Oneida River

On Saturday afternoon, we decided to float down the river.  It seems like every time we go down this river, someone gets hurt.  Well, this time we all paired up so that we had an adult in charge of a child.  The kids all wanted to be chained together, but I was not Ok with that.  Bryce had Clayton on his lap and I was watching over Cooper.  We were the first ones in the river, so we didn't see who got in behind us.

Jared had Landon on his lap and when they got to this part of the river, they ran into one of the big rocks.  Before they got on the river, Jared told Landon to not let go of the tube, no matter what.  When they hit this rock, it forced them under the water.  Landon would not let go and Jared had to try with all his might to get them out away from all the pressure and force of the water.  After a few attempts, he was finally able to get up and move away from the rock.  Along this same part of the river, Paul hit another rock and it cascaded him into the water as well.  He got scratched up pretty good.  All of them ended up getting off of the river as soon as they found a spot.  This river isn't extremely fast, there are just rocks and you have to be constantly paying attention to what is ahead of you.  Bryce and I were always paddling this way or that way to avoid upcoming rocks.  We had the burn rashes on our arms for the next two days, but we were blessed to not have any real problems.

The boys had so much fun on Saturday that they wanted to go down the river on Monday.  On Sunday evening I talked to both of them and asked them if they wanted to do the boat or the river.  They both wanted to float the river.  I was stressed the entire night over it.  During the night and all through the next day, a massive rainstorm moved in and all we did was pack up and get out of there.  It was an answer to my worry and prayers!