boat day

Anthony had to go into work today to deal with a problem, but before he left, we still managed to squeeze in our Saturday morning walk together. When we got home, I spent about an hour editing photos before heading to the gym. I ran for 30 minutes and then rushed home .

Once I got home, I opened all the blinds and started editing again. Last weekend I spent almost the entire weekend working, and I didn’t want another weekend where I felt like I did nothing with the kids. So I called Anthony and asked if we could work on the boat and maybe take it out on the lake.

Last summer, Anthony and I got caught in a huge rainstorm on Lake Conroe after spending an amazing day on the water and having lunch lakeside. During that trip, the water pump stopped working along with a few other things. We knew we needed to replace some fuses and get a new battery, so we thought we could get it running well enough to enjoy the day.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly the case.

A few years ago, the boat key broke, and ever since then it has slowly been falling apart. Between the old gas, needing clean oil, and the broken key situation, the boat went into limp mode today. It wouldn’t go faster than 16 mph. We had it at full throttle and it stayed around 5,000 RPMs.

Aubrey was super bummed because we had planned to go back out tomorrow. Today was supposed to be our “test run” to burn through the old gas and get everything running smoothly again. At this point, I really don’t think the gas is the main issue.

Sam, on the other hand, was a complete butt about the entire trip. He didn’t want to go and pouted most of the day. At one point he dramatically told me he wanted to get emancipated from us. I quickly reminded him that no judge is granting emancipation to a teenager without a job. He stayed cold and annoyed anytime I said anything. He always seems to act this way when we make him do something he doesn’t want to do.

What frustrated me even more was that the night before, I let all his friends come over to swim and play poker. I bought pizza and let them completely destroy the snack cabinet, and honestly, I didn’t even care. I would much rather their friends be here at our house than somewhere unknown. But today Sam kept saying he hates being at home and wants to be far away from us. I know he was just angry because he didn’t want to go to the lake, but seriously… who doesn’t want to spend the day on a boat?

Meanwhile, Char and Will did great. Will mostly wanted to swim since we couldn’t pull the tube, but I was nervous the boat wouldn’t restart due to the key issue, so we only stopped to swim once.

One of the highlights of the day was docking and eating on the pier at Fajita Jack’s. We sat, talked, laughed, and I took a bunch of videos. On the way back to the launch, we passed a pirate ship and everyone onboard waved at the kids. That absolutely made Will’s day.

Of course, there had to be one more adventure before the day ended.

We missed a turn near the launch, and while Anthony was turning the boat around, a HUGE wave crashed over the side and soaked every single one of us. Definitely the low point of the trip.

But honestly? Overall, it was still a good day.

The battery ended up being under warranty, so thankfully we didn’t have to buy a new one, and at least the boat started. This week I need to figure out how to get a new key made, get the oil changed, and have the boat checked out to figure out what is actually wrong with it besides bad gas.

The boat is 16 years old and only has 174 hours on it, so we really haven’t used it nearly as much as we should have. But when the kids were little, we made so many memories out on the water during the summers. Now that the kids are older and we only have three of them home with us, we actually have room to invite friends out too. Although after today, Sam may not be getting an invitation anytime soon.

Ironically, the second we got home, Sam asked if he could go spend the night at a friend’s house. When I reminded him how difficult he had been all day, he apologized multiple times and admitted he felt bad for acting like such a brat.

Honestly, I think video games are destroying our kids. This summer they are not going to spend every day glued to screens. We are going to do more outside activities and make more memories together — even if I haven’t fully figured out what all those adventures will be yet.

At the end of the day, I’m grateful for the memories we made today, even if we couldn’t boat fast.

And for the record… I still hate Lake Conroe. That lake feels more like an ocean half the time.