A Day at the Lake

Elias, Nathan, and me. Elias' first time on the boat (outside of the womb of course)

Today we had a fun family day at Hagg Lake. We decided to go because we wanted to test out Elias’ new life jacket, it was finally sunny, and I am now finished with the summer school program I was teaching so we wanted to celebrate.

When we got to the lake, it was super crowded. We expected there to be a lot of people….but there were so many that we couldn’t find a parking spot! My parents had to wait about an hour just to get their boat into the lake! Nathan and I drove around for awhile in a couple different parking lots. Then we decided to just park on the road and walk. All of the road spots near the boat ramp said no parking…so we had to go near a picnic area. Since we would be walking on the road, and we had a bunch of bags due to having a baby along with us, we decided to use the stroller. There was a marked trail which we thought would lead us where we needed to go. However, we soon found out that it was not paved. I ended up having to carry Elias as Nathan carried the stroller and all the bags as we hiked on a muddy trail through the forest. Once we finally made it out of that, we tested out the life jacket in a swimming hole close to shore, then met up with my parents to get on their boat.

Carol, Greg, Nathan, and Mom on the tube! Nathan and Greg are acting as if they are still being towed.....

My parents bought a very large innertube with spots for four people. We got to try that out for awhile. It is more stable than other tubes so you don’t really have to worry about falling out. It provided a thrill without a good possibility of wiping out!

After that, we went off to the 5mph or less zone to swim from the boat. Although the air was warm, the water was still freezing! Poor Elias did not like it at all. He even bit Nathan’s finger either out of fright or anger….we don’t know which. We tried putting him in a little floaty and in the life jacket, but ended up having to take him back into the boat after only a few minutes. It was too cold!

Elias and Nathan warming up

Nathan warmed Elias up in the sun, and we gave him a little teething cracker and some water to keep him happy. My brother Greg and his girlfriend Carol played peek-a-boo with Elias over the side of the boat. Overall it was a very fun trip to Hagg lake, but Nathan and I learned a very important lesson: Always bring more food for the baby than you think you’ll need. We felt bad because we were gone longer than we had expected, and Elias got pretty hungry by the drive home. Luckily I have ready made food for him so he didn’t have to wait once we got home!

After he filled his tummy, Elias was so tuckered from the day that he fell asleep and stayed that way no matter what I did with him. (Walked around, held him, laid him down, danced around…etc) Hopefully we’ll be able to get some warmer water for him in the future!