The Kayaks Finally Make it in the Water!

This is a picture of Shaver Pond, located in Grafton Lakes State Park, about 30 minutes east of my house. This is where I spent the late morning/early afternoon yesterday with my hubby, Dave. It was glorious! The kayak guide I own says this pond is the most isolated one in the state park. There are actually 4 ponds in Grafton. This one was more like a small lake. The wearther was perfect yesterday. No humidity. Temps were in low 80's. Out there it was only 79. The water was cold, but refreshing. This is what we used:

The kayaks shown here are like the 2 that we own, although the color is different. Ours are this color with some yellow swirled through....kinda like a tie-dyed look! These are called sea kayaks.
Ok. So we get a late start to the morning. I was up early as was my 9 yr. old. She is allowed the computer for an hour a day so she chose to play her game early. I relaxed with coffee and the morning paper. Dave slept in as did my 14 yr. old who was tired from the Youth Group Banquet the evening before.
Dave finally gets up and moving about 10.
I want to know if he still wants to kayak. He does!
We load them up onto his car (he owns a Honda CRV) and I quickly learn how to latch on the ropes and hooks. Piece of cake....soooo much easier than dealing with the camper! We tried on the life jackets to make sure they fit properly (they do!) and we were off. The girls stayed home since we were not heading to a pond with a beach. I don't feel comfortable leaving them in a whole other part of the state park at the lake that does have the beach.....so....they really didn't want to go yesterday anyways.
It was really nice to have some time with just my husband. We needed it!
We pay the entrance fee but later in the day learned that there is another road we can get on that won't require us to pay the fee.
We find what we think is the trail to the boat launch.
WRONG! Now keep in mind that we have kayaking gear on, not hiking gear! We're wearing swimsuits under our shorts and shirts. Dave has on ocean-water shoes. I have on my new LLBean water sport shoes. They have a much better grip than regular water shoes but...they are NOT hiking boots!
We see the trail.
Oh, this won't be a long carry. Well, wrong again! We had to carry the 2 kayaks (we strapped the paddles on the sides...I love that feature!!) down a trail and then bushwhack to the pond. There was NO boat launch. I was kinda scared because I had to put in near a huge downed tree that was half jutting into the water. I much prefer putting in on a real boat launch where I can simply step into my boat.
Once I was in, and pushed out, I could finally relax. We found out later from a fisherman how to get to the boat launch. And he gave us a tip of a launch on the other side of the pond that doesn't require us to pay the entrance fee to the park. Such a deal!
We paddled around the pond which was about 1.5 miles. It was just so peaceful! There were 2 guys fishing. We were the only people kayaking for pleasure.
We had the whole place to ourselves really.
We saw several painted turtles, trout, a water snake (ick...I quickly paddled away from him) and several dragonflies. (go here to find out why dragonflies are significant to us).
Dave actually had a dragonfly land on his knee (I had slathered on sunscreen that is also a bug repellant (Avon) so none landed on me, just my boat.). The dragonfly had caught a horsefly and was chowing down right on Dave's knee. It was fascinating to watch.
God's creation is marvelous.

We put in about 11: 30 a.m. and paddled until about 1:30 pm. Called the girls to check in.
Got home around 2: 30 because we stopped for a snack.
My sister, Hope, and her hubby, Donny arrived just after 4 for an early dinner.
My aunt and uncle arrived during dinner.
Then my sister Joy and her son Luke (15) arrived for dessert quickly followed by my youngest sister, Jill, her hubby Mike and 2 daughters, Emma (5), and Maddy (2 weeks).
My daughter's friend, Shauna (15) arrived to join Courtney (14) and Claire (9 1/2 as of yesterday!) in the movie showing of the Jonas Brothers. They hung out in the family room drooling over these latest pop star idols while the rest of us enjoyed a wonderful evening on the deck and around the firepit.
I had lots of company but I was just so thankful to the Lord that all my sisters and their families could be with us to visit with Aunt Helen and Uncle Dave while they were up from Virginia.
How special to have siblings who all like each other and get along.
AND I got to hold a new born baby niece!! She is adorable! I didn't take pics because I was just too darn busy playing hostess.

It was a relaxing weekend,even though it was a busy one.
And around our house...we needed this!


Church was great.....and I will post more on that later.

How was your weekend??