::some boating fun::

Our friends the Hansens have a boat that they like to take out on a lake that's about an hour and a half away from our house. We were lucky enough to get taken out by then in June and had a really good time. I brought my little camera to document the trip. Kris of course still remembers how to waterski. He looked pretty comfortable up there. Sandy was pretty intimidated and fascinated by how fast the boat went at first. He eventually got comfortable and I had to explain to him that running around on a boat while it's driving is a bad idea. Max felt pretty cool hanging with the big boys. We naturally brought lots of snacks. It just wouldn't be the same without the delicious snacks. Max wanted to take a turn on the skis--so he got put up on the little wooden trainers. It took a lot of tries, but he kept soldiering on. Luckily he had experienced people giving him advice and getting him started. He finally got "up" kind of up to about knee height. Turns out that one of his feet was halfway out of the foot holder and so he couldn't stand up completely. He was satisfied after this success and came back into the boat. And of course I had to take a turn. It's kind of embarrassing to do it with everybody watching from the boat--especially when one has only ever water-skiied twice before in one's LIFE. Audience. After a bad try I got up and going. I couldn't navigate or anything, I just had to hold on tight and hope that the wake wouldn't knock me on my head, but I stayed up for a while a couple of times and then my exhausted muscles were done. Max's #1 favorite thing was the tubes. There were two gigantic tubes pulled behind the boat. The kids would ride on there and bump up and down the wake and feel the wind on their faces. Max almost cried when he finally had to get off so the big boys could take a rougher ride. That was a pretty fun way to spend a saturday morning. We'll be up for it again soon.