More Boat Time

Because we were in Dallas and heading home, and because the kids were out of school for one more day, and because we can't seem to get enough time on a boat, we drove up to Lake Texoma on our way home and stayed on Grandpa's boat for the night.

Now it's October here in Texas/Oklahoma and the nights are cooler and that is just when sleeping on a boat is the best!

Food tastes better on a boat.  It also tastes better on a cool fall evening when the whole cabin is filled with not only the smell of the chili but the heat from the stove.

That is the moon over the water.  We played cards and then snuggled down into our bunks for the night with the cool crisp air blowing across our faces all night long.  The sounds of a few halyards banging and the occasional discontented duck were the soundtrack to our dreams.

The next morning while the smell of bacon and coffee was permeating every cubic inch of the cabin, Emma took the camera and started snapping pictures.

My I just woke up and I am not really sure you should be pointing that thing at me look.

This photo is what Emma Jane titled "Classic Mom".  Iphone in one hand, coffee in the other.

Lucy's don't bug me face

I love the next series of shots Emma got while Lucy and I were playing.  I am so happy to have my own little photographer in training.  How lucky I am to be raising a child with such an eye.

And always thinking of inclusion, she made sure she got Daddy in the action too.

I love this growing girl.  She surprises me every day with her talents, but more importantly with her kindness and loving spirit.  She is equally at home holding her own in a conversation with adults or entertaining young children who are feeling nervous.  She is fascinated by the atomic spectrum of an element and how that is unique to each element, but just as interested in art and literature and sewing.  She is a creature who refuses to be labeled.  She is comfortable with herself and that is what every parent hopes and prays for.  I am in awe of her.

We had a great time aboard Miss Magic.  Thank you Grandpa for letting us stay there.  As with camping, we tried to leave it a little better off than before we got there.  We sure took away more great memories.

Day 2 of Sailing with Friends

When you decide to entertain and your honey cleans the boat all shiny and white and your ice chest is stocked with beer and corn crack and the weather is perfect and the summer is ending and you have made so many promises, you might as well host as many people as you can fit into one holiday weekend.  So on Monday morning we rolled our children out of bed and forced them back into swimsuits and headed back to the boat (it's only 30 minutes) and this time we took these two cute kids and their parents with us.

They are yet another Mayo family we love. 

Cecilia is fearless like Lucy.

These two had so much fun playing together. They made a clubhouse down below and giggled as only five year old girls can.  

  

They played in the raft and swam until they were just tuckered out. 

We ate yummy spinach dip and roasted corn salad and delicious watermelon. And we talked about how everything tastes better on a boat. Emma Jane wants to open a restaurant called "better on a boat". I think she might be on to something. 

The weather today was absolutely perfect. It was in the mid eighties. The wind was perfect around 10-12 miles an hour. There were only white puffy clouds in the sky. Today was the kind of day you want when trying to introduce someone to the sport of sailing. Perfect. 

By one count there were 22 SAILboats on the water today. One of them was this lovely couple, Scott and Yolanda. They just took their boat, Della Grace, to Lake Superior for over a month and lived aboard. She is a beautiful boat owned by an equally beautiful couple. 

I hope your Labor Day was full of food and friends and sun and fun. Ours sure was. 

Great day at the Lake

Yesterday we had a great day playing with Mayo friends at the lake. With the help of a mutual friend, and his magnificent Hunter 30, we were able to get some of my favorite peeps out onto two boats and raft up, jump off, get down, swim around, and sail into the night with good food and eventually good wind. 

Thank you Toney for helping me get these folks out on our lake for an unforgettable day! (Sorry for all the chocolate on your deck)

We definitely have to do this again...

 

I have decided that Cheney is thanking a higher power for putting him on a boat with all these girls... He is a very lucky boy. 

Mother's Day

This year on Mother's Day I was made a breakfast of crepes with bananas and strawberries and nutella and whipped cream and all kinds of amazing goodness.  The coffee was hot and the hugs were plentiful.  After breakfast we packed for the lake and spent the afternoon sailing in near perfect weather.  The winds were light and Emma Jane had a full lesson on sailing the boat.  She is already really good at sailing the boat but they went over terminology...what does it mean when we say "head up" or "fall off" or "sheet in".

As a storm was rolling in we docked the boat and cleaned in the sprinkling rain.  I have photos of Emma cleaning the boat on Father's day at four years old too!  I have to find them.  

We have been going non-stop this spring.  I am looking forward to a slower pace this summer.  On Mother's day I re-read my letter to Emma Jane, and my letter to Lucy.  It gave me back my focus.  

My most important job is being their mother.  When I get too tired and start to get short with them, I need to remember that they are only little for a very short while.  I already miss the cuddly stage of Lucy.  She is too busy to cuddle anymore.  I must slow down.  Reading books before bed is more important than the laundry or the dishes.

This summer I am going to slow down.  Read more books (both with and without kids).  Snuggle more.  Sail more.  Enjoy my house more.  I am getting off this merry-go-round and going to sit on the swing for a bit.

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there who go and go and go.  Let's model for our children that there are choices to be made and that the precious time we have should be used wisely.

Cold weather, colder water

This was Lucy and Emma Jane playing down inside the Catalina 30 that Davis was getting ready to buy.

Right after this we decided to head up to the cabin and get some dinner at the marina restaurant.  The girls donned their life jackets and went up to the cockpit.  Lucy was told to stay in the cockpit.  She did not.

She exited the starboard side of the boat and right into the 48 degree water.  From down below I heard Emma Jane scream "Daddy!"  We all ran up top and saw little Lucy crying and dog-paddling away from the boat to open water.  I think she was either disoriented or afraid of being squished between the dock and the boat.  Mike talked her into swimming back toward him and reaching for his hands.  He scooped up a very wet, very cold little girl into his arms and handed her over to Davis.  The air temp was somewhere around the same as the water so as I started to strip Lucy's clothes off her she began to shiver hard.  Once her soaking wet clothes and life jacket were off, we whisked her down below and Davis took off toward the cabins in search of towels.  The boat comes equipped with a heater so it was turned on high.  I wrapped myself around Lucy (maybe a little too tightly) and rocked her back and forth in front of the vent.

This is Lucy about 15 minutes after going for a swim.

She is wearing her daddy's shirt.  She is happy.  She is laughing at her sister. We are talking about how much trouble I am going to be in when Grandpa (my dad) finds out about this.  You can read about my dad here.

This is the front bench outside our cabin.  It was no secret to anyone walking by what had happened to Cabin 9.  Who has an entire set of clothes laid out to dry in 50 degree weather?

Since I only packed one life jacket and one pair of shoes, and because Lucy was in need of dry ones, Mike went to the nearest Wal Mart and bought her new shoes and a new life jacket.

Her new life jacket has Hello Kitty on it.  So do her new shoes.

I was worried the next day that she might have some lasting phobia about boats or docks.  My fears were quickly put to rest.

She wanted to go back and feed Nelly and Gertrude.

Gertrude is white and, according to Lucy and Emma Jane, is a boy.
 

Nelly is a beautiful mix of white, black and grey and is a bit of show off when it comes to catching food in her mouth.

It seemed everyone wanted to hold Lucy's hand the next day...
 

Lucy was ready to take the boat out for a test sail.  Kick the tires.

That's my hunky husband on the bow.

 The skipper and his first mate at the helm.

See my new life jacket daddy got me just because I fell in the lake?

Here we are out for the inaugural sail on Lake Texoma.

Here is the proud new boat owner.  Doesn't he look good?

Lake Texoma

Davis and Linda bought a sailboat this weekend on Lake Texoma. It was a cold but great weekend. Grandpa and Granna live over 8 hours away so we don't get to see them as much as we would like. But now we have a place to meet that is sort of splitting the difference. We are closer than they are. And we all share a love of sailing so this couldn't be more perfect.

A more detailed post to be added at a later day. But for now, here is a taste of the weekend. (Everyone is feeling better as you can see.)