the payoff

It wasn’t when great black plumes of smoke began pouring from the boat’s engine, nor during the six hour car ride with sugar-pumped squabbling children and it certainly wasn’t when the patrolman’s lights spun in my rear-view mirror (“Just a friendly warning, ma’am.”)

I’d promised Kellie that all the money spent on food and equipment, hours spent sorting through camping equipment, the half-day packing the boat and the bucket toilet would all be worth our efforts. That at some moment at Lake Powell we’d all look at each other and say, “Yep, we’d do it all again just to be here right now.”

That moment came. Again and again.

Was it when the three smallest ones decided that they loved wild tube rides and rejected their nickname “the littlies” for “The Ninjas”?

Or when ‘Cork Man’ and ‘Boy Boy Buoy’ saved the day?

For Gabe it was eating Pringles straight from the can

disco dancing on the bow

and sleeping 12 hours (truly!) a day.

We learned that Aussies are serious about sun protection. Did you know that Australian schoolkids can’t go out to recess without sunscreen and I wide-brimmed hat? They’re pretty smart.

Erik’s newest sun-solution was a set of white sheets. The kids loved hiding under them and, well, they provided plenty of extra entertainment.