Canoeing

We went canoeing yesterday. Very risky, I know. I had bought a Groupon last spring to rent boats at Lake Calhoun and we had not used it yet. There were many times I wanted to this summer, but I could not do it without Michael.

What a gorgeous weekend to do it! A few weeks ago, I was thinking that we might not be able to use the Groupon so I was even more appreciative of this weather. We ate at Tin Fish which is a little walk up cafe on Lake Calhoun also, it has amazing food.

Michael and the boys went in one canoe, and the girls and I in another. It went really well, all the kids picked up the paddling very well and nobody used the oars as weapons, which was a fear of course. The biggest challenge was Akila's mouth. Nothing new here.

She could not handle it if there was a tiny wiggle in our canoe as she thought we were going to tip. And every time there was any kind of wiggle, she let lose with some lovely expletives- for all of Lake Calhoun to hear. You know how when you're on a boat on a lake, it seems like everyone can hear you in other boats and on the shore? Well I'm pretty sure they could. We were getting some interesting looks as Akila called Imani and I bas.terds, the N-word, A-holes, and some other lovely names.

We stopped a few times and I tried to explain to her that it was OK for the canoe to wiggle a little, we all 3 took turns wiggling our bodies to make the boat wiggle a little. I told her that unless one of us stood up and tried to walk, it was very unlikely that we would tip. This helped a tiny bit, but not enough.

Then there was the issue of steering. I was in the back and doing the steering. But if we were heading towards something, that was super far away still, she would freak out that we were going to hit it. I think her spacial perception issues due to her Turner Syndrome were coming into play a little. I tried to just calmly ignore her and make the turn way sooner than necessary.

Imani did a great job of ignoring her and she was the one who was mostly being yelled at. The great ironic thing, is that she wanted to get in and swim at the beach, yet she was deathly afraid of tipping. She is a great swimmer and had on a life jacket, but did not want to get wet. Then, at the beach, she was having a hissy fit over wanting to swim and get her clothes wet. You can't win with her sometimes.

It was my birthday "Sunday" so I chose the restaurant and the event and it was totally awesome. A really great day and I am glad we did it. Makes me itchy to go canoe the St. Croix River next summer which Michael and I use to do before kids. I am not sure if I could have patience to handle the "mouth" all day though, it may have to be something we do on a respite weekend.