Boating and Backyard Campout

Our plans for the weekend changed seven times in the last week.  We were going to take the kids camping.  Then we decided to try a boating trip with my K-1 friends.  Then it was back to camping.  Then boating.  Then at the last minute our plans changed again when a nasty flu bug hit at Keri’s house.  The kids had been super flexible with our on-again/off-again plans, so we decided to reward them with a fun family day on Friday.  Nate took the day off and we headed out to Willard Bay for a day of boating.  Each of the kids had lots of turns to ride behind the boat.  Ben had a really great day.  He’s getting better and better on the kneeboard.  He was crossing back and forth over the wake like it was old hat and was almost able to ride out some monster bumps (instead he had a really cool wipeout).  The biggest news of the day was that he learned how to ski with the regular tow rope.  He wasn’t a big fan of that idea, but his feet are too big for the trainer skis so he didn’t really have a choice.  It took him four tries to get up and stay up.  He wanted to quit about eight seconds into the first try.  I was proud (and a little surprised) that he stuck with it.  The girls made good progress too.  Emily was able to get up on skis with the regular tow rope on her second try.  She was only up for about five seconds and she didn’t want to try again, but she got up.  Elise had her longest run ever on the skis, and Abby started learning how to turn on the kneeboard (not an easy task when you only weigh 35 pounds).  We spent some time at the beach and took turns practicing our rowing skills to paddle our way out to the buoy on the tube.  It was a fun day!  The only downside of the day was that Abby got a really bad sunburn on her bum.  But it was cute to hear her say, “My butt cheeks are sunburned.”

  

We headed home and set up the trailer in the backyard for a little campout.  We borrowed JD and Callie’s firepit again (and kind of broke it . . . but that’s another story).  We had dinner and played games and roasted red, white, and blue marshmallow stars.  It was fun and it gave us a chance to give the trailer a much needed cleaning and take inventory before we go on a real camping trip.  We decided that we should make it a yearly tradition.  Hopefully most years it will be in May instead of the last week of June.