It's been hot here lately

Like in the 90s - 100s hot.   Like I just can't get cool at home hot.  So....we've been spending a lot of time outside lateley and as much time as we can in the water.

This year we have been working on getting Jake and McKenzie as much exposure to reading the river as possible.  Sometimes Kenzie went in with me and sometimes she gets to go in with Jordan.  Jordan makes her feel much more safe.   Everyone accompanies these two on the river, everyone but me if I'm not in Kenzie's duckie.

Here are the six of them heading into the water park.  Jordan and Kenzie are doubled up in the duckie.

Jordan and Kenzie going through:

Jake heading through:

All of them surfing on the wave:

Jordan and Kenzie surfing in their duckie:

We've also been spending time at the lake.  When we head to the lake, we have learned to get up at 5:00 am (yes it's cold and we wear sweatshirts and sweatpants but the water is so nice)

 because that is when the lake is the least busy.  Since these boys are getting pretty good at water skiing:

They've been working on their bare foot skills.  One of the tricks you can learn after you learn how to barefoot is called a turtle roll.  This last week's trip Riley got this trick down on a short rope.  Before I post the pictures let me give some context and background to the pictures I am about to post.  Jordan learned to barefoot first in the family.  Well, really Brad did, but with regards to the kids, Jordan was the first.  However, he learned how to drag on the bar to start and then pull yourself around and hasn't gotten beyond that yet.  He hasn't learned what is called a deep water start.  Ben learned next and has been working on his deep water start for years.  He started to get it last year but has really started to master the deep water start this year.  So as far as skill goes with this he is ahead of everyone else.  Even Jordan will admit that.  Now just to give you some idea of what a deep water start is like in barefooting you put your feet on the rope, lean back and submerse yourself in the water.  

This is kind of like drowning

 but eventually your head comes up out of the water and you are no longer drowning, you're gliding on top of the water like a ski.  When the boat gets going fast enough, you sit up and drown yourself again, 

only this time it's like 10x the drowning experience when you are learning because you have to get in a position to minimize the drowning but all the drowning in the meantime makes you feel like you are going to die and you usually try and stick your feet straight in the water and face plant pretty hard because the boat isn't going fast enough to keep you afloat.  So, you have to be calm, get in the 3 point position, keep your knees in and spread your feet apart and slowly drop your feet into the water once the boat is going 45 mph.  This takes a lot of presence of mind to do and Ben does it fairly well now.  Once you have learned the deep water start, then you move onto other things like sitting down again and standing back up, then you wiper blade and then you move onto the turtle roll.  The turtle roll is where you sit back down in 3 point stance, go to your back and spin, sit back up and stand up.  So, Ben has been working on the turtle roll while everyone else has been working on their deep water start.

Riley got his deep water start off of a short rope this last trip.  

He was pretty happy.  Then he thought he'd try his turtle roll and well....

He got it...before his brother Ben and so he celebrated right after he got it.

Yes, that's a victorious fist pump.  Only after the fist pump, he was humbled a bit...

Yes, that's him falling immediately after the fist pump.  I'll upload the video now so you can see and laugh with me. 

Just to let you know, Ben did get his turtle roll the same day and on the long rope so he is still the barefoot champ of the family.

There are a lot of good crashes that come along with learning how to barefoot.  We really enjoy the crashes as long as they aren't hurt and so far, so good on the hurt scale.

When we're done with water skiing we just like to hang out together and swim.

We play king of the tube:

We swim, dive and dry off:

We eat, just chill in the boat, enjoy the warmth and try to sleep.  I try to capture it all with pictures but sometimes the pictures just look like we are posing.  Oh well.  Here are the pictures anyway.

Deep and meaningful discussions occur during this time too.  For example, just the other day we decided what all our spirit animals are.

We had a difficult time deciding on Ben's spirit animal which is why there are two.  In the end, we decided the eagle was a better descriptor of his personality than a bear.  And, of course, Jake is 12, so like an otter he is still playful and takes pleasure in the simple things in life.  His spirit animal is more likely to change than the rest of ours.  Then again, maybe not.  Do you think we nailed them on the head?

When we are done chilling in the boat, we start our tube wars and those are fun and full of good crashes too.

We did celebrate the 4th of July since I last wrote.  Our area is in a no fire season right now so there were no town fireworks.  We decided to cross over to the dark side and light some small fireworks like flowers, bees, and sparklers.  

It was worth it even if it was illegal.  I love this country and I love my family.