River Adventure

It was such a beautiful day. I was outside with the kids, and Nils wanted to go on a boat ride. So we talked to mommy and daddy, and soon we were all on the boat. Nils was pressing buttons on the radio, Annika was eating cheese and crackers , and Marta was crying because she hates her life jacket. It was starting out well- we were still docked at this point. As we headed out, there were strange noises coming from the boat.......and we weren't really going anywhere.....we made it about 2 houses down the river and were stuck. Thankfully we were stuck pretty close to the shore- Kendall jumped out with a rope, and Diane took a big board that was floating in the water, and between the two of them, they got us as close to the shore as possible without hurting the bottom of the boat. I started rolling up my pant legs- I knew I was going to have to walk through the nasty water. As I stood at the edge of the boat, Diane said to Kendall,
"Can't you just carry her over there?"
Though I knew she was trying to save me from getting all wet, I was horrified, and quickly shouted, "No!"
I could walk. The water was only knee deep, but it was rather chilly! I would much rather be knee deep in the water then have Kendall drop me in the water! Not that he would have done that........
After I was out of the river, he carried the kids over one by one. With the 3 of them, I had to tromp through the neighbor's yard. I was carrying the still crying Marta and holding onto Nils' hand so that he wouldn't try to run back to the river. Annika was walking beside me complaining that her bare feet were hurting. Marta may have stopped crying if I had taken her life jacket off, but I couldn't take it off and hold onto Nils at the same time. We were a very loud procession, but we finally made it back to the house. And the boat made it back, too, thanks to the help of some neighbors who happened to see us in the midst of our evacuation.
By the time Kendall and Diane came into the house, the kids were eating dinner. Marta was still a little weepy, but once everybody had some food, everything was o.k.
And the boat diagnosis? There was a large...very large...stick or log....something..... stuck in the rotor. I think- is it called the rotor? I don't know much about boats. Anyway, Kendall came into the house quoting Scripture: "make sure the stick is out of your own boat before you try to remove one from someone else's," ( that 's definitely a paraphrase).