Unpaid Vacation #8 - Lake Trip

This time I had Friday off and Jer had Monday off. So it was a bit of an extended weekend for us! On Friday, I took the kids to the water park in the morning. Jesica and her kids Savoy and Cole came too. We stayed about as long as we could with 2 adults and 4 kids under 3! Which means after an hour and a half, we were outta there! The exciting moment of the day is when Anden came rushing out of the water yelling he had to go poo!! THANK YOU my dear son for not humiliating me and crapping in the water; thus having to be the mortified parent of the kid that shut down the park for 24 hrs!

On Saturday, we had planned a lake trip at 7am with the Ashworths. This was the first time we had invited them and thus we wanted everything to go smoothly. So we spent Friday night getting the boat/gear ready and of course taking a spin around the neighborhood while me and the kids sat in the boat playing "I Spy" and waving to the neighbors. Jeremy hid his face, while driving, in hopes no one would recognize him. After that, we finished loading and packing everything. We were ready to show our new friends a good time!

At 6:50am on Saturday morning, Jeremy went outside to hook up the boat. Our friends would be at our house in 10 mins. He was only gone a minute and came back inside proclaiming, "Um, you're never gonna believe this...the Escalade won't start!" I started laughing and said, "Nice joke! Now get back out there and finish before they get here. I already told them we would all ride together." Then I get the blank serious stare, "I'm not kidding. It totally won't start!!"

Now you would think at some point this wouldn't be shocking to me that this type of stuff happens to us all the time! But ignorantly, it still surprises me. "Jer, it HAS to get fixed! Unless you plan on hauling the boat with the rhino or hooking it around your waist!" So off he was sent back to the garage to find a mechanical miracle in 8 minutes! I waited 5 minutes and went out to check on him. He was wandering around my car and trunk with total confusion and exasperation all over his face. "Jer, what are you doing?!" He blurted out as if he had been caught stealing, "OK OK so I can't find your stupid car battery to jump my truck!" I withheld my laughter as I offered a few suggestions, "hhmm maybe under the hood?". Well once again, my lovely car had left us speechless. Apparently they don't put batteries under the hood...or even in the trunk for that matter! We seriously couldn't find the battery and didn't have time to find the car manual to look it up! So I admitted defeat and texted Jesica, "Ya so Jer's luck struck again and the truck won't start! Looks like we might be the ones needing a ride!" Strike 1 for the Harbecks on building a new friendship with the neighbors!

A few minutes later, they arrived to the house and Jer was still fumbling around the garage. He awkwardly laughed it off and asked it they could give us a jump so that we could still take them to the lake. Isn't that the type of request you always ask your friends? With the little bit of pride he had left, he successfully got the Escalade running! Yippee! With the awkwardness thinning a bit, I pathetically asked them, "So do you still want to ride all together?" They courteously thought of reasons why it might be easier to take their own vehicle. Strike 2 for the Harbecks.

We loaded up, in separate vehicles, and followed each other to Subway. It's tradition that we get footlongs to eat on the boat. We pulled up...and it was closed. Usually we leave for the lake at 8am, not 7am. Apparently Subway opens at 8am. Strike 3 for the Harbecks.

After the Subway rejection, we headed to the gas station to fill up the boat. On the 1/2 mile drive, Jeremy ran over a rabbit. He didn't feel the need to mention this to anyone until we pulled up to the gas tank and there was blood and guts strewn all over the boat!! Mat came over to help him fill up and together they cleaned the road kill off the boat. I was horrified that one little rabbit could spray from one end of the boat to the other! After the boat was detoxed and filled up with gas. We were off. Ok only our friends were off. Jer had forgotten about the little battery problem and had shut off the truck. We all sat there in silence, yes that includes humans and the vehicle. Jeremy scraped together now the ounce of pride he had left and stepped outside to flag them down before they left. I sat in humiliation in the vehicle. So again, Jer and Mat jumped the Escalade. Strike 4 for the Harbecks.

As soon as we pulled onto the freeway, I looked back and noticed the tube bending in half in the wind. "Jer, did you forget to tie down the front of the tube?" It took awhile before I got the one word all inclusive answer... "Maybe". Normally that would be my cue to just shut up and let this one slide. But the way our luck was going, it would probably rip off and land on the windshield of our friends that were following behind us. So I waited a couple minutes and piped back up, "I know it's embarrassing but you should probably pull over and tie it down. It's that or make them wreck when it smashes into their windshield." That obviously got the point across and we humbly put the blinker on and pulled over to the side of the road. So did our friends. Jer hopped out of the car, this time with no pride left, and jumped in the boat and tied it down. I again just sat in the car in humiliation. I texted Jesica "so are we your most ghetto friends ever?" She wrote back just laughing. Strike 5 for the Harbecks.

We finally reached the lake and the rest of the day was a success! Well, according to our new lowered standards of success! Jeremy immediately drove us to a "no wake zone" cove and we played and tore up the calm water tubing and wakeboarding. The other boats were so friendly waving to us...until we realized their gestures weren't waves but rather flipping us off. That's when we decided maybe we should drive back out and actually READ the floating buoys. Yep, they clearly stated NO WAKE ZONE. Other than that, only one pair of sunglasses were accidentally kicked off the back platform and to the bottom of the lake. Mat did his best to gracefully flop into the water and retrieve them. But to no avail. Then only one injury occurred that resulted in minor bloodshed when Mat pulled the wakeboard out of the water from Jer and accidentally smacked Anden in the head with it. Then I did my best to shatter every muscle and bone in my body with a wicked wake jump with my rusty wakeboarding skills and crashed so hard the other boaters felt it. The rest of the day was a throbbing head fog. We chowed on chips and kids snacks and salivated over the non existent sub sandwiches. It was a great day on the lake!

As we drove home in our separate vehicles, that Mat had to jump for a 3rd time before we could load up the boat (Strike 6 for the Harbecks), Jes texted me to tell us thanks and they had a great time. I texted back laughing and saying thanks for them being able to handle all of the bad luck that follows us! She wrote back saying, "It's all about the memories". And to that I ended with "AND BOY DO WE HAVE LOTS OF MEMORIES THEN!"

Here's the visual highlights... (I'll add more when I get them from Jes!)

Anden & Savoy playing in the tube!

Swimming in the lake!

Taylee & Cole just hanging out!

All Cole wanted to do was to play with the rope and be left alone. Taylee just wanted to examine his new bottom grill by shoving her hands in his mouth.

By the end of the trip. This is how the kids looked...

Of course Anden was still rip roaring and ready to play.

Good thing in the Harbeck Baseball Game of Life you get more than 3 Strikes! Because we definitely need the extra cushion!