Skiing!!!

I am going to start by apologizing for the length of the post. It is going to be VERY long. Tina called up and asked if we wanted to go skiing at her sister's house in Jerseryville. We took them up on the offer. We packed up and headed out around 9:00am. We drove up to Jerseyville into the back roads. When we pulled into the drive way to the house, I about fainted. The house was beautiful and the lake was set up for skiing. The family that built the lake bought all the land and Tina's brother-in-law helped with engineering the plan and bought into it. There were jumps and a slalom skiing course set up. They had a gorgeous lake front house complete with dock, boat house, and sandy play area for the kids. The kids started out with the boom on the boat to get the feel for skiing. Grace did not want to do it, but once we put the skis on her, she was ok. She was hilarious. She refused to let go of the boom. Seth and Freddy were naturals. They started out with the boom and then went on to the short rope, which was about 6 feet long attached to the boom. Seth actually used the long rope behind the boat. He got right up on the skis and went all the way down the lake. I was soooooo impressed!!! I attempted to ski with the boom, and lost so I didn't want to embarrass myself by showing you the pics and I know everyone reads this more for the kids anyway...LOL Richie skiied also, but couldn't get over the teeter totter motion, so he later attempted the knee board. I think that may have been a little easier for him. Later in the afternoon, Doug took Ben and Emily skiing with him. Ben loves it and waves to everyone on the dock. There was also an in-ground trampoline that the kids were fasinated with.