Out on the Lake

We figured that since we won't have a ton of opportunity to spend time out with the boat this year, we'd better get started! So on Saturday we hooked it up and took off. Although I supposed the process of hooking up should have given us some hint as to how the day would evolve.....

For those who live nearby, you've seen that parking the boat is a tight squeeze. For those who haven't, there are 4 1/2 inches on each side of the boat once it is parked. Yes, that's a grand total of NINE inches of leeway before either the fence or the side of the house is taken out. Watching Aaron learn to park it last year was extremely nerve-wracking, yet quite entertaining! But just like everything he does, after a few times he was a pro and can now do it in just a few minutes, usually without having to change his angle at all. That is, unless the neighbors have their sprinklers on for a long time in the wee hours of the morning. And the ground along the edge of the fence becomes a bog. And the boat starts sinking and sliding. yah. That proved for an interesting time at pulling out the boat.

Due to the soaked ground, the boat had slid all the way over to the fence and was resting up against it. Which would have been manageable except for the fact that the fence posts protrude a good 2 inches past the fence panels. and the boat trailer was stuck behind it. Fun! After trying to get it out himself, Aaron finally pulled me outside to try and guide him without taking out the fence or the corner of the house. That was a joy. But hey, unhitching, re-angling, and ending up with me behind the wheel while Aaron sat on the boat and pushed the fence away from it with all his might finally did the job 20 minutes later. Phew! : ) (and apparently we'll be getting rock to put under the boat this week to avoid that happening again!)

Hurdle # 1: jumped.

When the kids came home from their church activity we did the flurry of "everyone change, hurry up and eat and let's GO!", and finally all made it out the door. We knew we'd be up against a fair amount of activity at the harbor, but hoped to avoid too big a rush. Well....we ended up sitting and waiting to get IN at the harbor for 45 minutes. The lot was completely full, so they were letting a boat in for each boat that came out. Note to self: if boating on Saturday, go EARLY. When we finally got to the front of the line, all the slips were full. So we got to wait another 10 minutes until we had a spot, and tried to convince the wonderfully nice man at the gate not to let another boat in until we launched! : ) (the next person actually did wait quite a while-although if that was why, I don't know!)

Then comes the lovely launch. I know Aaron's done this a million times, so he's an old pro and probably finds it mildly irritating that I'm still so unsure and high strung about it, but whatever. Despite the fact that I'm approaching the point where I can refer to myself as "ridiculously pregnant", I pride myself in being pretty darn mobile still! While I'm able to climb up and around the boat fairly well, I'm obviously not nearly as able to jump in and out quickly and get things going which leaves Aaron to do most (um, pretty much all) of the launching himself. Which means that he was up and down unhitching the boat. Which is when he slipped on the trailer. Which is when he tweaked his knee badly enough that as I saw him going down I knew he wouldn't be happy when he came back up. I am very proud of the fact that he didn't use any bad words though! lol I could tell that he had to try REEEEEEALY hard not to, but way to go honey!! : ) The instant purple and red color and mass swelling was beautiful. Not to be deterred though, he backed the boat off the trailer, parked it at the dock, and ran/limped his way back to the ramp to pull out the van and load up the kids. I do wish I had a picture of Aaron and the kids making their way over to the dock-it was like a lame duck family...Aaron limping along with a little herd-all paired up with a partner and holding hands as they walked in a line following behind him.

Hurdle #2-jumped. Well, kind of fallen over I guess.

Once everyone was in the boat we were off. It was great to hit the open water...until the boat started chugging. It drove fine, until we pushed it fast, when it would kind of die off. great. Thankfully whatever that little issue was resolved itself in the first hour or so and didn't leave us stranded.

Everything else was a blast, though for Alaina and Dallin it took some readjusting to the lake. They were both a bit nervous when they first jumped in to swim, but after a few minutes to adjust they started enjoying it just as much as they did last year. They all LOVED the tube-including Lincoln who enjoyed the whole trip entirely too much. It took a bit of force to keep him from jumping off the side of the boat any chance he thought he could! You'll see by the pics of him in the tube that he was happy as could be any time he was in the water! (and yes, I tubed with him, but we went slow I promise)

All was well, until Jacob started puking, but thankfully that was short lived, and with this many kids, not that unusual or that much of a panic anymore. It was "here, lay down, keep this towel in front of you and puke on it, not on the floor of the boat." (it seems he'd just had too much sun and was feeling the effects as he was fine after he finished and even wanted back in the tube for another ride!)

Hurdle #3: puked on

After a couple of wild tube rides for the two oldest and enough of the kids driving in circles to start making me nauseated, we wrapped it up to head home. Except for some ridiculous pressure when we were going fast and pounding into wakes, I'm glad to say that I survived and enjoyed the trip, and hope to squeeze in a couple more trips out before baby arrives!

Thankfully the whole getting the boat out of the lake thing was much smoother than the getting it in (and I'm sure seeing me run from the dock back to the van to pull the boat out was entertaining! YES I can still run!), and the ride home was uneventful (and pukeless). All was great until we got home and asked our neighbor to use his truck to put the boat back on the side of the house since the van just kind of sunk in the yard (that was still mushy). Apparently he ran over his neighbor's sprinkler and broke it when he was straightening out to back the boat in. whoops.

Hurdle #4: wet.

We ended up just sticking the boat in the driveway and avoiding the side of the house altogether until the rock arrives. Probably a good choice!

Let's hope the next boating trip is slightly less eventful!