Boating

It was finally nice enough to go boating today. We have been itching to go on Troy's parent's boat for a few months, and it has been cold or rainy almost every weekend. It was such a great day. I forgot how much fun it is to do water sports! It was also Blake's first time boating (if you don't count when he was in my tummy).

He slept sweetly in his Grandma's arms. The combination of the sun, the rocking of the boat, and some sunscreen that he rubbed into his eyes made him very drowsy. The poor little guy's eyes were watering all day.

While Blake slept, Troy wakeboarded. He is getting really good at jumping over the wake. He is pretty serious about improving his boarding skills, to the point where each season he refreshes his knowledge with these 10 hour long wakeboarding instruction DVDs. When we were in Lake Powell with some friends last year, he watched segments of the DVDs in between boating sessions on a laptop in our tent. He hasn't yet refreshed this season, but he commented many times today on needing to watch them again. He is a very serious wakeboarder.

I prefer wakesurfing. It was really fun to get up on the board again without being concerned about my unborn child. I had to be pretty careful last summer, but I was experienced enough that I never crashed. I just sunk into the water when I got tired. Now that I'm back on my game, I think I need some wakesurfing DVDs to improve my sport as well.

Troy's dad was amazing at surfing today! He really showed me up. He was curving left and right and making it seem effortless. We also had many laughs about his "updates" to the boating equipment. We discovered that over the winter, he had literally taken every piece of boating supplies (life jackets, gloves, boards, etc.) and written "TANNER" and his phone number in green felt marker across them. It was the big joke of the day. There was not a single item without our name very visibly written across it. We can now be certain that we will not get our boating equipment mixed up with anyone else's, nor will we ever be able to sell it on ebay. At least we can be confident that items will be returned to us if they ever get lost.

When Blake woke up, he was all smiles.

He must have been pretty parched, because he went nuts over my water bottle. He just kept reaching for it and licking the bottle until I gave him a sip, which he promptly spit all over himself.

Life jacket time!

It was actually more like a straight jacket. He couldn't bend his legs, move his neck, or move his arms past his sides.

Some stud drove the boat...

...and then Blake helped him.

Blake also went for a cruise on the bow.

We can't wait to go out on the water again. Troy thinks it is the most genius idea ever to take Blake on the surfboard with him. He seriously sees absolutely nothing wrong with this. We have an ongoing debate about the safety vs. very-dangerous-most-crazy-idea-ever status of this idea. So, will you please tell Troy how it is just not right to pull an infant behind a boat on a surfboard? Thanks.