row,row,row your boat

The family and I went canoeing this afternoon. I'd like to say I was helpful in putting the canoe on the van, but  in reality I just stood there eating my raspberry popcicle while making helpful comments as to how it should be done.

The first ones to brave the waters were the parentals. 

After we waved them off, the twins and I went for a walk in the woods. Aaron hopped onto a large rock to better see the lake, and I suddenly had a vision of Christopher Columbus viewing the New World. So I took a picture of him because that's totally what Christopher Columbus' traveling partners did. Elizabeth wanted to get in on the action, and even threw in a little leg kick to make things more exciting.

After the parentals returned, it was our turn to climb into the canoe.  

As is evident, I was put in the middle of the boat and not given an oar (or "stick" as someone called it). Lest you think I am bad at rowing, I assure you I am not. (Sometimes I do have technical difficulties, but they're usually minor.) Elizabeth wanted to row so she would "get more excersiced", and Aaron wanted to row just because he wanted to row, which left me as the lucky individual who sat in the middle with nothing to do but take pictures and try to boss people around. Last time we went canoeing I was Aaron's boss and he wasn't a huge fan. I sat in the back of the boat which made me the captain and Aaron the reluctant mate. He didn't like that I was in charge and telling him which side to row on but after all, I have more driving experience then he does so I naturally would be better at steering us. Expect for when we almost sailed into the dead beaver, this went surprisingly well. 


The view in front of me looked like this:

 And like this behind me:

We did run into a few shrubs and branches, but Elizabeth did well as captain.

I decided to be A & E's personal radio, so I asked if they'd like to hear a classical, Christian, or country song. I even gave them a little preview of a classical song so they'd know what they were getting themselves into. Elizabeth chose country, so I serenaded them with a selection of Brad (Paisley), Josh (Turner), and Carrie (Underwood) songs. I even threw in a few Josh Groban and Elvis Presley songs just for good measure.

It was in the middle of singing Fur Elise (the Sarah radio was in Classical mode) that we had a small issue with this rock. (I felt the occasion called for a song change, so I sang "oops, I did it again." I think it was very appropriate.)

And it was during Honey Bee that Elizabeth stood up because she wanted to turn our canoe into a gondola so she could be the gondolier. Except she kept saying, "I'm in a chandelier" and Aaron and I had no idea what in the world she was saying. "You know! You've been in one! A chandelier!" We will be having a lesson on correct word usage in the near future.

Our final song for the day -a grand finale of sorts- was It's an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, yellow* polka-dot bikini.  Everybody knows that's a canoeing song.

*we said 'purple' because we feel it fits better

And so our great sailing adventure came to an end. No one fell in, no one drowned, and no one was left behind. It was an all-around success.