When I was a teenager I really looked forward to summer… but then again, what kid doesn’t. The long, hot days with nothing that you have to do. Television, friends, trips, family bbq, sleeping in past 8, the feel of sand in your sheets at the foot of your bed because you had gotten home and been so tired that you just crawled into bed all salty and sandy! I also have fond memories of many trips I took with my high school youth group. Looking back, those teenage summers were “awesome”. One thing that I remember thinking about when I was a teen was that I wanted to take fun trips and do fun things with my own family some day, when I was all grown up.
Well guess what? I’m all grown up now, and I really haven’t been able to share very many fun things from my youth with my own children, we are just always swamped and so busy. Not to mention the cost of things has sure gone through the roof. (now I really sound old) Mike and I have been very frustrated about the “grind” that our life seems to have become. We have both sacrificed so much for our family… but where is the fun! We try to make even the mundane thing, like washing the car, fun! But we both miss some of the adventure from our youth. I used to begin my high school summers with a trip to the Colorado River, complete with heat, friends, boats, jet skis and bon fires. I miss that feeling. That feeling of time standing still. That feeling of relaxation. That feeling of being so stinkin’ hot that you just want to lay in the water all day! When we were first married, we used to surf, go to the beach, stay up late, watch movies, go to Vegas for the weekend. For goodness sake, did we give up all of the fun by having kids? I think NOT!
A few months ago, I began a dialog with Mike about all these things that I missed and hoped to share with our family. We talked about renting a boat and taking a trip to the river. But man, have you seen the cost of a decent boat rental. We were facing $500 a day, for 3 or 4 days, in Lake Havasu. Then Mike started talking about hobbies, and that maybe we should consider purchasing a water craft. So I began to do some research. I was looking into a 3 seater Sea Do. Then we decided that wouldn’t work, because Rylie and Griffers really probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy the water play on a Sea Do. So we began to search small boats, to see what we could get. Then we took it a step further, and actually rented a boat in the Oceanside Harbor, to see how the kids would respond to time spent aboard. They had a BLAST!!!
We found a lot of boats on Craigslist, but did not feel comfortable buying our first boat off of Craigslist because, come on now, we don’t know anything about boats really. So we searched local boat dealers and set our budget. At the end of our hunt, we found a little 2006, 17.5 ft Bayliner, and it has taken up residence in our garage. It is a great boat for our young family. It is rated very well, as an entry level boat, and because we bought it from a dealership, it is in excellent working order.
We’ve been on a steep learning curve. Suffice it to say, just trying to get the boat launched has proven to be a bit difficult with 4 kids! But Wesley has been very helpful. He can follow directions to put out the fenders, or tie the boat off to the dock. He learned the hard way, to wait until we ask him to untie the boat! (but that’s another story)
So our adventure has begun. Apparently, there is a saying in the boating world… “The best days in the life of a boat owner, are the day you buy the boat, and the day you sell the boat!” I hope that isn’t true. We’ve been on the boat a half a dozen times in the past month. We are hoping that Wesley will learn to be a shredder wakeboarder! It has been fun for the whole family… and so far, we are very happy to have an excuse to do something fun as a family. Mike plans to also use the boat to rekindle one of his favorite hobbies… fishing! He is already talking about taking some guys out on the boat.
kids boat video
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