16+

We had a 16+ activity at the Blacks. It was super fun! We all got  there early and stayed late. They have the best house for gathering. 

We tubed, boated, swam, hot tubbed, played basketball and ping pong, made s’mores on the dock, ate chili and cupcakes and everyone had to be kicked out at the end of the night.  (that's the sign of a good mutual activity).  Ann and Jim are so generous and so hospitable and everyone feels welcome.  If I had great wealth I would want to share it the way they do. 

After a long time on the boat the hot tub felt perfect!  These kids are so cute!

We only had two "incidents" while boating.  Maya did a backflip off of the back of the tube and hurt her leg.  She limped around for awhile but by the time she went home it seemed to be doing better. Marjorie got thrown off the tube as well.  She, unwisely, choose to go out in shorts and a t-shirt.  When she slid off the tube her shorts and undies also slid off her body.  She yelled out "I lost my shorts!" and then "I'm n*ked". Luckily Grace had on a pair of shorts over her swimsuit and was able to toss them into the water.  And luckily Marjorie actually caught them and they didn't also sink to the bottom.

I also had a near incident.  Lettie and Maya arrived late, after we had already loaded up the boat and been out tubing for awhile.  We arranged to meet them at the community dock so Ann, Andrew, the missionaries and the two girls walked down and we drove over.  The boat was already packed (with 18 people on it) so Alicia, Charlotte, Josh and I got off when Lettie and Maya got on.  

Here comes the problem.  See the picture at the top?, that's the dock.  See how there is a fence around it that is rather tall?  Well Charlotte and Josh hopped right over.  Alicia (who for the record is 4 inches taller than I am) was able to hoist her leg up and be pulled over by Ann and Andrew.  And that left me.

I thought I might be able to "hop" over but the truth is I'm not much of a hopper. We had several (failed) attempts to get me over.  (embarrasing).  Then Ann picked up Maya's shoes to carry them back.  At that point I planned to just shimmy through the reeds on the outside lip of the dock to the opening (which was not close).  As soon as I saw them I thought Aha! I took the shoes and was then able to put my feet in the openings of the fence and "hop" over. 

I was grateful no one thought to film the endeavor and grateful that in the large amounts of laughter that was happening I didn't fall off into the water (and get eaten by an alligator, although that might have been less embarrasing because at least the story would have ended with a tragic twist and at least that would be the part people remembered).