It's a big enough umbrella: Waterski 2009

Last week we survived another year of the annual waterski trip. I say "survived" because it was kind of a comedy of errors. We started off with Benjamin running a fever Sunday night which continued through Monday. The next problem happened during the drive up to the lake Monday morning, when Mandy and Charlie's trailer tire blew. They put on a spare and made it the rest of the way. We all made it to the lake but noticed that the water level was lower than we'd ever seen it. This made finding a parking/camping place difficult, since we usually try to find one right on the shore, and most of the shore was 50 yards down a hill. We finally found a spot and while the guys were setting up camp, the kids and moms waded in the water. Wading was all we could do, since the water was so shallow. I had squeezed in a session of swimming lessons for Alex and Benjamin before we left, but they didn't get to use their skills too much in two feet of water. After standing out there for a while we noticed some little specks stuck on all our feet. The only word I know to describe them is "leech". They were teeny, brown, wormy things that lived in the mud and attached themselves to skin. They didn't actually suck blood, but we were grossed out enough to stay out of the water for a while. So we sat in what little shade we could find while the guys continued to set up. At some point ryan noticed that the boat trailer also had a flat tire. Usually in June the weather is still pretty mild at the lake, but it was unseasonably hot this year. Ryan's dad had rented a huge motor home with A/C so that the ones who were pregnant or had new babies could have a comfortable place to sleep, and get some relief from the heat. He turned on the air for a while but someone noticed that it wasn't actually cooling off. That got fixed later that day, but we still had to sit through the heat and didn't even have the lake water to cool us off because we were scared off by the "leeches".
Finally the boat was in the water and all the kids were excited to go for a ride, so they all piled in. Ryan was the designated driver, so he stepped in but his foot splashed when he stepped into the boat. He turned the pump on and baled out some water, and it was decided that the boat would stay in the water just long enough to let everyone ski who wanted to ski, then the boat would come out of the water before it sank too much. The next day we put it back in and let the kids do some skiing and tubing before taking it out again, possibly the last time for the old Nordic. (sniff)
Anyway, the first day was pretty miserable, but things got better and we stuck it out for three days. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Alex and Ben's attempts at skiing (Benjamin skiied for the first time!). Ryan decided to bring up the horses this year, and that turned out to be fun, too. Since we weren't in the water as much as usual the horses provided another activity. The last mishap occurred on the drive home, when the spare tire on Mandy and Charlie's trailer blew.

Ryan on the trail. All of that green used to be part of the lake.