Our boating memories started on a whim and we’ve never looked back! My husband has always wanted a boat, one of the many ‘man’ toys I had put off purchasing while we started out with our young family. One summer a few years back my brother purchased a lake-access-only cottage and, after falling in love with the lake, we purchased our Seadoo Challenger boat spur of the moment. We didn’t even tell anyone! Our two boys were in awe at the dealership looking at all the boats and we were able to convince them that we were being allowed out on a water test as a treat. It was great fun to see their excitement when they learned that we had purchased the boat. We then headed up for our inaugural cottage visit and were loading the boat into the water on our own for the first time when my brother pulled up to the dock. “YOU BOUGHT A BOAT?!?!?!?”. His expression and surprise were priceless!
We spent that weekend, the anniversary of our father’s passing, together with our families. This was my brother’s first family visit to the cottage as he was living in California at the time. We spent an afternoon tubing and cruising and just having a great time. As we were returning back to the cottage, the sun setting, our kids laughing around us, he looked back at me and we knew. We knew that moments like these are what life is all about, that memories like these are priceless and will last forever.
I am the financial planner and budget ‘person’ in our family and I always thought that boats were a waste of money… toys, and not worth the hassle. Even with all the ‘repairs’ our first year as we learned to avoid shallow rocky ledges, not to let the ropes get sucked up into the engine and all the other silly but costly mistakes we made, that moment and hundreds we’ve had since are so worth it. We have launching the boat down to an art now and the kids are involved and have grown up with water safety and responsibility. Our oldest son got his boating license last summer at the tender age of 10. We bring the boat camping, to the cottage and for many great day trips exploring the many wonderful bodies of water in the area. We tube and jump off the swim deck, we pack lunches and anchor outside beautiful waterfront homes to picnic. We spend afternoons with friends and family making memories that are worth so very much more than the pennies I used to count.