Sail Away

This weekend we went down to Houston for our nephew's "farewell" talk in church. He is leaving this week to serve a mission in Denver Colorado. We are so excited for him and are looking forward to getting his emails over the next two years.

Another highlight of our trip was a ride on a 36 foot sailboat. We drove down to Kemah, which is about 25 miles north of Galveston. Damon (one of Daron's older brothers) allowed him to steer us out of the slip into the bay, which is a surprisingly shallow 10 feet nearly all the way around. Nathan was less than enthusiastic about the life vest and though Esther took some convincing that it was necessary, she eventually got over it and enjoyed the entire ride. Once we got into Galveston Bay and the wind had picked up enough, Damon and Taylor put out the sails and we cut the motor. Except for Nathan's fussing, it was peaceful and relaxing. It was even more quiet once I started shoveling Cheerios into Nathan's mouth. Just as we were turning around to head back in, a dark cloud moved in. It looked rather ominous and all I could think of were the countless stories of people out for a pleasure cruise when suddenly the weather turned sour and then the boat capsized and all were lost. Damon assured me that we would be fine. Thunder began to roll in and lightning flashed in the not too distant sky. The wind picked up and then the rain began to dump on us. Damon and Taylor tried to pull in the sails, which was quite the feat, considering the wind was whipping the ropes all over the place.

Daron was at the helm, trying to keep us moving into the wind, and he was having quite the time trying to do so. My romantic mind, of course, had a brief fling thinking of him as a heroic naval officer steering his crew and ship safely into port through the violent churning sea... Suddenly Damon is shouting, "I think this is what they call a squall!!!" Back to being nervous. And it was mostly for the kids. I made Esther go down into the cabin, which really irritated her as she wanted to be up where the action was. So she sat with her Grandpa watching the waves out the portal. She was not scared one bit; she kept shouting up at me that we were bouncing up and down like rabbits. I had to sit with Nathan on the steps into the cabin as I had shortly before discovered that sitting down in the cabin was making me seasick.

Nathan calmed down after a few minutes and his eyes actually started drooping with all the rocking. Then, almost as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The storm passed and the wind died down, leaving us to motor smoothly into the channel and back to the slip. We were all pretty wet and I was a tad shaky, but somehow I found that I had actually enjoyed it! Esther had nothing but praise for the whole experience. "That was a great ride!" she told her Grandma and gave Damon big hugs for taking us out in his "beautiful white sailboat." She will be talking about this for days!

This is right as the storm was building momentum.

Esther trying to steer the ship with Daddy.