Grandpa's Boat

We did several fun activities the week we were in Kent, in the afternoons after Dance Camp. However, because of the missing camera battery charger, I don't have pictures of our fun outings to the Pacific Science Center or the Woodland Park Zoo. But I did get some pictures on my phone of the day Grandpa came home early to take us on a boat!

Everyone had to try on their life jackets while Grandpa was getting everything ready to go. Katy looked especially cute in hers! I found a picture of Aunt Miriam wearing this life jacket on 7/9/91. I thought it would be cute to put it here. But apparently the scanner part of our printer isn't set up or something, so you'll have to take my word for it!

It was hard to get the kids to take a nice picture because it was so sunny they wouldn't look at me. I kept switching everyone around, and finally we got most of their eyes open...


Aunt Hannah came with us for a little while before needing to leave for dance. She took Katy on the tube with her! Katy was quite upset about the whole thing. I made her try for a little while, but when it became clear she wasn't going to start enjoying it, I let her stop. See, I'm a reasonable person!


Once Aunt Hannah was gone, the boys got to go. It had been several years since we got to go out on Grandpa's boat, but they took to it immediately! The LOVED it! One time we stopped and started pulling them in to see if they were done, and before we even asked they said "Do we HAVE to stop?" So I taught them thumbs up & down for faster & slower, and kill it for, well, kill it. They went out together for a while longer, then each took a turn by himself. It was fun to see them enjoy it so much! Oh, and their favorite part? The bumps! Once we learned that, Grandpa did all sorts of fancy driving to get them some big ones, and they loved it!
Hey, the picture I found with Miriam wearing the yellow & polka dot life jacket has Danny wearing the one with a seagull & clouds, and me wearing the blue one! First of all, why is Danny wearing the bigger one than Miriam? Second, how have these three life jackets survived for 19+ years?

Here's a funny story - when Ryan was getting pulled in from his solo ride, he asked if he could just jump in and swim. Sure, that's fine. I wish I had a picture of his face when he did that! It was a little colder than he expected! It was really funny!

Oh, and after the boys were done I finally decided I'd take a turn. I wanted Katy to go with me, and she bravely came over to me while whimpering/crying a little bit. Grandpa took us for a nice, slow, uneventful ride (once I figured out how to position myself so we wouldn't fall in when he started going!), and she decided it was okay after all! I was very proud of her for going again even though she was scared! She even told me later that she had fun when she went with me. Big girl!