Memorial Day Memories: Discover Boating
I absolutely love the Memorial Day Holiday! I love both the deep and the shallow aspects of the day. To the service men and women who have died honoring my country, I love taking a moment to reflect on all I have because of you. I also like to think of my grandpa who died a few years after service due to radiation exposure from the atomic bomb in Japan in WWII. He stayed to serve and help people after. He was an amazing man, and he’s actually the guy I plan to name my son after! But that’s a big story for another post that will come when we get closer to baby time!
Because I have two amazing grandparents who served in combat, I often turn my thoughts to family this day. I think of the greatest memories I’ve had in my life have come from quality family time enjoying fun activities together. This includes my parents and siblings, and also my date time with my husband.
My parents decided when I was young that they would splurge and buy a boat. They told us all very clearly that they wanted us to grow up and remember the fun times we had together, and they knew if we went boating almost every week as a family, we would definitely obtain these memories!
Boating season always kicked off on Memorial Day, when the weather was a little warmer, when school was ending, and when dad had work off and could actually go with his wife and six children. We would make a bunch of sandwiches, buy the chips we rarely bought, make a special treat, and load up the towels and life jackets. We spent time learning to water ski, get roughed up on a tube, and jumping off the boat about a million times to wear us all out. We loved every minute of it!
Most our family vacations were spent at Lake Powell in Utah, where we’d live on a houseboat for a week and take our boat along too for water skiing. We always went with my cousins, who are all brilliant hilarious souls, and we would all laugh together and have the best time of our lives. Sure there was the crazy storm where we thought we may die, or the time the coyotes tried to invade the houseboat, or sleeping on top of the boat and watching the bats fly 10 feet overhead to eat the bugs. But mostly, I remember the peaceful waves, the bonfires on shore with my family all around me, and the perfect vacation where you could relax/party/and always have something fun to do at any given time.
Jacob has been blessed with many friends who have invited him for boating trips through the years, and he is definitely better than I am by far at any water sport! I’m so glad we’ve had the opportunity to share some fun boating memories together. I’m also grateful that a few years ago my brother who lives in our area decided he wanted the same boating memories for his family that my family and his wife’s family had growing up, and bought a boat. We’ve only been able to go a few times, but last Memorial Day was one of them! We loved being on the lake watching nieces and nephews smile, laugh, and truly enjoy the quality time together! I also loved that my childhood memories were being recreated with my favorite guy!
This year we’ll be busy with some home projects, but boating will always be a fun date idea, a fun family date, and a fun memory I treasure!
Anyone else have awesome boating memories? Do you have another fun family activity that you cherish as a sweet memory now? I’d love to hear!
Thank you to Discover Boating for sponsoring today’s post and helping me remember so many awesome childhood memories! #discoverboating
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I have always loved boating! My family doesn't have a boat but my cousins do and we usually go boating with them on Memorial Day too!