Catch Up Part 3: Neighborhood Yuba Trip

Okay. Whew. Final catch-up post.

We finally got the boat out for its inaugural 09 trip a couple weekends ago--in fact, we headed out on our 17th anniversary. Spent our anniversary in a tent with all the kids. Romance! :-)

I decided to man up and do the tent thing with Wyatt. I was a little nervous about it because I'm not the best tent sleeper, and roaming toddlers in a tent aren't always conducive to healthy slumber either, but it went pretty well. We spent all afternoon Thursday on the water and had a good time, then set up camp on the beach and roasted marshmallows and enjoyed some yummy s'mores. I love myself a good s'more, don't you? We tried putting Wyatt in the tent with the big kids to see if he'd settle down and go to sleep, but he thought it would be a lot more fun to stomp around and holler. (We kept hearing giggle giggle, stomp, stomp . . . "WYATT!!"). Finally I decided I'd try snuggling with him by the fire. By then it was about 11 p.m. and he was exhausted, so we snuggled up with his blue blanket and he fell asleep on my shoulder, which is a rarity anymore. It was quite lovely, actually: warm summer night, twinkly stars, snuggly toddler, tummy full of s'mores. Mmmmm.

The next day some more friends from the ward showed up and we had a great time on the boat. The big accomplishment of the day was Ethan getting up on the wakeboard for the first time. We've never bought a kid-size wakeboard, but we thought Ethan might be big enough to use the smallish adult wakeboard . . . and he got right up! Here's a snippet of his first ride:



Then I went to go take some video of Forrest ripping it UP on the wakeboard (jumping both wakes, looking super studly) and the camera died. The camera ALWAYS dies when I try to take pictures of Forrest on the wakeboard. Maybe he's developed some bad wakeboarding juju? But I did get a few other good lake-y time photos. Here are some:



All three kids up on skis. Sorry about the bad backlighting, Ethan.

The campsite! Ah, the beauty of Utah scrub. Yes, sometimes I really miss Minnesota. That building off in the distance is a very handy bathroom facility, which adds to the overall ambiance, no? But, once you take the decidedly non-picturesque surroundings out of the equation, I'm still a Yuba fan. Nice beaches (by Utah standards at least), soft sand, warm water.

A boy and his sippy cup, enjoying the ride.
Also a common sight at Yuba: cows. Hit the beach, check out the cows! That Mama cow was eyeing the kids pretty aggressively, seeing as how they were rising up out of the water and coming straight at her calf. A few seconds after I took this picture she snorted and both cows ran up into the grass.

The obligatory "Hey kids, you're in the boat! Now smile!" photo.

And I include this one because, while I never did manage to get a picture of Forrest on the wakeboard, I did get a picture of him doing what he does for hours and hours and hours whenever we go out on the boat: in the drivers' seat, neck cranked back, watching while he pulls somebody on skis or kneeboard or wakeboard or tube. Thanks, hon, for making it so fun for everybody when we go out on the boat! I'm such a boat-driving wimp. (I HATE driving the boat. Okay, don't HATE it. But I really don't like it. Makes me nervous. Always afraid another boater is going to crash into me, or vice versa, or that I'll accidentally run over some skier, or at the very least that I'll drive so nervously that I'll jerk the poor wakeboarder behind me around so much they fall over. We all have our strengths, right? Boat driving isn't one of mine.)

So it was a good time. Enjoyed spending time with our friends and neighbors, nobody got too terribly sunburned, and I had a good time camping in a tent! Success!