family houseboat trip: day one

Once upon a time Arianne got married to a guy from Vernon. They held a reception in that very city, so my parents had the opportunity to pass by the Shuswap lakes on their way. They fell in love instantly. I had been there for the past couple years with Burns' family, so I knew how they felt. And what better way to vacation there than on a houseboat (in a cabin is pretty great too, but after being on a houseboat there..well..it was pretty awesome)??

Burns got to Calgary from Lloydminster on Friday, the night before we left for the lake. He had spent the past week in North Battleford, Saskatchewan but luckily for him, the salesmen were slowly making their way back to Edmonton.

We left Calgary at about 5:00am and got to Sicamous at 10:00. We would have made it there at 11:00 but there was an hour time difference! I was pretty happy about that. We jumped on the boat and we were off! Just kidding. It took about 2 hours to get everything organized and for the houseboat company to give us the clear after inspecting our boat. Burns even saw one of the families that he had installed an alarm system for from Saskatchewan on one of the houseboats! It's a dang small world, my friends.

First things first. Navy's houseboat birthday party!! We partied it up on the top of the boat on our way to a beach. Look at this little cutie pie:

I can't believe she's one already! Here's Nitty girl with Navy's cake. My cousin, Holly, made it. It was the first cake that I actually didn't mind the taste of the fondant:

The weather was so perfect the whole weekend.

After the cake and a little dance party...

...we did some relaxing in the hot tub.

We docked at a beach and decided to do a little water-sliding and swimming.

Prepare yourselves for a plethora of perfect pictures:

Brad for gold in houseboat diving.

Daryn

I love this one.

Marshie

Mom

Snorkel time.

Nitty girl.

Naked train!!! Just kidding. No one is naked.....yet.

Burns and me.

Daddyo

Alex

I couldn't resist adding this one.

Marshie for gold in water-slide twist.

Dead body Burns.

Seeesters.

Naves!

As you can see we had a lot of fun just sliding down the slide and swimming around.

Marshall and Brad put a tire on a log in the lake and tried to stand on it.

I couldn't resist the urge to join.

After I was done with swimming, I joined Arianne and Alex on the beach. Burns came too and a couple others. We were just chillin' when we noticed a bald eagle sitting on a tree. We got Burns' binos out and got a closer look at it.

It flew off the branch, circled once, dove down through the air ever so gracefully and caught a fish! It was pretty cool to watch.

That night we had a campfire and hung out for quite a while. We made sure that anyone staying on the beach the next night would know it, too.

Kutarnas, Biebers, and Marshall went back to the boat while my parents, Brad, Burns and I stayed and chatted for a bit longer. It was getting pretty dark out and we could hear everyone who went to the boat splashing around in the water. Then I heard "NAKED TRAIN!!!" I figured they might be going a little nuts but it didn't phase me too much. Brad went back to the boat and then Burns. I decided to go back and I found Burns at the back deck in the moonlight looking at the strangest scene.

Everyone was in the water......dipping their skinny, bare hides. What did he do then? He stripped down (while no one was looking of course) and jumped in! I went to the top of the boat and everyone was calling me to get in. I thought "YOLO" and stripped down and jumped in! Trust me, it crossed my mind that everyone was playing a joke on Burns and me like they weren't actually naked in the water. That thought crossed Burns' mind too, but it turned out that everyone was swimming around so free in the moonlit water. Part of my bucket list was crossed off that night.

Fantastic first day.