Saturday, July 28, 2007

summer fun

Today we drove into town for Maine's National Boatbuilding Challenge. There were 9 teams of 2 professional woodworkers and a time limit of 5 hours to build a wooden dingy to match the boat plans. Afterwards there were relay races to prove (or disprove) the soundness of their craft. One team finished over an hour before everyone else, but the guys couldn't row for squat. One poor team forgot to bring oars and had to make some from their leftover lumber- they came in dead last. And the boat that had the whole crowd roaring with laughter and moaning with expectation barely made it back to the dock to save it from a sure and sudden sinking.

Will and Mary were in the children's rowing contest and he won 3rd place overall and received a wooden oar titled: Triple Load Award (for having 3 people in his boat) 1st place. Mary was upset that she wasn't allowed to row her own boat (she sat in Will's), and sulked until she blurted out, "I want to make my OWN boat!"
Talk to your Daddy about it babe, I can't nail two boards together.

I overhead some boys talking to their father on the beach, "Dad we only have 5 weeks left of summer vacation and we haven't done anything fun."
"Uhhh, you got to go skiing one time on the lake, uhhhh."

One of the reasons Tim and I sacrifice our time together in the summer is so the kids have enjoyable childhood memories in Maine. Their summers are filled with day trips and ice cream cones, shooting rockets, tractor rides, and days at the fair. We only have a short time to pack as much in as possible. I certainly hope that when we move up to Maine for good we don't become complacent and let summer pass us by with no time for fun and family togetherness.

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