A Boat Ride

One evening, after a very difficult day of garden work and dealing with my dad's illness, we decided to take a family boat ride on our lake.  Our lake is probably double the size due to all the excess water that has joined other low areas into one big water mass.  

You might think "What's so interesting about that?  It's summer after all, and boating is a summer time activity."

You would be correct.  However, when you are forced to use a 15 foot, flat-bottomed duck boat as transportation for 7 weeks this spring when your road was under water, a boat ride just doesn't sound as fun as it used to.  

**As a side note, our old road is still under water.  Thankfully, we have a new road away from the water!**

Hubby got the boat ready.  Our trusty Duke dog supervising.  Duke also rides in the boat with us which isn't my favorite thing.  However, the kids LOVE it and so he gets to come along (grudgingly).  The problem is that he doesn't decide to come along until he's already gone for a swim in the lake and then he'll jump in the boat.  And, for some reason, I'm his best buddy.  I'll let you connect the dots...

So we loaded up the kiddos, each of them in their "life coat" as Kiddo1 calls them.  (Don't worry, Kiddo2 only cried for 2.7 minutes and then he was all smiles!)

We have an electric trolling motor so it is very quiet as we glide along the water.  We watched muskrats, geese, a heron, ducks, seagulls, pelicans and even minnows on our trip around the lake.

Even though it was a discomfort to have to use our boat for transportation this spring, we're so greatful that we have it!!

There are no pictures of the actual boat ride because I had a wet dog and three toddlers in a boat.
I knew you'd understand...