Blame It On My Roots

July 25-29, 2016

Davis Family Reunion

Monday

Long drive to Island Park, Idaho today. But this place is totally worth it! The Mickelsen’s ranch is so beautiful. A fifteen hundred acre working cattle ranch, nestled up against the Targhee National Forest and only 20 minutes from Yellowstone National Park. The Mickelsens are so generous and kind for letting us use their ranch for our Davis Family Reunion. We are grateful!

Tuesday

Karen prepared a scavenger hunt around the ranch for us this morning. We carved our initials in a tree, floated wooden boats down the creek and were branded in the cattle chute. It was a ton of fun. We ended the scavenger hunt at the little reservoir where Marc and Jim tried to make a raft out of dead trees and no rope. I swam around the reservoir giving people rides on the raft.

Wednesday

Today I saved a life. I’m actually being serious. It was a crazy experience! We spent the day at Yellowstone National Park as part of our Davis Family Reunion.

We packed up sack lunches in the morning and caravanned to the Park to meet up at Old Faithful. It was a zoo at Old Faithful and we couldn’t find anyone so our car (Jeff and I and Calvin, Kate, Isaac, Mikey, Celeste and Eli) found a great spot down on the ground on the front row where we got a perfect view of the geyser.  After the crowd cleared, we found everyone and walked the Old Faithful Inn (so cool!) and Visitor’s Center and then the boardwalk all around Old Faithful for the next 90 minutes until it went off again. We tried pushing Grandma in a wheelchair, but she was uncomfortable and hated the idea of being in a wheelchair (even though she has a hairline fracture in her leg and shouldn’t be walking around). After eating our sack lunches and indulging in some ice cream at the gift shop, we split up and headed out to explore Yellowstone. We stopped off at Midway Geyser Basin to see Grand Prismatic Spring. Every parking lot is full at the park (I guess it’s summer in Yellowstone so what else should I expect?) but that means parking an extra ½ mile or so away and extra walking in the hot sun. By the end of that stop, the kids were ready to hit the swimming hole at the Firehole River.

We have been here before. Once when Jeff and I went on a weekend getaway for our anniversary back in 2007 and then again with the kids (except Mikey) in 2008, just a few months before Mikey was born. It is a ton of fun. The river is not too cold and has a strong current, but it has a beach of sorts and some calmer areas. But the real highlight is to swim or climb upstream along the edge of the canyon walls and jump in at the base of a little falls and let the current take you downstream through the narrow chutes. It’s thrilling but still pretty safe if you can swim or are wearing a lifejacket. But the current is strong and you can’t touch so you have to be careful. There are dozens of people making their way along the rocky drop off along the riversides to get upstream. I was making my way with Mikey, helping him hold on to the rocks and pull himself along. We were just at the narrowing of the river where the current is the strongest and we were waiting for our turn to edge around the corner. We had let go of the rock in a little eddy to move to where we could make our way around the corner when this twenty-something year old guy came floating by and grabbed on to Mikey and started pulling him under. I quickly swam over and pushed him away and held Mikey on the opposite side of my body so he couldn’t grab him. He immediately started grabbing onto me (while I was holding Mikey) and pulling me under. The water was much too deep for me to touch and I was out of reach of the rock. I held Mikey above the water and pushed the man away from us so  I could get my head above water. I quickly got Mikey to the rock where he could hold on for safety and turned to see this guy with his head under water and his arms grasping. I realized he was in trouble. He obviously couldn’t swim and he was grasping for anything to hold on to as he was sinking under water. I swam over to him, grabbed his forearm and pulled him over to the rock where I pulled his hand up and put it on the rock so he could grab on. He pulled both arms up onto the rock and was gasping for breath. He fumbled around, feeling for his glasses and I realized that not only couldn’t he swim, he also couldn’t see. That’s why he was grasping and couldn’t see the rock to grab onto. I think he had been swept down the narrow chute and lost his glasses and quickly got into trouble because he couldn’t swim or see. I made sure Mikey was still safe and then I stayed with the man, patting his back and arms, asking him if he was okay. I don’t think he spoke a lot of English but he kept saying, “Thank you! Thank you!” Jeff came along moments later and I stayed with Mikey and Isaac while Jeff made sure he made it to the shore and was okay. It all happened so fast that it took me a few minutes to realize how scary the situation was. We stayed and swam and floated down the river. An hour or so later when we were getting out of the river and drying off, I passed him and his group of friends and he smiled a huge smile, reached out and gave me a huge hug with both arms and said, “Thank you for saving my life!” I swallowed the lump in my throat and hugged him back, telling him I was so glad he was okay. 

As we drove home I kept thinking that I was grateful we went swimming today.

Thursday

Turns out Calvin is a bit of a horse-whisperer! Today we all went out to see the new colt, “Britches” way out in the fields. Everyone tried to get him to come eat oats out of the bucket but he was too shy. Calvin was slow and gentle and persistent and on his second visit back out to see the colt again, the colt came and ate right out Calvin’s hand! He wouldn’t get close to anyone else but Calvin. Calvin absolutely loved it! Those two had a real connection. It was something he will remember for the rest of his life. I think today he had serious thoughts about being a rancher someday! He is loving ranch life!