'm multi-lingual now!! Okay so I only know about two or three words in some of those languages like "Go to left!, Stop!!, Swim here!" Anyway, not much representation from the home land. I blame it on gas prices.

So there's introduction to knew cultures and words (Like when the English say they need Lou, they don't mean a person - they want the bathroom please!! Where's the loo?? Yeah, that was a funny one my friend discovered the hard way.)


Then you're also exposed to cultural fashion and gestures . . . like the time I received a gracious french kiss from a man wearing a tiny speedo . . .

Yes. Clearly very proud of himself.

There really are good times to be had on the river. Some people are a little more open to "exposure". There's actually a designated spot for it. No, I've never hung out with naked people there, but sometimes you find yourself next to one without warning and if you're not careful you may become a nudist yourself!

Like the time I had all my guests swimming in the water as we drifted downstream. A rapid was coming up soon so one-by-one I pulled them back into the boat. The last one was an middle-aged, fun-loving guy who had probably played football in his younger years in high school - so a little on the big side. As I reached down to pull him in, my co-worker Richard in a boat next to me said "Oh, I've GOT to see this." and he lined up his boat directly behind mine to basically watch what he thought would be a slippery tug-of-war struggle.

With a count to 3 and large heave- ho, I pulled and leaned back as far as I could go and soon found that wasn't too hard! I had him mostly in the boat! But everyone was burst out in roars of laughter . . .
You know I don't think he really minded it that much, especially when his kids looked at me and said "It's okay, he's a plumber." Yikes.


The last time I was out on the river, I was guiding a paddle boat. Which means that everyone is paddling to make the boat go downstream. I used to like guiding this type of boat because it meant you got a break pulling all the wait on two heavy oars. Until this day. I was hired by Mike's river guide company Moki Mac to work on the Green River that day and was told the group was going to be from UNLV. That's Univ. of Nevada Las Vegas, so you'd imagine relatively in shape college students looking for a good time . . . NOT 50-65 year old, out-of -shape adults, looking for a nap!



They started off okay, but getting tired of paddling after 15 strokes is not going to get you anywhere. After the first hour I was really wondering why they had requested a paddle boat and was wishing I had the big oars just to get us to the end faster. By the third hour I was biting my lip from wanting to say things like "Uh, Cheryl, you have to PUT THE PADDLE IN THE WATER for it to do anything" OR "Susan, I know you said you don't like water and you don't like the sun, but since you're HERE, maybe you could just fake it a little!!" After we served them lunch, I actually heard these words, "I just ate a big lunch! This is too much work! I shouldn't have to do this." and put their paddle down. I was EXHAUSTED from trying to make to boat go with my one measly little paddle AND trying to coax the guests every 15 minutes to row just . . . a little . . . farther . . . c'mon guys, please? Just one paddle?

I Love My CTR Class!

So I teach Sunday School to the 4 & 5 year olds and it is always such a riot! These kids say WHATEVER comes to mind. One of my 5 year old students keeps asking me where my daughter is and made a card for her. Guess I'll have to hold on to that one for awhile.


Here's a pic of some of them. This Sunday we talked about how important is it to remember to say thank you. And then we made thank-you cards. I told them they should sign their names so whoever got them would know who it was from - and they both started writing out their names by themselves! What the?! They don't even go to kindergarten and they know how to write their names!! Is that normal? Because I was blown away.



I think I need to put down my usual novel and start reading some baby books or Motherhood for Dummies or something. I have a growing fear that I may be in over my head when it gets to be that time . . .

See It For Yourself

For those of you who'd like to see me on the river I have posted a section on here to tell you how to do that. It's listed in the right column of this blog under the section " Fawn In Action". I'm not always out there everyday so I'll be posting the specific dates I'm on the river. If the instructions are not user friendly, then please let me know. Enjoy!

TAGGED! (Again)

Okay, okay I've finally found time to actually TAKE a picture of what is in my "purse" and post it. I can't believe some of the things I've SEEN in your guys' bags, I mean, come on, BRACES?? That was hilarious. Anyway, mine doesn't look all that interesting. Probably because I don't even carry a bag/purse. Just the wallet!

Okay so, WALLET:
$15.00
Library card
Buy ten get one FREE, Snow cone and Cafe Rio cards (must have foods)
Bank Receipt
Stamps
Random yellow paper
D. License
Bank Card


See Boring. I need some babies or something.

CATAPULTED!!

Okay, so river rafting has been really fun because it's OUTSIDE and I meet new PEOPLE everyday. Some people are SO fun that it feels like hanging out with friends all day laughing hard, playing, getting into major water fights . . . And then there are some people who are a drag and you just sit there spouting out random facts about the surroundings (like 10-13 year old boys who are CONSTANTLY asking every 30 seconds - When's the rapid? Are we almost at the rapid?? Was that a rapid??? How many rapids are there????; And old geological men who are fascinated with the soil age, name, colors, rock era, etc. So they throw out all kinds of random questions. I actually had someone get in my boat one time and say to me - before he'd even give me his name, "Now all the details you can give us on the geological facts on our surroundings would be very nice during this trip." Greeaaaaat.) Not that I don't like rocks - I wear one on my finger! Okay, I don't care about rocks.

Whoa - tangent, sorry. Back to my story. So I'm really enjoying my job, the "fear-factor" has slowly ebbed away until I don't have butterflies anymore when I see particular rapids and wonder quietly in my head . . . Are we going to make it?! Oh man, I hope we make it! (Ha, ha now you know what goes through a river guides head - never try to read their faces, it won't show you how they REALLY feel in those climactic moments.) So I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful (and quickly I find I'm way too confident).

I don't have pic's of this so you'll have to do with these really cool drawings.

A couple days ago I'm taking a group of people down river and we're approaching the last one in the trip. The water's pretty high so this rapid - Rocky Rapid, has some great hits on the lefts side with large waves. It looks great so we're going in! (See, that's me sitting on the back end of the boat.)




After 3 really big waves and lots of splashing we're laughing and I'm maneuvering the boat to get ready to make a sharp 90 degree turn to the left, when out of nowhere I suddenly find myself FLYING through the air (Yep, that's me AIRBORNE)





I almost speared myself in the leg with my oar handle and finally landed on one of my guest's lap. Uh, Hi . . . Matt. Thanks for holding onto me. Everyone stops paddling and stares before asking "Are you okay?", "What happened?", "What WAS that??" I had taken us over a pour-over that I didn't see and while the front end of the boat went down, my end flung up and threw me out of my seat. That was . . . enlightening. Now I'm scared of that rapid ALL over again. DANG IT.



Oh yeah, and I've received a colorful souvenir from that adventure. See how pretty?

Le Chateau De Mike Et Fawn A Moab

Some people are asking - the rest are wondering . . .
What does our house look like? Well, have a look!

Here is the front of our house.
I grew those roses myself! K, not really.

The Living Room!

The Kitchen!

The . . . Hallway?

The Laundry Room!

The Bathroom! (We don't have a shower,
we have to use the river on our trips.)
J/K!! Come and visit us, you can take a shower,
it's just hiding behind the door.

The Bedroom! Messy, messy.

Our Awesome Backyard!

Oh, I almost forgot - The Storage Room! (Not our stuff - pic was taken before we moved in) This room was the selling point for Mike. It's built-in and attached to the side of the house. The perfect place to keep ALLLLLLL our toys and then some- the kayaks, snowshoes, rock climbing/ice climbing/camping/hiking gear, cataraft, numchucks (sp) yeah - he has them, kiteboard, snowboards, etc. We did a good job filling it. Plus, I had room for food storage!

Le fin du tour du chateau! Hope you liked it :)
Au revior!

Guess who came to visit Moab!

My mom, sister, and youngest brother came to visit us last week. I think we kept them busy the whole time they were here! They were able to see our little house and experience "A day in the life of . . ." Mike and I, with extra activities on the side like hiking the trails and rock climbing. Yes, they ALL climbed.

Mike & I took them to Wall Street just outside of Moab. Meghan is getting the 4-1-1 on how to harness yourself properly. She was the first to do the 5.6 climb in the area called "School Room".










Here's Meghan doin' the walk on solid rock. She was so nervous, You Can DO it!








Meghan reaching the summit of School Room. Mike was belaying her and the rest of us were just holding our breath . . . not really, we were actually making her laugh half the time which didn't help.


Dustin was next and unfortunately we didn't have any climbing shoes his size! He had quite the challenge climbing the rock wall in ordinary street shoes. Amazingly he actually did a great job and made it all the way to the top!



Next was MOM! She did a GREAT job, especially considering she's afraid of heights!! After a few minor adjustments on the harness and she was ready to go.

It was quite the challenge, but she made it all the way to the very top!

The first day of whitewater rafting, Dustin got a REALLY bad sunburn and had to stay in all day the next day. So . . . we left him with a bottle of Aloe Vera, ice cubes and lots of movies and went on a 4.5 mile hike up Negro Bill Canyon.






















We spent a couple days in arches and hiked out to Delicate Arch. Lots of great scenery and a beautiful sunset. Mom got grumpy near the end of the hike (Drink more water!) But it was all worth it in the end, right Mom?











What else happened . . . Oh yeah, our dishwasher broke. Meghan is the greatest helper. I know, Right Meghan?









We didn't get any pic's of us all whitewater rafting, but it was really fun. I took Mom, Meg, and Dustin out on the Colorado River all day and Mike took them out on the Green River a few days after that. Meg and Dustin both rafted the rivers in kayaks most of the way too. I take credit for any skill they had in that. :) They did so awesome.

After all the hiking, whitewater rafting, visiting national parks, and rock climbing all the fun had to eventually come to an end. I miss you guys. I miss you especially Dad, since you didn't get to join us on this one. I love you. And Happy Father's Day.