It's a Tough Job...

...but on perfect days like today, I'm sure glad my youth pastor husband is the someone who's gotta do it! Today we tagged along while Dave was "hard at work" participating in his summer water sports day on the reservoir with his high school youth group. With 4 borrowed speed boats and several truck beds full of water skis, wake boards, knee boards, tubes and torpedoes, the people who attended had some of everything to choose from. Dave impressed us with his awesome kneeboarding abilities and fearless tubing skills. Honestly, the girls and I went for a morning of boat rides (they have never been on one) and a little beach play and ended up staying the whole 8 hours and doing things we never dreamed we would. You'll see...

.Delia was immediately a fan of the fast boat rides. She was squealing and laughing with every spray and bump. Ella was pretty scared at first.

Considering the reservoir is composed of essentially snow melt from the spring, it was a lovely warm temperature today. Most of our group went swimming at least once.

The boats carted us over to a sandy island in the middle of the lake where we unloaded shelters, chairs, coolers and bags of snacks and set up camp. This was a great place for the girls when we weren't riding. Whenever Ella gets around the high school gals, she thinks she's one of them. She tells me, "Mommy I'm going to go sit by my new friends. They're so kind!" Ella was entertaining everyone by collecting "treasures" (they were clams) and then proudly showing off her cup of "slams."

The big surprise and delight of the day came in the afternoon when Ella announced she was ready to try the tube, as long as Mr. Phil drove real slow. First she hopped in with Dave. I found this simply amazing since her first exposure to tubing was on "Reckless Ron's" boat where the goal was to knock the riding kids off in most spectacular ways!

Delia watched her from the boat waving and yelling, "Yook at you, Ella! Yook at you!"

When it was my turn to ride with Ella she realized that going faster and hitting bumps made for an even better ride. Phil saw her reaction to this and obliged. I was getting nervous for her and tried to hold on to her, but she said, "No Mommy, don't hold me. Hold your handle."

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An hour later and she wouldn't surrender the tube! Other people wanting a turn had to take it with Ella. Cassidy and Morgan gave her the wildest ride, actually venturing out of the wake. Next year I predict Ella will be riding backwards and tube leapfrogging like the big boys!