Ramblings: It's been confirmed--I'm getting old

Yesterday we continued the relatively new summer tradition of taking the kids out on the lake for a boating trip--unless Jeremy called in sick for work, and in that case, I took the kids out on a boat with Jeremy's identical twin brother, Fleremy, while Jere was at home with the flu or whatever. We convinced my brother and his wife, Greg and Brooke, to come along so we could try to convince them they need to buy a boat for us to borrow next year.
We had much happier little campers yesterday than last year. Last year they cried for pretty much the first two hours until they got their own Sunkists. Then they'd grumble and whine in between slurps. But yesterday they were all VERY excited and much braver on the tube and loved jumping in to swim. I packed alot of food and treats and we all pigged out and took turns soaking in the sun and then getting pummeled by the water after flipping off the tube. Note all the blue mouths due to massive amounts of blue raspberry airheads.


Brooke and Maddie opted for the senior citizen's version of tubing--I don't think we topped 10 mph. Weenies. Alex was so annoyed whenever he had to go with one of the little boys because they didn't want to go very fast. Avery was so excited in this picture but they hadn't even started moving yet.
So riding the tube--that's how it was confirmed that I'm getting old. I am seriously sore today and I don't really feel like I did that much yesterday. But my creaky bones and achy muscles are trying to tell me something. Something like, "hey, next time you think about climbing on a tube and flinging around over crashing waves while hanging on for dear life, THINK AGAIN. You should know better--your body is not made for that stuff anymore, I mean, you've birthed four kids, what are you thinking?" Something like that. I'm pretty sure it was this ride with Greg that did me in--Jeremy was trying really hard to knock one or both of us unconscious with a tumble.Too bad we didn't get any shots of the full moon that came out pretty much anytime Greg rode the tube in his too-elasticized swim trunks. FYI--wear swim trunks that you can adequately tighten when tubing else the whole boatload gets to see your bum. No, not really. We just kept seeing him trying to yank them up with a free hand every now and then.

But we had a fun time regardless of our aging bods and everyone was plum tuckered out (that sounds like I'm back in Little House on the Prairie days) by the end of the afternoon. And it was getting hot--even on the boat with water spraying us every so often. Greg resorted to using an extra floaty jacket as a hat.
Avery even curled up on my lap and fell asleep for the last 20 minutes on the ride back to the boat dock. The other three fell asleep within 10 minutes of the car ride home. Sah-weet.

My camera battery was almost dead so I didn't take very many pictures, but supposedly Brooke did and supposedly she's going to give them to me, but we'll see. I'll add some more exciting ones if she ever downloads 'em--like when Alex and Jeremy stood up with no hands on the tube thing, when Jeremy tried to yank me off the tube with him when he lost his grip and went flying, or when I did a triple backflip off the boat and scored a perfect 10. (Maybe that last part was a dream...?)

Ok. I got the extra pictures. I really do have documentation that Jeremy was trying to drag me down with him. (He was totally yanking on my legs--like I was going to be able to pull him back out of the water and onto the tube with my leg?!) And when he climbed back on, I threatened to bite his hand so he couldn't hold on.
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And I had forgotten that I taught the kids about synchronized swimming and we worked on a short routine involving using our toes to make a star. We're awesome--look for us in the next Olympics. We'll be the ones with blue mouths. Except--do the professionals get to wear the life jackets? Cuz we might have a problem if not...