Excerpts From Camp: Day Four

Mornings at camp are absolutely blissful. Sitting on the dock, sipping a cup of coffee while watching the peaceful, quiet lake is one of my favorite camp pastimes. It's also the time where the lake is the calmest. We allow Kaytlin to take advantage of that time of day, as well. As long as the lake stays calm we let her practice her canoe skills by going solo around the small islands. And if truth be told, she's gotten quite good at it. The only problem is that her perception of what she can handle and mine vary.

Although we did have wonderful, sunny weather up to camp, each new day brought increasing winds. On the fourth day of camp Kaytlin was determined that she was experienced enough to take on a bit of these winds. After a bit of debate with her about this, I decided it was time for her to learn a valuable lesson. I gave her a life jacket and my blessing. And once she set off, I smiled to myself. Us mothers....sometimes we just know best. Am I right?

From the dock I watched as she ventured between the two islands. And I watched the wind slowly pick up a bit more speed. Before long the inevitable happened. The waves pushed her against a reef of rocks, and she was unable to push herself back out. I let her struggle good and long before I slowly set my coffee down and prepared the rescue mission. Then I set out in the second canoe. Once I reached her I could see it all over her face. Defeat. The wind was too strong for her. Mom was right. I tied her canoe to mine and attempted to paddle us both out. Which I was able to do, but do you think for the life of me I could paddle TWO canoes against a strong current? I struggled for a bit while Hubs watched on land, laughing for sure. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to turn two canoes around against the current and paddle back to the island. I might have been able to handle one, but two? There's just no way...Trust me, I tried.

Hubs had to come with his boat and rescue the both of us. Once he reached us, I'm sure he could read it all over my face. Defeat. The wind was too strong for the both of us. (My daughter and I were both humbled a bit that day.) Hubs tied my canoe to his boat, and we set out against the current. We made quite a lovely little boat parade all the way back to camp.

Tomorrow I reveal the whole camp sickness story...and no, it's not what some of you are thinking!