Boating with the DeCaires Family

June 22, 2012

We took our awesome friends/neighbors/fellow ward members, the DeCaires', out on the boat one Friday a few months ago. They have 4 kids, so it was a lot of fun watching them have so much fun all day Brian and Brittany were practically pro wakeboarders from the start!

There was a massive spider on the boat when we picked it up from storage ... again!

The boat trailer was shaking pretty bad as we started driving, so Jeff stopped to check it out. He couldn't find any obvious problems.

Brittany had a nice camera with her and got a couple of good shots of Jeff on the wakeboard.

For some reason, there is this natural reflex when you get a lot of air, to let go of the rope. Whoops!

Brian was up and going on the wakeboard on his very first try! He and Brittany are snowboarders, so once he was up, he wasn't afraid to go in and out of the wake and even jump a little! We were impressed!

The board was a little big for Brittany, so it took her a couple of tries to get up, but she didn't give up, and once she was up, she was good to go!

Cute Dax loved feeling the mist from the water.

SIIIICK! Dead fish in the water! Brian took one for the team and picked it up to move it out of our way so the kids wouldn't touch it.

Everyone looks so excited to start tubing!

That's more like it! These kids never wanted to get off of this tube! Especially Aiden (next to Luke), he loved it! He told Jeff, "Just keep it between 50 and 60 miles per hour, 'kay?" -

Aiden is a daredevil!

Such a cute family!

I took a few pictures like this one. No matter what everybody else's faces looked like, Luke was always grinning from ear to ear! He was just so excited to have all of these other kids to ride on the tube with him!

Poor Dax did not like bouncing so high he almost fell out of the tube. Good thing his dad was there to catch him! Luke was concerned that not everyone was having fun anymore.

Luke and Ashlyn are so cute grinning at each other in this picture! Brooklyn's grin, front and center, is pretty cute too!

Aiden getting crazy again! This boy wanted to fall off! I'm surprised he only fell off once all day!

Seriously, this family is the cutest!

Catching air!

Aiden and Brooklyn were fearless! They wanted to go alone with Jeff so they could go fast and try to get thrown off!

We've been playing hard all day! It's nap time!

Aiden got a little over-confident ...

And he paid for it!

But he didn't seem to mind!

Aiden finally fell off! After he hung himself off the back of the tube, just asking for it! Jeff jumped in after him, and Brooklyn was the last one standing!

Luke's just happy to be here.

Poor Dax got tossed by a wake again!

And he didn't like it!

Oh, that face! So adorably hilarious! I'm proud of the little guy for going for round two on the tube even after having to be caught by dad the first time. Too bad it had to happen again!

Jeff and I took a turn on the tube and Brian tried to throw us off. Of course, I was the first one to go, and when I did, I skidded across the surface of the water for what seemed like forever before I went under, skipping like a rock 8 or 9 times! So fun!

After a long day on the lake, it was time to head home, and Jeff noticed immediately that the boat trailer was still shaking a whole lot. We realized one of the tires was lopsided and we started worrying about a blow out, so we called Brittany, who has data on her phone (unlike us), and she gave us the number for a nearby Discount Tire. While I was on the phone with Discount Tire, the imminent disaster started, as I saw pieces start to fly off the tire in the rear view mirror and Jeff pulled over. I asked the man on the phone if they could come to us. He said they normally would, but they were too short handed at the moment. 

We assessed the damage (the tread had come off of the tire!), and decided to slowly pull into the neighborhood that was just in front of us, where we try the Jeep's spare tire on the trailer, hoping it would fit well enough to make it the short distance to Discount Tire.

No such luck. The tire didn't fit. So, we detached the boat from the Jeep and Luke and I took the torn-up tire to Discount Tire for a replacement.

When we got back, Jeff was inside the house we had parked in front of, enjoying a cold water bottle with the nice couple that lives there! They had noticed him sitting there, looking hot, and invited him in for a drink. While Jeff put the new tire on, they invited Luke and I into the house to wait. They were the nicest couple, who had just moved into their house 2 weeks before! They even gave Luke his own kid-sized water bottle! He felt so special and he loved playing with their cat until Jeff was finished with the repair work outside.

Before we could head home, we had to stop by Discount Tire to replace the other three tires on the trailer, which we found out were as old as the boat - 10 years! Apparently, the previous owner never used the trailer, so he never replaced the tires! They looked new from so little use, but they were deceptively OLD!

While we waited for the car, we walked across the parking lot for dinner at Cici's (all-you-can-eat) Pizza.

Luke was a fan.

Luke was a happy camper, full of pizza with his mini water bottle and his favorite green car.

This is what riding on the boat all day does to my hair. The wind blows it straight! Well, almost.

I don't know why the left side got so much straighter than the right. Weird.