Row, row, row your boat not so gently 'round the lake...

This weekend for Father's Day, we decided to go boating on one of the lovely lakes here in Arizona. And when I say "boating" what I mean is "rowing." A few years ago, we took my dad kayaking for Father's Day. He liked it so much, he acquired a kayak and then a canoe of his own. Since then, it's kind of become our family tradition, though I think we missed last year. Two years ago, Paisley was only 5 months old and she went with us. This year, we have two active puggles to come along and it was quite the adventure.

My parents tow their kayak and canoe in a modified trailer that my dad also uses for hauling landscaping debris and anything else that won't fit under his truck's camper shell. For this lake trip, between the 4 humans and 3 dogs, we needed to take two cars. When we got to the lake, parking was sparse and we had to get parking passes. We discovered that only one lot allowed parking for both trucks with trailers and regular cars. Of course, that one lot was full. By the time we found parking for the Murano in the regular parking lot, smashed ourselves into the truck, drove to the lot for trailers and got it parked and the boats in the water, it was after noon and over 100 degrees.

While my mom and I were waiting for The Men to bring the boats and equipment down, we played fetch with the dogs at the small beach near the boat launch. My parents' lab, Emmy, looooves to fetch, and she also loves to swim, so it was perfect. As we were playing, Clover and Paisley got very interested in Emmy's fetching and started walking farther and farther out into the lake. And then, all of a sudden, Clover and Paisley both swam out after Emmy! Now, both our pups have been in the pool - we put them in to show them how to get out - but neither seemed to like it. We were completely amazed to see them both swim out into the lake over and over again. And I must say, they are both the cutest little swimmers I've seen in quite a while.

We finally got the boats ready and pushed off. Oy, that's when the fun began. We were in the canoe with P&C, and poor Dan felt every movement and had to shift his weight to compensate. And they weren't just moving a little, they were all over the place. They completely scratched up my poor bare legs. At one point, Clover decided she wanted to be in the kayak with Emmy and jumped ship, literally. Thankfully, we weren't moving too fast and Dan plucked her up out of the water and plopped her back in the boat. We rowed over to a nice shaded spot and got out and had some lunch, chatted, and played more fetch before rowing back. It was quite a bit of work for a short trip to the lake, but it was a fun day.

We didn't bring cameras on the water with us, because we all know my luck with electronics and water, but I did snap this one of Paisley and Clover asleep on the back seat on the way home.


We spent the rest of the weekend with my parents as well. We cooked dinner Saturday night and we spent yesterday making breakfast, playing Wii Golf, watching Date Night at the theater, practicing ganache (finally), and going out to dinner. It was a wonderful Father's Day weekend.

What did you do this weekend?