Same Ole with a Twist

We hit the water again this weekend but this time instead of land lubbers we rode in style. Our dear and wonderful neighbors invited us out on their boat for the day. Actually they offered to just take the boys and I spent the week deciding which I needed more - a break or some excitement. I chose excitement and I'm glad I did ~ it was just what I needed.

Our many adventures of the summer have alternated with long lonely days stuck at home and it has been a drain on all of us. The boys need speed and excitement to filter out all that energy. I need speed and excitement to rebuild my energy. As you can see the boys got plenty of speed and I had enough social interaction to last me a couple more days.

The most impressive thing about our neighbor's boat (besides the intrinsic fun-ness of being a boat) is the use of space. It has has two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and living room all sandwiched into about 30 feet. They have more storage than we had in the 1274 sq feet of our first house. The boys had a blast climbing to the front and going in and out the skylight in the master bedroom.

We rode the dingy to an island which was supposed to be the home of a pirate's graveyard. We did not find the graveyard but did happen upon an extremely high treehouse. I asked the boys if they thought it was the Magic Treehouse but they were quick to inform me that was only a book. The tree house was only 10 feet off the ground the side we climbed but it was a good 200 feet the other direction. Check out the amazing view. I believe the white dot you see in the upper right of the bottom right picture is the boat where we crashed for the day.

By "the boat" I really mean 4 boats. My neighbor hooked his boat to his friend's boat. The friend's friend did the same thing. And the friend's friend's brother hooked to that boat. And the friend's friend's brother hooked to theirs. Confused yet? It gets worse because my neighbor's friend's friend's, brother's newlywed wife is a girl I know! Her parents are in our ward and she and I used to play basketball together when we first moved here. We spent the day at opposite ends of a 4 boat chain discussing boats, basketball, her sister (who is a new friend of mine) and a few other things.

The middle boat in the chain was an impressive 50 feet complete with lighted palm tree, a dance floor, two pullout sofas, and a cave, among other such necessities. The boys spent today (Monday) drawing pictures of houseboats so apparently they were as impressed as I was. Their favorite part was climbing between the two. A little scary for a mom but they weren't allowed to do that without an adult or a reason. Of course, their reasons seemed to be as concrete as "I can't climb back over to this boat unless I climb over to that one first".

We wandered to the beach area where everyone docks their boats on an island to enjoy the sand. So much smarter than carrying your stuff from a parking lot! My neighbor and I fell in love with the Ski Doo Sport Boat and I begged her husband to buy her one for my birthday. Well, her birthday isn't until January...we can't wait that long! At the other end of the boat spectrum, we saw several dozen kayakers on a paddling expedition. I was quite jealous. I have been wanting to do more than paddle in a circle but don't have an adventure buddy. It was fun to compare the kayaks as they paddled past our boat. There are some beautiful boats out there.

Pretty girl was the life of the party as usual. She chatted up the whole group and recieved numerous compliments on being an amazingly happy contented baby. She loved the rock of the dingy and fell immediately asleep when we went exploring in it. While my neighbor B was holding her she woke up to throw her hat to the sand. B put it back on her head and she again, woke up, threw it to the ground and went back to sleep. It was subtle but B got the hint and let the sleeping babe have her way. Few can resist that smile, even asleep.

The most exciting event was the dingy race. The boys ran back and forth on the gangplank to the front of the boat and back to watch. Our neighbors won thanks to their enthusiastic cheering section. Or maybe it was the big engine. Who knows.

Eventually we had to head home. Well, we didn't HAVE to and that's what made it so difficult. Our neighbors spent the night and invited us to join them. If it had been a Friday night I would have been very tempted because I hated to end a day on the water. Especially with 4 boats of people saying "You're leaving already?" I am not one to leave a party early and my kids will stay happy as long as the party is going. (It wasn't until we loaded in the car and life was business as usual that they fell to pieces).We loaded into the dingy for the ride back to the dock but first we took a detour out into the sound for a speed ride. As you saw from the above videos the boys LOVED it and even Pretty Girl, who is pretty satisfied with just being in mom's arms no matter what else is happening, thought the bumby windy ride was cool. I was SO tempted to ask B to keep driving down the shoreline. I figured we could drive up to our friend's beach and ask if they could spend the night. The Laters could bring them to church the next day (ah, what's two more?) and I could keep partying all night. But no, I was a responsible mom and we headed home. The boys were asleep before we left the parking lot and slept in their swimsuits. We were gone for 11 hours so I guess we had a full day.

When is our next outing? It took me two days to post this but I'm done now so we're ready for more excitement!