father's day in my family

Every year, my family packs up for a camping trip over Father's Day weekend. In the past, we've made some great memories (I think I first learned how to fillet a fish on Father's Day weekend) but this trip definitely tops them all.

I have been working a lot this summer, so this year we had to vacation around my crazy schedule. We left Saturday night, after I got off work at 5, and piled into our truck, which would pull both our camper and our boat (it's a sight, for sure). We had been on the interstate for less than a mile when we blew a tire on the camper. Oops. Then my dad realized that the tool he needed was in another vehicle. Oops. Soon enough, a friendly highway patrolman lent us the proper wrench to change the tire, and we were back on the road.

We drove and drove, and had just sighted the lake when we suddenly blew a second tire and flattened another. Unbelievable. We took a little trip and found out that all the tire shops within about 30 miles of us were closed, so we spent the night next to the highway, less than two miles from the nearest campsite. So close, but yet so far!

After a long night of traffic and train noises, my courageous father got out of bed early and went off to get the necessary tires. The rest of us slept in. This, I'm sure, is what every father dreams of on Father's Day. When he got back we ate a breakfast of cold cereal and I sang a rousing round of "Happy Father's Day to You." I almost got voted off the island for that stunt. We were off to a bit of a rocky start, but unfortunately, these were not to be our only issues. All of us got sunburned and most of us were awake in the wee hours of this morning because of one miserably sick daughter. Even with these and other adventures, this has to have been the best Father's Day trip we have ever taken. Why? Because our lighter moments (and there were many) consisted of:

1) Playful slapping wars when the fishing gets boring
(sister 1: STOP tickling me! gentle slap sister 2 (affecting nonchalance and thinking, "well, if that's how it's going to be..."): slap. And so it goes until our mother threatens to throw one of us out of the boat)
2) Hooking and then losing the biggest fish in the lake.
3) Pushing my sister off our tube behind the boat, just because I could.
4) The look on my mother's amusedly exasperated face as she watched this incident and wondered what she should say about it.
5) My dad advising me on proper filleting technique because even after all these years I still don't quite have the touch.
6) Getting poked by flailing walleye fins not once, not twice, but three times. Ouch.
7) A pineapple after dinner. Because a pineapple was a little out of place on this camping trip, and that's what made it so great.
8) Composing a song about my youngest sister being hungry.
9) My other sister learning how to chop firewood.
10) Chatting with the local waterfowl.
11) Hearing the shouts of other lake-users as they jumped into the cold water prior to water skiing. We couldn't quite see this guy, he was so far away, but his yelp was surely something else.
12) I made the same noise, just in a little higher pitch, when I fell off our tube later (though without any sisterly help, I should add).

In conclusion, this trip had the potential of being miserable, but we didn't let it get that way. And that, I think, is pretty cool.

Father's Day camping. It's a good train, you should get on it!

And with that I should probably close. I have to work tomorrow, and I am currently running on a little over four hours of sleep. This trip was a blast, but I don't think I could handle its kind very often!