Tipping the Canoe

I was thinking about our canoe the other day. We haven't used our canoe in over a year, probably closer to two years. Anyway, thinking about the canoe caused me to think of a very funny camping story. So...you wanna hear it?

Ok.

When we camp we usually go camping in places where you don't pay. It normally involves some sort of hiking to the campsite with all of our gear in hand and on our backs. This particular camping trip we spent the day fishing with a bunch of friends before we settled down to camp.

The story begins with my husband deciding he wanted to canoe us all out to the island. Now, mind you, there are five in my family and I was pregnant. One of our good friends' family consisted of four members and then there were three other adults and a dog.

Now, I did not want to canoe over to the Island. "Why can't we just fish off the shore?" I asked.

"Don't be a party pooper." I was told.

Needless to say I was not in a great mood. I gathered my things, we put the ice chest in the canoe and the kids and we paddled over to the island.

It took a few minutes for us to get there and my lovely husband proceeds to park the canoe like five feet away from the shore. Huh?

I asked him to pull up farther and he said "Oh, don't be such a pansy."

What? I am not a pansy! I told him so and yanked off my shoes, rolled up my pants to mid calf then stepped out of the canoe. Suddenly I sank straight to my knees in the mud. And, being caught off guard with one leg still in the canoe, I fell in the water too.

Oh, my goodness. Have you ever seen someone who looks like they want to laugh, but knows if they do they may face a horrible death. Well, that look was on my husband's face. I freaked. I won't go into that part much because frankly it is pretty embarrassing. I was pregnant, soaked, muddy and pissed, that pretty much covers it.

So, the husband went back and ferried everyone over to the island. They had all seen the whole thing from the shore. Once everyone was safely over to the island we began to fish. The five kids waded in the water a ways away from the fishermen. We roasted hotdogs over a fire, the dog played happily with the kids, and I waited patiently for my pants to dry.

It turned out to be a really nice outing aside from the falling down incident.

As we prepared to leave, we noticed dark was coming on us pretty fast so we decided to take another way across the lake. The way we wanted to take was where the little stream emptied out into the lake. The current was pretty strong and the water was kinda rocky, but it was only a little way.

For our first trip my husband took one person and tested the current. It seemed fine. So we proceeded to load up all four kids with life jackets into the bottom center of the canoe. My husband in the rear and me facing front. We stuck our oars in the water and shoved off.

All I remember is suddenly the canoe fish tailed, then tipped to the side filling with icy water. Now, it wasn't quite as serious as it sounds. We were only about four feet from the shore. Two of our guy friends splashed into the water to help.

Quickly they steadied the canoe. My husband jumped out and they all drug the canoe back onto the shore. At this point many things were happening.

I was holding my purse, listening to the children screaming as they were lifted out of the canoe and placed on the rocky shore. I still sat in the canoe, my purse clutched tightly to my chest in order to protect my camera and other such things only a woman would take on a canoe trip.

My husband thought I was crying so he rushed over to help me. Turns out, I was laughing so hard and just trying to hide it. I felt like a horrible mom for laughing, but seriously. It was funny!

Then, he shouts to everyone else. "She's laughing, it's ok."

The kids were still crying and I felt horrible, but then...everyone began to laugh. A few of the kids even abandoned their crying for laughing. They say laughter is the best medicine, well I suppose sometimes that's true.

The kids were a little wet, but all in all they were ok. They still got back in the canoe to go to the other side and now all of us adults have a hilarious story to remember about tipping the canoe.