A Day at the Lake

My life is a gift. I am blessed to enjoy so many wonderful moments with family and friends. I have hundreds of posts to try to catch up on. Things from last week. Things from this summer. Things from last year. Thoughts and ideas I want to share with you. Experiences I hope to document. We just keep living. We keep enjoying these moments. I will document where I can. We love remembering these things.

Saturday, we went to the lake with our friends, Dave and Laurie Okkema, on their boat. Dave has told us before we can borrow their boat, but we love to be there with them. So glad they let us go with them (you may remember, it was one of Britt's gifts to me). Check it out (Oh, and I apologize for the massive amount of pictures; just know there were several more I didn't include):

just hanging out at the beach

the beach is hard to find, since the water has risen so high this year (it is receding a little now)

Garrett popped up on the wakeboard like he has been doing it all summer (we haven't been to the lake since we went with the Okkemas last summer)

He was loving it

Cole also got right up and had fun on the board

He was disappointed I didn't get more video of him, but I thought I got some good pictures

We told the girls they were going to ride the knee board (they have never tried before). They didn't really want to, but I said I would show them how it is done. Well, after I wrecked a couple times, once letting go of the rope because the boat was going too fast and then tipping under the knee board because I was still strapped in, as well as going into the water face first on one wreck (where I wasn't sure how I was going to get back up); I didn't think the girls would be too excited to try.

But Rachel was willing, so we set her up on the knee board, strapped in and got ready to pull her. Normally, we would let her pull herself up, but she is so light, we thought we could just start her out on top. Then waves started crashing in and tipped her over before we got the boat going. We were afraid she would have nothing to do with it after that.

But she decided to give it a try

And then she did it! And she made sure to smile for the camera, so she can share this picture with her friends. Hi, Katelyn!

She loved it!

Okay, Olivia was willing to try also, as long as dad promised not to pull her too fast

She was very serious about getting those straps on, just like her dad told her

And then she got lots of serious smiles in for the camera. Such a cutie!

Laurie spent most of the day relaxing in the water by our beach spot

Dave and Britt hanging out

Snack time

Now, Tyler had watched her sisters knee board while she was back at the beach. So, she didn't want to be left out. (Actually, she took a lot of convincing, but since Rachel and Olivia had tried it, she didn't want to be outdone).

Olivia watches

And Tyler got up and rode for a while

Then we went back in to get the tube. Tyler was disappointed. I guess she felt like she didn't get a very long turn and even later in the day, she said she had wanted to knee board again. Next time, I guess.

We got all three girls on the tube. Britt explained to Dave that this tube is a little temperamental. If you don't go fast enough right off (not fast, but not too slow), the tube will swamp. Well, that is exactly what happened. Rachel and Tyler let go right away, and they were laughing as the tube was pulled away from them. Poor little Olivia held on for dear life as she was dragged along on the side of the tube after it was lifted back up out of the water by the moving boat.

Cole jumped in to help her, but at that point, she just wanted to be off the tube altogether

We dragged her around until we were back to the other girls. At that point, she jumped off the tube and swam back to us on the boat. She still hates tubing. We have never had good success with pulling our girls on the tubes, but Olivia in particular has had some horrible experiences.

Rachel and Tyler were still laughing after the first mishap. They decided tubing was pretty fun (this is not the only smiling shot I took, just so you know)

But then their dad started going too fast for Rachel, and she started yelling for him to stop (see Cole covering his ears)

And pouting, because it seemed like her dad wasn't listening to her (which he wasn't)

And then Tyler decided she didn't like it either

And Rachel begged, and Britt finally stopped the boat

Then the boys went tubing with Dave

They had a blast!

holding on as Britt whipped them around

and around

We stopped for a little while at a hidden cove in the back of a small island (it is usually a bigger island, but the water is so much higher this year). We all swam in the water, and Britt and Rachel and Tyler hiked up over the big rock. The boys climbed up on the other side of the rock and chased lizards. It was a nice little reprieve.

Britt and I wanted to be back in Blanding, so we could attend a barbecue for Tyler Nielson, who is leaving soon to serve a mission in Uganda, Africa. Tyler is one of the young men Britt has been teaching in his Missionary Prep Class. We could have stayed at the lake longer, but there were threatening clouds to the southwest, and we didn't want to end up getting caught in a storm when it was time to go, so we decided to leave early.

Dave's dogs had been swimming in the water, and he had convinced them to join him on the tube. Then, we decided to pull them back to our beach spot. We didn't think they would stay on the tube for long. . .

But they did! We hauled them all the way back

It was an interesting thing to watch

I think they were pretty happy when the ride was over, though

It really was a wonderful day to be at Lake Powell. The weather was perfect. The girls all tried something new. They boys had a good time. The Okkemas were great company. I think the dogs enjoyed themselves, as well.

There is nothing like getting away from the world for a while and just floating on a boat. I still can't quite believe our summer is almost over.