Sun Drenched Summer

See, summer break was super short. The kids are already in school, and I'm not caught up enough on my blog to put the first day pics up. I better get crackin!

Natalie and I were the first ones to ride the tube, and our driver was crazy! I got some major thigh slaps because my lower body slid off the side of the tube when we simultaneously flew across the wake to the right and went over some other boat's big wakes. I fell off (or let go) twice, but Natalie conquered! The rest of the kids were a little freaked out after that, and Paige would only go on the tube if we went slow - really slow. I think Russ almost fell asleep.

(To be fair, this pic was taken before we started going.)

The cap'n and his wife.

We finally got Kassidy out there on the slow kiddie ride. The girls kept giving us these weird hand signals, like putting the thumb and forefinger together and then opening them, or thumbs up, down, up, down. What? Well, we stopped to find out, and as the tube came to a stop, they all three slid off the front into the water. Hilarious! Kallie said excitedly, "Mom, I went underwater! And I had my eyes open! And my mouth!" Yummy. See, I've been urging her to go underwater at her swim classes, so she was mighty proud of herself... even though it was involuntary. We found out that the hand signals meant they wanted us to turn... gee, I wonder why we didn't get that!

After that one, though, Kass and Lucy were ready for a faster ride... not so much Kallie, so Nats hopped on.

Total cuteness with pink galore!

Russ got some pretty choppy water on his first round (I know you're thinking, "Hey, it doesn't look choppy, you wimp," but I'm serious, it was). At least his driver was super awesome! Oh yeah, and his photographer. The other pics were blurry because of the motion of the boat, but that's okay because somehow I like this one, even cut off.

Jill says Lucy means light.

Chad got up after... how many tries again? I lost count. Go Chad!

Thanks, Jill, for bringing the suckers... no really, thanks a lot. Somehow, one ended up in the dryer. Non-sweet! Or maybe sticky sweet.

What in the world is happening in this picture? Me thinks aliens might be abducting her with a giant vacuum hose.

Kallie means beauty.

Sweet! I didn't see any of his jumps because I'm too nervous about driving to look back very often, but I could sometimes feel the tugging on the boat.

This could be a Clinique photo... or a Justin Bieber poster?

(See Jill's July 9 post if you want to get the joke.)

Photographer's self portrait... lovely.

There was a little light left after Russ' last wakeboarding run, so Nats and I hopped back on for a super ride (I was sore for two days). Nats is such a fun-loving thrill seeker!

Thanks, Isons, for a fun time!