Lava Hot Springs

We spent this past weekend (sort of) in Lava Hot Springs. My aunt & uncle generously allowed us to use their cabin. We arrived Friday late morning, unpacked, grabbed some lunch, changed into our swim suits and headed to the pool. The kids had a blast, especially Trevor because of their 4 waterslides. After a few hours of water and sun, we went back to the cabin and relaxed. The boys played video games or watched DVDs, I read, and Kylie & Pete napped. In the evening we went to the hot baths, which were a bit too hot for most of us - they would probably be really nice in cooler weather and not when you got a bit too much sun earlier in the day (Pete). We then went out for dinner and back to the cabin for games and bed. On Saturday, we got a slow start, the boys slept until almost 10 am. Eventually we got ready and went tubing down the river through town. Our first run was on a 3-man tube (all 5 of us), but because it was long and narrow we got sideways and overturned. It was a bit scary but we were fine but for a few scrapes and lost shoes (me). We exchanged the 3-man tube for a 4-man tube which being square was much more stable and our second run was much better than the first, but Kylie was getting tired so she, Logan, and I decided we were done. Pete & Trevor decided to trade in the 4-man tube for 2 single tubes and we dropped them off at the drop in area near the park and went to the bottom to wait and hopefully get a few pictures from one of the bridges as they passed. Well we waited and after a bit I thought they should have been down by then, but then I hadn't really paid attention to how long it took us before so I just kept waiting. That was when I heard Pete call my name from the end of the bridge saying we needed to go. I turned to see him with a gash near his eye and blood on his face and shirt. Apparently they had decided to put in the river upstream from where we had the two previous times, and Pete had decided to get on the tube on his stomach to have better control of his and Trevor's tubes. It turns out there is a bit of a drop off on one side that they were not aware of and it was around a bend so once Pete saw it it was already too late. They went over and Pete went head first into the water (and a rock). Luckily Trevor was ok (a few scratches), and others stopped to help them, giving them a ride to the end where we were waiting. The local clinic was not open on Saturday so we drove 30 minutes to Pocatello so Pete could get stitches (at least 19 that we were able to count). The kids and I waited most of the time in the car (at least they could watch a DVD there), we ate a very late lunch in the cafeteria (all this time still in our swim suits), then waited some more before they got Pete all fixed up. We had already decided even before Pete's accident that we would drive back to Bountiful Saturday night (hopefully in time to watch UFC 100), this just delayed our departure a bit. All in all we had a good time, until the last part, and we recommend Lava for a nice family weekend, though may we suggest not putting in the river above the park! (I decided against posting the picture I took of Pete's wound, but if anyone wants to see it leave a comment and I'll email it to you. It is pretty gross!)