Tales of the tube.

Last week, Khai INSISTED that he was brave enough to be flipped on the tube.  However, whenever Helmut started going fast, he would always ask to slow down or get back in the boat.  On one such occasion, Helmut was pulling Khai and Michelle in...

...and he flipped them!

Khai LOVED it.  He thought it was hilarious. 

Michelle was not so impressed.

But I think she had fun anyway.

Ever since then, Khai has wanted to jump off the tube and swim back to the boat (but he's still too afraid to go fast!)

   *****

Normally, when we go boating, Declan and I take a couple short trips on the tube, going VERY VERY slowly.  He laughs and says its "bumpy" and then he decides he's "all done".

The last two times we've gone out, he's learned that giving a "thumbs up" (not Michelle's version) means to speed up or "go faster Daddy! Faster!".  He loves it.  Helmut only goes a tiny bit faster, but he giggles and shrieks with joy. 

Today, Helmut kept telling Brett he was going to "dump him" off of the tube.  Declan joined in the chant saying "dump, dump, dump 'im in!" 

Well, Declan and I went on a ride together, as usual.  He said his "all done" and we readied ourselves to be pulled back to the boat. 

Brett pulled us back and as we reached the boat, Brett accidentally pulled the wrong way on the rope, and Declan and I got "dumped" in the lake. 

Declan was NOT happy.  It's actually quite a drop from the tube to the water, and he was mad when we got back into the boat.  I tried to get him to go back on the tube right away, you know, the old "get back on the horse" theory, but he had no desire.  I was a bit worried that he wouldn't want to go back on at all, but, all it took was Khai and Brett going on together to make him want to get right in between them.

He even went on to kneel up on the tube with Khai and myself.

*****

Brett has become quite the skilled tuber (is that a word? what I mean is that he is getting really good at tubing) and has been asking me to take video recordings of him tubing.  He has already posted one to YouTube, which you can view here.  That one is of Brett and Kelsey's boyfriend, Kyle, tubing. 

Today, I took this one.  He and I each had to go by ourselves today because it was just the 5 of us, and there has to be an adult on board to watch the tuber (there's that word again), not to mention the two little ones on board.  ** warning: the water was very choppy today.  You may experience motion sickness while watching this video.  I did. **

Did you see how excited he was that he was still on the tube after it flipped?? AWESOME. 

We have discovered that you can do more tricks when you're on by yourself (and when I say tricks, normally, I mean making little jumps.  That thing from the video was NOT intentional) and you have a bit more control.  Not to mention, when you go flying, you're not bumping into the person next to you (ahem.  Michelle). 

A fantastic day all-in-all!

*****

Each day we have like this, reminds me of how glad I am that Helmut has finally realized his dream of owning a boat.  And that his dream wasn't simply about owning a piece of machinery.  It was - is - about creating memories together like this as a family.  It is about learning more about each other; spending time together and just being a family.  I love you Helmut.