Havasu Springs 2011

Last week we had our first of TWO summer river trips this year! Our friends, the Derosas, are hosting us at Park Moabi in a few weeks and this is Havasu Springs. They said they wanted us to see the difference between vacationing on the "river" and at the "lake." Last year, we just went to Moabi (which is the river trip) and this trip introduced us to Lake Havasu.

There were five families for this fun vacation. One family fell in love with the river last summer that they went out and bought a boat right away! This trip was the maiden voyage of their new boat. We took a picture of the launch. Steve was taking copious notes... some day this might be us! LOL...

Genny and I getting ready to board the boat for the day!



Just because we are 4 hours away from home and cell phone reception is horrible... that didn't stop daddy from selling produce any chance he got!

First day on the boat...

Ryan and Charlie were so excited to get to be on the first "tube" ride of the trip.

Ryan loved it. Charlie, on the other hand, is an ANIMAL!!! She calls herself an "extreme tuber." She would go with her buddy Jackson and they would laugh, and laugh, and have little conversations out there behind the boat. I wish I could be a fly on the wall to hear what they talk about. She was so brave. The boat was going super fast and they even went outside the wake.

The next adventure for the weekend was waterskiing. Charlie went first. She tried several times but never got up. She loved trying though. We try again next time. Lots of other little kids tried after her without any luck either.

Until.... Ryan gave it a try!

Woo-hoo... Athlete Ryan got up on her second try! We were so proud!

The first 3 minutes or so were awesome. Her smile was so big. She was having a blast. And then she realized that she didn't know how to get off this thing when she was ready. She became terrified. You can see it on her face. Bad mommy and daddy failed to tell Ryan ahead of time what to expect. She has never seen anyone waterski before and all the kids that tried before her didn't get up so she did not know what to expect. She couldn't hear us on the boat and we couldn't hear her. We cut the engine so that we could get her off the skis. She didn't know to let go so she got dragged a little. Poor thing.

Her prince Daddy jumped in the water to her rescue. She was crying so much. Such mixed feelings. She was so happy to have succeeded but so super scared because she didn't know what to do. Her exact words were, "I would have had to hang on until we got to China."

During all these ski trials... the kids hung out on the boat watching each other.

This is Riley with the Grace Girls.

Grace girls with Jackson (Charlie's extreme tubing partner)

A little golf to pass the time while the grown ups were packing up to head home!

So, what's the consensus? River or lake?

Actually, not sure. Love them both for totally different reasons. But... just to be sure we'll try the river again this summer to do some more research ;)