Tangled

So moms of girls have to deal with tangles in their daughter's hair.  This mom to four boys had to deal with some different kind of tangles the other day when I had the boys at my parent's lake place alone for a few days.

We invited some friends to the lake to join us for the day. Why just have four boys when you can have seven instead? But more realistically, moms of boys must band together and my dear friend and I had some much needed girl-catch-up time while our boys splashed and played in the water.

Where things began to get tangled was when we were out in the boat, all 7 boys and two moms, and we were pulling the boys tubing and then skiing. Looping round and round the lake, making an ocean of waves for the boys to bounce through and see if they could still hang on for dear life.  The patient passengers each waited for the next victim to fall into the depths which could only mean their turn was nearing. Each break we took we would all dive into the water to stay cool until our next stop.  But try as they might, the fourteen little hands just couldn't help but touch the ski rope.  In sincere attempts to "help" they would wind the rope around their arms and make the loopiest loops you've ever seen and inevitably they would toss the rope out to the next victim  skier and there would be an enormous tangle, and I'd have to pull in the rope, again, and untangle it and send it back out to the awaiting skier.

Tangled

Brothers awaiting their turn, hopeful at every turn!

You've got to keep laughing!

All smiles on the boat

After what seemed like this happening about 20 times, I finally dropped everyone off at the beach with my friend and went back out with the skier and a spotter.

My seven year old spotter, Kiefer, took some pictures of our friend's last failed ski attempt as I turned the boat around yet again to pick him up to have another go at it, when Kiefer warns, "Mom, you're driving right over the rope." Where he might not know yet how to do anything but put knots in the ski rope, he was absolutely correct about his observation and not seconds later we heard this fatal blow of the rope tangling under the boat in the prop and the motor died.

Evidence that we really did get him up on skis before we tangled the rope

I knew better than to start the motor again. I knew what I had done. Kiefer knew what I had done. Now the challenge was what to do next? We were rapidly drifting away from our dock and with one adult and five boys ashore, I started rowing with a ski to try to get the boat back to shore. That didn't get us very far, so soon after I jumped into the water and put my old life-saving skills to work pulling the boat with the side stroke.  My nine (and a half) year old, Carter jumped into rescue action from the beach. He loaded everyone on board the pontoon boat and was backing out to come get us before I could even ask him to come help. I'd ride anywhere with him driving, so I wasn't concerned about him captaining the boat and everyone had on life jackets still from our previous boat ride. In minutes they were at my side and we tied a tow rope to the speed boat and were on our way to the dock. We pulled the ski boat up to the side of the dock and my friend jumped off the pontoon to hold the speed boat. Then Carter put the pontoon in reverse to get out of the way but moments later, the comedy of errors continued and he backed over the tow rope and got his prop tangled! Seriously!? Is this really happening? I was still in the water beside the speed boat and I went to where the ladder is on our dock only to find, there was no ladder there! That's when my friend fessed up that her younger son had been investigating it and in a way that only boys can, he picked it up from it's hinges and then it quickly sank to the bottom of the lake, a good 18 feet below where I needed it to be!  ( I later re-told this story to my mom, a mother of two girls who asked me, "Why would he mess with the ladder like that?" to which I responded, "Because he's a boy!?!!") Boys learn by doing. Not by being told what to do, or not to do, as the case may be.

Captain Carter

I've always heard that people are like tea bags, you never know what's inside them until you stick them in hot water.

I was grateful that my (external) reaction was to start laughing in disbelief! I mean seriously?! Without a ladder, I couldn't quickly get out of the water, so I started swimming to rescue Carter and his ship full of  ship mates ages five and under.  It makes me laugh now to think that as Carter was reversing (quickly) away from the dock my friend did say "Oh, I should have gone with them…" It's hard to anticipate what  nine (and a half) year old captain will do. (or how quickly he might do it!) When I finally reached the crew of crazies on the pontoon Carter had already trimmed the motor up and we could all see the tow rope tangled around the prop.  I asked him to take the key out of the engine, which he showed me was around his neck like a necklace and he'd already done that  in anticipation of what I was going to do next. Then I asked for all the little monkeys to come to the side of the boat to watch me so I could keep my eyes on all them. I explained how dangerous it was and to never touch a prop of a boat, etc. Once that point was made, I began to untangle the rope from prop #1. Once that task was completed, I pulled myself up onto the pontoon boat (not an easy task) and we set our course for the dock, where my friend was still holding the speed boat in place.  We docked the pontoon, and then Carter and I walked the speed boat over to its home in the boat lift. Where we then began wars among the minions about who's turn it was to crank the boat. Each having a turn, we raised the boat up as high as it would go and we could clearly see the biggest tangle of ski rope knotted mess. I boarded the paddle board and laid on my stomach under the boat, again, explained never to do this at home to our young audience and I untangled boat #2.

After the boats were each rescued, we then had my friend's tall son dive down to rescue the ladder. He retrieved it on the first attempt! Horrah! Successful rescues all around!

The rest of our visit was mainly smooth sailing. Other than Kiefer poured the bucket of water on our campfire before we were really done with it. Oh, well. I guess if he was done roasting marshmallows everyone else was, too!

Summer diet consists of hot dogs and S'mores - either I'm the best mom ever, or the worst! :)

All said, I think the two moms and seven boys had a great time! And these tangles are the little snags in life that come with the territory of being moms of boys.  Did I mention what they did to the fishing poles?!?

We moms of boys have to stick together!

Gone fishin'

Piecing Together Memories

We had such an amazing family vacation at Young Life's Trail West Family Camp last summer that we decided to go back this summer.  Literally, not a week went by when the boyz didn't mention it - the random dinner conversations of "Remember at Trail West when Francis stepped on a porcupine!?" or "Remember at Trail West when we were called up on stage and had to dance in front of everyone!? (But Carter hid behind Daddy-O's leg and still did the hand motions!?" or "Remember riding Mac & Cheese" (The shetland ponies who give pony rides to the younger set at Trail West.) or "Remember the sheep talked to us and bleated 'Donnnnn't Leeeeeaaaavvvveeee!'?" :) Daddy-O and I would exchange knowing looks that "Won't they be surprised when they find out we're going back this summer?!"  But even though we signed up to return around Christmas time, we kept it a surprise and didn't tell the boyz until the weekend before we left for Colorado.

They knew we were going to the Frisco house for a week of hiking and potentially camping, but they had no idea we were cooking up a surprise return visit to Trail West. We also had arranged with a few other families we'd met there the year previous and we were all returning the same week again - a mini reunion!  I was bursting on the inside so excited to see their reactions when we unveiled our plans.  But just telling them over dinner didn't seem adequate enough - we needed a bigger build up, more of a Young Life approach to divulging the news.

So, after much thought and some last minute inspiration, I cooked up a scavenger hunt down at the lake one balmy summer weekend before our trip.  Gigi & Papa were down and Gigi helped me run all around the property in the Ranger and the boat setting the clues before we let the kids in on the surprise. It literally took an hour just to set the clues!

I had taken a piece of cardboard and drawn the Trail West logo on the back side of it and had written in large letters "We're going back to Trail West" on it. Then on the reverse side, I had drawn and cut jigsaw puzzle pieces and I wrote clues on each piece that would lead the boyz all over Lamb Lake! They had to go by boat, land, Four Wheel Ranger, and even tromp through the mud and scale to the highest point of the swing set!  It was an extreme scavenger hunt!

Piece by piece, clue by clue, those who were able to read would take turns reading the clues then all would take turns guessing and deliberating until they would figure out the next location. Then we were off again to sniff out the next clue! Each was set in its location under a rock (That Gigi and I had pre-placed) so they wouldn't blow away.

Here were the clues:
1. "A relative of Mac & Cheese" bring some apples, if you please." (off we went by Ranger to the neighbor's barn to feed Storm the horse some apples, where we found clue #2)
2. "In the barn or sawmill I am parked near, as we all know "Nothing runs like a _______?" (and we were off to the J.D. or "John Deere" to find the next clue)
3."A view of the lake that Papa Russell made, where we drive as fast as we can yelling "Yeee Hawww" and where the sunsets fade." (Off to the dam where you can see the full view of the lake and found clue #4 midway across the dam)
4. "An old row boat no more, with my new motor, I can soar! (Thanks to a boy who believed in me!:) "(Back to the dock where the newly restored row boat, newly re-named "Blue Water Tiger" or BWT after Carter dug out an old 8 HP motor to make it into a "speed boat")
5. "The lost boys would like to use this Island as their hideout but if Hook couldn't find them, he would pout." (We took the Blue Water Tiger to the Island near the dam where we found the next clue on the banks of the shoreline)
6. "If you want to jump in the lake, any old edge will do. But if you want to dive in with form, here's the only place that will perform." (And we were off, by boat, to Uncle Creepy's diving board on his swim platform, where we found clue #7 with a rock percariously balanced on one of the pontoons!)
7. "A log cabin designed for play, come for tea parties or an overnight stay." (And we motored on to Uncle Creepy's log playhouse and found the next clue on the table inside.)
8. "Girls are allowed as long as they're moms, but this trail is usually were only boys stomps." :) (We had to return the boat to the dock, and jump back onto the Ranger were we took off to the Boys Only Trail and found the clue balanced on a log, again being weighted down by a rock.)
9. "Swing to the tree tops, slide down from the skys. This place has seen a lot of highs." (We raced back to the swing set at Papa & Gigi's and they climbed up to the tippy top of the slide and found the final clue balanced on the top of the slide.)

Now, they were told in the beginning to keep all the pieces to make it all make sense, but the only one who remembered that detail was Carter, who was in the back of the Ranger frantically piecing all 9 puzzle piece clues together in the end.  With coaching to "Work together…" they soon were all working to piece the pieces together.  Meanwhile, I'm video taping all these moments - on film and in my memory!

When at last, they successfully completed the puzzle and read "We're going back to Trail West!" They all were flabbergasted and they didn't believe us!  I was expecting hooping and hollering, but it was more of a breathless shock and awe. But they were surprised alright! With several exclamations of disbelief, "We're going back!?!"

And we had another amazingly memorable week back at Trail West. It was better in some ways because it was familiar and it was like coming home again. There were other ways it was bittersweet because it wasn't new…. we knew some of the surprises to expect. But it's kind of like Christmas morning - seeing it anew from the kid's perspective made it all worthwhile! They loved it! And they loved seeing some of their same friends again. We made new friends, too, of course. And bonded with some of the YL Summer Staff workers. (But not as much as we did the first year!) But we were grateful that the same leaders returned and we got to pick up where we left off with them, which was also a really special gift.

At the end of the week, they have a brief open mic time where individuals are invited to share what they got out of the week.  Several of the adults shared how special it was to be there with family and create life-long memories together all under the umbrella of renewed and shared faith. One Summer Staffer came into the room just to step up to the mic and shared that he didn't come from a great home and wasn't too excited to return home the next day, but he shared how much he had learned observing loving families who were there each week spending time together having fun and he said he wanted to provide that for his family someday. After his boldness, I felt like I needed to stand up and share what was on my heart… (the kids are all in the room to observe this open mic session too!) So, as I was handed the mic and I started saying something about all the fun we have at camp reminds me that I want to be INTENTIONAL about having fun back home.  That's when Fletcher - my 3 year old- grabbed the mic from my hands and started saying something we couldn't' understand …. like "… and she did these clues, ...and we took a boat, ...and we saw the horse… and we drove the Ranger."  My mind was trying to piece together what he was talking about as we HAD seen horses at Trail West but none of the other things. I thought he just liked hearing his own voice on the mic and he seriously kept interrupting me so I quickly made a joke and passed the mic back to the guy out of my embarrassment.

It wasn't until later that I realized that Fletcher had been talking about the Scavenger Hunt that we had done!  As they say, sometimes only out of the mouths of babes!  It was through his 3-year old mind and his puzzle pieced memories that he was literally encouraging me and affirming me - publicly - that I actually DID do something creative and fun. It was such a sweet reminder to me to stop all the mom guilt and remember what I have done!

So this one's for me to remember… and hopefully they'll remember, too!?
Happy Trails!

Oh, and we're going back next summer, too! (Shhhhhh!)