On the Pontoon

Nicky starts his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Monday. After he opened his mission call, and we had the details of where and when he would serve, we started looking into possible family vacations before he left. He would graduate May 27, go to Disney World May 30 - June 5, go on his temple trip from June 9 - 14, and go to YM camp June 25 - 26, so that left no time for the kind of vacation we hoped for before his start date of June 30th (we dabbled in the idea of doing a cruise out of LA). 

Last year, for a team building activity for his work, Scotty rented pontoon boats at Strawberry Reservoir and took his employees fishing. They really enjoyed it and want to do it again! Scotty loves fishing (in fact, the very reason I use the name “Scotty”’as his pseudonym on my blog is because it’s a brand of fishing supplies). We decided to try out the pontoon rentals with our family for our last hurrah with Nicky. We invited Scotty’s brother and his family and our moms. 

At first we were just going to go up for the day, but then we looked into booking rooms at the lodge, and they weren’t horribly priced, so we booked two nights. We went up Sunday evening, had two pontoon rentals from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. Monday, then came home Tuesday.

Other than a couple of windy moments, the weather was really nice, and we had a lot of fun. 

Here are a few memories to jot down:

1. Nicky and his cousin Asher found some crawdads. 

They latched them on to everything, including their own fingers.

2. We caught lots of fish. Many of them needed to be thrown back due to size regulations, but we brought home nine.

3. Nicky kissed a fish, and it bit his lip and drew blood.

4. Our girls all showcased their unique driving personalities.

“I’m so happy! Look what I can do!”

“I can’t see anything in front of me!”

“I’m so cool and chill because I’m in drivers ed.”

5. Zoe still had her arm in a cast for the trip. 

6. Nicky partied hard on the boat for hours and hours (in true Nicky fashion) and then crashed and burned in the afternoon (in true Nicky fashion).

7. We made grilled cheese sandwiches in our room at the lodge.

8. My sister-in-law, Amber (sometimes referred to as “Nameless Sistera-In-Law” or “Timber” on my blog) passed away unexpectedly the morning we left. She loved geocaching, so Zoe made a letter “A” and we went and found a geocache for Amber.

9. The sunrises and sunsets were primo.

It was a great little trip. Everyone enjoyed it, and they want to make it a yearly tradition.