First run of the summer...Starvation

First run of the summer, out on the lake, was supposed to be at Yuba, but being as Yuba is popular there wasn't room for us to camp so we ended up at Starvation instead. (Luckily this was discovered by friends, and not us, so we only drove straight to Starvation, not the round trip of driving to Yuba, and then back and over to Starvation). The sun was hot, the water was glass pretty much the entire time. Makes for having to get creative on your own when pulling the tube, but it was gorgeous for throwing the kids on the knee board and hitting it with the wake board. Being Starvation, the water was freezing so I cheated and brought my scuba diving wet suit :). Here's the proof that I got up...
And the proof that I moved around a little, though I can't be certain that this picture wasn't pre-fall...
And after that it was crash...
After crash...
After crash...
OK, THANK YOU West, for documenting all of that for me! Hey, at least I gave it my best shot, and I had a million bruises to show for it. What can you say, everyone (even West's amazing friend Shane) was rusty from a long winter of no boating.
We threw the kids out on the tube and they let us get a little daring with them out there. West didn't want to dump them because then they would never do it again. It's all about breaking them into the feel of it slowly. Some of their faces in these pictures are priceless though.
Sean was the first kid to be convinced to try the knee board. He paddled out in search for the rope while the others looked on in awe.
Jayme was a natural. She was all over the place on the board, and even tried getting out of the wake, she just couldn't quite get the momentum to get it.
Cas moped about it the first day, but finally on the second, crying the whole way out to the rope (what a trooper) she got up and moved around and fell in love with it, just like we knew she would (it's just like Disneyland Cas, once you try it you're going to love it. Golly, I guess sometimes Mom does know what she's talking about). I made her a deal, I'll go first, if you go after me. She kept her word.
Cali tried the knee board the first day. Of course she did. This girl is FEARLESS. It was easy for her. She's small enough that all we had to do was sit her on the board already kneeling and she just floated there. We handed her the rope and slowly pulled away. She thought it was great until the nose of the board went under and she fell off (oops, I had her sitting too far up). She didn't let go of the rope and we dragged her, gently of course for a bit until she finally listened and let go so we could loop around and get her. She was done for the day. On day two she tried it again, crying the entire time. I don't think she understands how to use her leg muscles to keep the board straight. It turned sideways, she fell off, but this time she let go of the rope. That's progress, right? She's still fearless. Next outing she's going to do it again, as long as Mom goes with to keep the board straight. I'm OK with that.
Cali saw the boat ride as nap time I guess. She fell asleep every time we went out. Note Tay's anxiety in the picture above. We were just lucky to get her on the boat.
And West, our amazing boat driver. He did try the knee board for a bit, but with a broken toe, there wasn't much he could do.