A day on the lake

It's summer, which means I begged my dad to take the boat out. We won't be living close enough to do that for very long, and I knew the I the girls would have a blast. Of course, I thought Jim might like it too.  Typically we take sandwiches and eat easy food while we're out on the water. Grandma bakes cookies, and it's just a fun laid back kind of day.

Until one of the Grandkids gets really excited to see what Grandma made and burns her chin on the edge of a cookie sheet taken out of the oven moments before...

And then falls asleep with an ice pack as we're ready to go. Ellie-girl was such a trooper about that burn. After falling asleep with the ice pack she never once mentioned that it hurt unless we asked her.

Aeryn had outgrown her other life jacket so it was passed down to Ellie and she got a new one. The boat is nowhere near the being put in the water yet but she just couldn't wait to wear it!

And here's me.... I'm not the greatest waterskier but it works. My parents have this uncanny ability to do a graceful decent into the water when they are ready to stop. Me? I basically tumble down like I'm trying to make bellyflops an Olympic sport.

Jim patiently waiting.

There he is!!! Only, we were all sitting in the back of the boat which meant it couldn't quite get enough oooomph to go fast enough and he plummeted into the water right after this. Totally our fault. :(

I don't know if it was Jim or my dad that kept making the decision to go ever faster as he and I were on the tube. It wouldn't matter except that I was taking some serious air as we'd hit wakes and I eventually took a blow to the head (Jim's elbow) and let go in a fit of throbbing pain. I'd do it again anyway.

Because it was a blast!

The girls could not be more different. The first time they rode the tube together Ellie kept saying "faster!" while Aeryn kept saying "slower!" It seems the appeal is in the illusion of control rather than in the changing of the actual speed (we'd not change anything half the time and they'd both yell "perfect!"). Here they found a way to peacefully co-exist at a moderately slow (read: snail) pace.

Which meant that we gave each little girl a chance to be by themselves so they could control the speed however they wanted. Ellie sure liked that! Notice the thumbs up which means "go faster."

This was HUGE for Aeryn as she's still a little nervous in the water. She loves the boat and being out there, but getting in the lake sometimes scares her. She conquered that (at least a little) and had a blast!

It was a perfect day.