Water-skiing

Roughly two weeks ago after seeing me and her cousin water ski, Emma decided that she was ready to try water skiing. To say that I was excited is an understatement... so is saying that I was nervous. I was so happy that Emma finally was ready to try it. I realize that she is a little young yet, but to have the nerve to try it it pretty good for her. She had been making huge strides this year in the water: jumping off the dock, deep swimming, swimming lessons, tubing, everything in the water this year she has accomplished has been great.

So, back to water-skiing....

We get the skis on her little legs. While I am doing this, I am going through everything with her: hang on to the rope, keep skis up, keep your knees bent, hang on to the rope (again!) etc. She is listening, smiling nervously, and looks ready.

I get her in the water with her knees bent up to her chest and hanging on to the rope. Tim drives slowly and lets her pull a bit behind the jet ski. She does well with this and is being pulled with her knees up and her tips still out of the water.

Then, Tim guns it... albeit slowly ... to try to pull her out of the water. She struggles a bit and shifts from side-to-side and eventually does a dive into the water with her skis popping off. Then, the worst part? She doesn't let go of the rope and is being drug behind the jet-ski. So, I run down the dock yelling "EMMA! Let go of the rope! EMMA! LET GO!" Eventually (after what seemed like 5 minutes, but I am sure was only like 15 seconds) she let go. Sigh.... I forgot to tell her to let go of the rope.

Tim goes over to her and gets her sad face and "Daddy, I got a lot of water in my face!" And with that, her water-skiing experience was over. She didn't want to try again, even with my consoling "it happens to everyone" speech. Oh well, at least she tried. She did say this past weekend that she wanted to try again, but then changed her mind at the cabin. Hopefully we will get one more try in before the water cools.

AND, of course, since Emma tried water skiing, Evan had to try too. The water skis, even the kid ones, were just a little too big yet. His little legs couldn't control the skis when he was in the water. He did try and Tim did pull him slowly behind the jet-ski, but that literally lasted 5 seconds. And, with that, he was done too.

All-in-all, I am so proud of both of them. Water skiing is something that I have been excited for them to try, although, next year will probably be better.