What memories are made of

Here is our day...we either saw or experienced the following:

1. 3 turtles on a log while walking our canoe to the lake


2. 2 deer in the woods on our walk to the lake


3. Canoed onto Lake Sammamish and up to a beach


4. Picnicked at the beach


5. Built sandcastles


6. Jumped in the icy water (kids only)


7. Canoed home


8. Eagle swooping down to catch a fish


9. Eagles flying above canoe


10. Fish jumping out of the water


11. Lily pads


12. Cat tails


13. Red-winged blackbird


14. Crane (awesome wingspan, skinny legs and body)


15. Dogs jumping in Sammamish river


16. Outdoor shower (aka garden hose with soap and shampoo...kids only)


17. Popsicles outside on deck after dinner

As the Master Card commercial says....priceless

This day is one of my favorite family days in recent memory. Now I'll describe the least favorite family day which happened 2 years ago (almost to the day).....

Canoeing was SUPPOSED to be our easy family adventure sport....but...we spoiled it by capsizing on our second outing. The story goes as follows (I used to be really good at telling the story, but much time has passed since the incident). I usually start the story as 'the time we played Swiss Family Robinson". The canoe trip was on a tiny river with a small current not even a mile from our house. We somehow tipped the boat, canoe went rushing down the river (husband after it). I was left to care for the wet, scared, wide-eyed kids. We were stranded in water (ankle deep). I had to hold both Monkey and Princess because they were hysterical. I had no shoes on and I had to balance two kids, and myself on slippery, sometimes painful rocks. We stood waiting and waiting for Daddy to return from trying to catch the boat. It seemed like an eternity for him to show up. At some point I had a terrible thought that in fact my husband had not survived the currents (albeit small and not treacherous). Finally he did appear trudging through the water. He helped the kids and me climb up a swampy hill to safety (remember, I had no shoes). Safety was actually a quite civilized dogpark less than a mile from our house. We were all standing there drenched, no proper clothes on (bathing suits), no shoes and husband had to leave us to get the car and the boat (that he had dragged onto a side bank - minus one oar). The kids and I sat for a good hour looking like 'fish out of water' (literally); avoiding eye contact and conversations with the civilized folk walking their pooches. The experience was dramatic while it was happening (mainly for the kids), but if you were to have a birds eye view of the scenario it would be comical to see how UNdramatic it should have been...ankle deep water, small current, people and dry land an arms throw away. The kids are mentally scarred and today was our first trip where they weren't skittish and white knuckled....they won't let us go NEAR the scene of the accident in our boat which actually is a lovely meander until the trees close in and the current picks up...but we wouldn't do it again...or would we?