Straight to You: All in the Family

We are finally home from a quick family vacation. When I say "family" I mean the entire Xavier clan. Just before we left for Mexico, we decided to do a short family vacation. Due to busy summer outings and going ons, we couldn't synchronize a Xavier road trip as in past years. We settled for a few days together at on old familiar place, Lake Camanche. Concurrently, Kerry is being pampered in Mexico, so you won't see any photos of her and Mike (my darling husband) had to work. Luckily we weren't too far from home, so he was able to join us for dinner and a little fishing. Water seemed to be the center of our attention again. With Anthony's boat and a borrowed jet ski, we were ready for lots of fun in the sun.

Here are Bailey and Nicole enjoying the good life; being pulled through the cool water with the wind blowing through their hair on a hot summer day.

Here are Bailey and Nicole barrel rolling off that tube into the cool, refreshing water. I guess Uncle Anthony thought they were getting a little hot under the sun.

I was fun to have Uncle Joe visit during the day. He doesn't often get to enjoy our vacations. He proved his talents on the water with a slalom ski and a wakeboard.

What I find amazing is how fast the kids catch on to new sports. Nicole, Charles and Bailey all got up and going on the wakeboard. With more time on the water, these kids will be jumping wakes and really showing up their adult counterparts!

Charles was very excited to be wakeboarding. He tried last year and just couldn't get up. I could sense a feeling of accomplishment coming from him when he finally did it. The smile lasted a long time!

Nicole just celebrated her 13th b-day and got to take her brand new wakeboard out for a ride. She was the one who showed us how it was done.

Bailey is our natural athlete. I wish sports came to me as easily as it does for her! Show her how to do it and it's done. She was the first to cross both wakes and make it back over them.

The adults on the other hand, experienced sinus cleanings, near concussions, sore muscles and weak hands before they were able to conquer the wakeboard. Uncle Anthony demonstrates this the best on a slalom water ski:

He's working hard to get up, uh oh, he's a little off kilter...

he's going down... he's gone.

Okay, in all fairness, Uncle Anthony did quite well on the wakeboard, even when Uncle Joe was going 40 mph.

I must say, wakeboarding is an exciting sport! When you finally get up and out of the water, there is a feeling of being a kid again. I will confess, I have tried at least once each summer for the past 3 summers and was unable to accomplish the goal of gliding above the water. My very patient family and skilled boat captain watched me try to drink the entire lake in the many attempts at wakeboarding. I kept trying until I just couldn't hold on any more. Laying in bed the next morning, I realized what I was doing wrong. I got back out that morning and I actually got up, for a second. Well, I was now bound and determined! After many (atleast 10) more tries, I finally got up and stayed up for a while. Like I said, I wish sports came as easy to me as it does others! I really have to work to do it. We are all looking forward to more wakeboarding! (I will post a pic when Papa gives me one.)

It's amazing what a few toys and water can do to a person! The kids weren't the only ones having all the fun.

Even Papa got in on the action. He was just as relentless on the jet ski as the uncles were! I was told that even Papa went faster than I did. Needless to say, I wasn't the popular jet ski driver but Grand Ma trusted me. (I'll post that pic when Papa gets it to me)