Illegal Canoeing

Getting the canoe home from Utah was one thing.

Storing it was another. We no longer live in the kind of neighborhood that would allow us to get away with using our canoe as a lawn ornament. Those were beautiful days, but they are gone gone gone.

Now we are doing this:

Do I have faith in my husband's skills or what? I put my windshield on the line everyday for this canoe.

And I have to be completely honest here. I did have some doubts about whether we would ever ACTUALLY use the canoe, as a canoe. Not just something totally large to hang from our garage ceiling.

I'm a doubter.

I should have known that we would be on the water in no time. Mark grew a beard for the occasion. Unfortunately for me, I found out that we needed a boating license in order to legally set sail paddle in any of the local bodies of water.  This would be a reason not to go (for me), but for Mark it is an invitation to take a walk paddle on the wild side.

So we headed over to Cedar Lake and thanks to the help of a very friendly wind surfer, we were able to get the canoe off the top of the van.

Everyone put on their life jackets.

Anna especially. I checked that "between the legs" strap multiple times to make sure it was secure.

Because once we were on the boat I knew she would mostly be interested in scaring the living daylights out of me.

I know those pictures don't look that scary. That's because you are normal. I am a scaredy.

Also I was preoccupied with scanning the shore for Park Rangers that would most assuredly arrest us all for not having a boating license.

Mark was unconcerned. His confidence grows with his facial hair.

Soon the kids were ready to head back to shore, so we paddled in and enlisted the very faithful wind surfer to help us put the canoe back on the van. I was still busy keeping a look out for Park Rangers looking to jail a family of canoeing criminals. I was relieved when the canoe was strapped back on and we could pretend like we had never been in the water.  I did consider drying it off with my collection of dirty socks my kids have been leaving in the back seat. Just to make it believable.

But that would have been silly.

The kids then got down to the very serious business of finding "shells" on the shore.

I made a mental note to remember to "put them in a special place" when we got home.

Lucky little clammies.