Just Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale . . . .

Just Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale of Addison's First Boat Trip.
It's started from the Mullins port aboard the "Nana Boat".

The Mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and true.

Five passengers set sail that day for a 1 hour tour, a 1 hour tour!

Apoo (my dad) to the rescue.

The "Baby Ruth" towing the Nana Boat back home. Our 1 hour trip ended up being 4 hours.

I am so excited to have a long weekend at the lake. Wayne, Addison, Mom, Josh (my eight year old nephew) and I all came down Friday night. My brother, Scott, ten-year old nephew Will, and my Dad came down Saturday afternoon to join us. A family weekend at the lake--there's nothing better. But our Saturday was very interesting. Wayne was excited to take Addison on her first boat ride on the Malibu (our ski boat) and was up and had the boat in the water before 7:30. Unfortunately, the boat was running hot and despite having my brother pick up a part and trying to fix it, the Malibu was pulled back on the trailer to be towed back home to be repaired. No ride on the Malibu this weekend. So Addison's first boat ride would be on the "Nana Boat"--my parents' 24' pontoon boat. We left around 4:00 and planned to be back by 5:00 so mom could prepare a family dinner--the roast had been in the crockpot all day. Addison wasn't crazy about her lifejacket, but she was so cute in her pink life jacket with her pink hat. She fell asleep not long after we started and stayed asleep for the first half of the ride. We went about 35 minutes down to an area of the lake that had some damage from a recent storm. When we got ready to turn around, my brother asked if someone else wanted to drive. Wayne volunteered and my rule follower husband decided he wanted to attach the kill switch (like what you were on your wrist when riding a jet ski) in case he got pulled over for some reason. Unfortunately when we went to attach the switch, he accidently killed the engine. Despite trying everything they could to restart the boat, my brother and husband couldn't get it restarted. It was then time for the dreaded call back to my dad who was at the house taking a nap on the deck--but he didn't have the phone. So my mom called the neighbors who walked over to the house and woke dad up. To make an already long story shorter, the neighbor--Mr. Ed, came to our rescue with his boat. He, his wife, and dad came down in his boat and tried to get the boat started. After about 30 minutes of trying, they ended up towing the boat back to the house which took about 1 1/2 hours. So our 1 hour trip turned into almost 4 hours. Addison was very good throughout the ordeal and only got frustrated when she got hungry--thankfully mommy always has milk on hand. When we finally got home, Mr. Ed was pulling his boat on the trailer to take it back to his house and the line that holds the boat onto the trailer at the bow broke. It is a huge boat, so luckily it didn't fall of the trailer. As he was working on fixing the broken line, Scott and I were walking up to the house so I could get Addison fed, bathed and in bed since she was used to being in bed by that time. About the time Scott put the key in the door we heard a blood-curdling scream. It was my nephew Josh screaming "It's a snake and I'm scared." Scott dropped everything and raced down to the pier where Josh was cornered by a snake. Scott said he expected to see a little snake on the pier but stopped in his tracks when he saw a snake stretched from the big pier to the floating pier--about a 4 foot snake. Thankfully the snake was about as scared as Josh and he squeezed between the boards on the pier and slithered away.

We enjoyed a family dinner together about 8:30 and all sat around the table reliving the trials of the day and laughing--that's one of the things I love about my family. There is always lots of laughter no matter what has happened. After dinner, Scott decided to walk down to the pier to see if he saw any signs of the snake. The thing was wrapped around the ladder along the edge of the pier. Scott had taken a big knife with him, so he took care of the snake. He became the snake hunter this weekend and ended up killing another snake that was about 5' this morning. I HATE SNAKES so I'm glad there are 2 less around the lake.

Thankfully our day today has been much more relaxing. We took a trip on the Nana Boat which cranked right up this morning. :-) We had a lazy day around the house and had an enjoyable dinner out with the neighbors who came to our rescue yesterday. We just finished watching Amazing Race and I'm really hoping Kisha and Jen are gone soon! Mom, Dad, Wayne, and I are all off tomorrow so we have one more day at the lake.