A Day on the Water with Friends

We spent Thursday on the water with friends. It was the most glorious weather and excellent company! The boys and I were in heaven. (Russ was in Utah on a business trip and Lola stayed with Aunt Shannon for the day to make the outing more relaxing for her mother.)

Luke wanted speed and danger (no surprise). Leif was unsure (no surprise). He stayed on the boat in the beginning.

He decided that he would give it a try as long as we stayed at two miles per hour until he approved of an increase. I knew he would love it. He would hold up his fingers, increasing the speed by a single mile per hour at a time—just to be sure. By the end of the day he was enjoying full speed with his arms in the air. (Look, mom. No hands! Wahoo!!)

We slowed down and meandered up river.

And stopped for lunch—exploring, swimming, and hunting newts, lizards, and minnows with nets and buckets. (In short: heaven.)

This little guy would act like he was asleep when his belly was rubbed:

The girls eat live minnows, and Luke was not about to be showed up. He audaciously swallowed a couple with a look of deep satisfaction on his face.

Levi swam a great distance towing this log, and then towed it behind the boat for another long distance. He was determined to bring it to our second hang-out.

I am so grateful for special friends. So grateful for our gorgeous location. So grateful for simple pleasures. So grateful for a spectacular summer. So grateful for my fun, interesting, active, affectionate, extroverted, curious, adventurous boys.

(P.S. I had timed our afternoon so that we would be able to drive home in time for the last day of evening VBS. We got back to our truck right on schedule. And then it wouldn’t start. Or, rather, wouldn't stay running. It would turn over, sputter, and die—several times. We had a rather stressful hour as Russ was out of state and we were an hour away from home. But, miraculously, after my brother-in-law, Ben, and my dad had kindly started the drive up to rescue us, I tried starting the truck one more time. It ran ragged at first but didn’t die. My friend sent the boys back up (they had gone back to the boat while we were waiting for our tow and ride home), and we headed home. Ben and Dad met us half-way just to make sure we were okay. Astonishingly, they were only a few minutes late to VBS and didn’t even miss a single song. We were hauling! And no problems with the truck since then. I’m so thankful!)