Shallow Water Makes for a Lot of Fun

The fun on the boat earns it’s own post, but there’s certainly more to hanging out at the lake than just tubing. The lake itself was down a bit this year which likely made the typical warm shallow water even warmer — which also meant it was even more favorable for swimming.

Both Crosby and Carlyn spent a bunch of time out there with me. Crosby would typically go out there with Dad and I after our runs, and we’d goof around a bit, and then often we’d go out again later in the afternoons.

Crosby spent a bunch of time hauling rocks with Nonna and had a slew of them lined up on the pier by the end of the week.

Carlyn loved squishing the clay between her fingers, once she figured out what it was too.

Surf Hopper — That being said, the most fun in the water with the kids had to be the ball game. The Surf Hopper was a last-year pickup from 5 Below and is filled with some sort of gel under a cloth skin that floats, but also bounces on the water when you throw it a low angle. So we’d take the ball out to just inside the bulrushes and take turns throwing it. Then depending on who was out there, we’d chase after it.

Mom was out there with the three of us one time, so she’d race Crosby primarily. When she wasn’t there, Carlyn decided that she needed to be on my team, so we could race together. I’d throw the ball, Crosby would slosh through the water on his own, and I’d drag Carlyn through the water right there with him. She’d flip over upside down and the water would be streaming by her head and even splashing a bit, but she loved it nonetheless. I’d get her up there in time, but then the two would still have a bit of a race to see who could actually snag it the fastest.

A few times it was even just Crosby and I out there, and we still managed to have fun. Obviously I’m a little faster than he is, so we’d come up with interesting things to try to make it even. The thing that seemed to work out the best was me giving him a head start by counting, and then I’d chase after him full speed. By the end of things, I had it down where it really was close nearly every time which was fun for me too!

Water Baseball — Crosby decided that the ball would also make a good baseball and so with a hand for a bat, we started playing. I’d throw it, he’d barely hit it, but he’d then take off running the bases.

About 20 minutes into that, Dad came out and joined the game. He pulled out some bulrushes for bases, and then the three of us proceeded to play. Dad became the designated hitter, and Crosby became the designated runner. Whenever there were any close plays, Dad would put on pretend headphones to “talk to New York” to get the call — something that wasn’t lost on Crosby as he soon began asking for replays on just about every close play. It was silly, but it was also a lot of fun.

Hammock on the Beach — On a different fun thing, they also got one of the parachute material hammocks that Mom strung out on one of the trees right at the shoreline. I only really got a chance to lay in it for any significant length of time (aka 45 minutes) once, but that still was something worth remembering. The light breeze was blowing, very small waves provided a little bit more of a backdrop, and I just was able to lay there and read what I wanted — which in this case turned out to be a book about rainwater collection — but I was able to do it!

Deep water swim — one of the first days we got there, Crosby wanted to put on his life jacket and go swimming. We started off goofing around just inside the bulrushes, but when we went down a ways, he wanted to go out into the deeper water. Since he was wearing a life jacket, I was ok with it, so out we went. There’s a relatively steep drop, but then it levels out again, but we were out far enough that I could no longer reach. The bottom also changes color so it gets a little creepier swimming, but he was having fun so we kept going and eventually swam all the way back into the shallow part. When all was said and done, I think that it had to be one of the farthest out there that I’d been swimming without the boat.

Post-run swims and football — The last fun shallow water activity had to be swimming after the runs with Dad. In addition to great feeling of cooling off in the water, we brought the water ball and a football out there several times. The depth there is absolutely perfect for playing catch as well. It’s not so deep that you can’t run, but it is deep enough that you can safely dive for balls. It really takes me back to all the times we used to spend playing catch in the street in Valpo.

I love playing catch with a football any time, but the ability to do all the diving catches as well makes it all the better. It’s great to know that when you lay out, there will be a soft pool of water there to catch you. Dad was never quite as interested in doing the diving catches, but he too loved tossing the ball and placing his throws so I could dive.

That being said, there is one specific story that has to be told about football. We were playing catch the last full day, and I knew we didn’t have a ton of time, but I also knew it was the last day so I wanted to play catch for a bit. We loosened up our old (and older 😉 ) arms and started doing the normal throw, me dive, and throw.

Now as I said before, he wasn’t all about the dive and catch, but he occasionally would, so I tried to throw them that way as often as possible. This time I threw a perfect one. Tight spiral. Just the right distance that it was very catchable, but one that would take a dive. And just as it’s about to hit the water a step or two out in front of him, from my perspective, it looks like he does a little half-hearted flop dive.

So me being me, I made a little joke about it. I said (in my other person voice), “Uh, hey coach, I definitely couldn’t get that one, didn’t you see me dive after it.” He then says (laughing a bit), what did you say? So I repeated it, and then he just busts out laughing uncontrollably… which makes me start doing the same.

Apparently that was one of the times where your mind is able to race through a decision, and his thought process went like this: “Oh, here comes the ball. Hmm, I could probably catch that. Wow, that is perfect. Oh man, Erik’s going to think I should have caught that. I better do a little dive to make it look like I tried.”

But that all took just a little bit too long, so I did essentially catch the whole thought process through the flop. I know it sounds really silly, but we both just couldn’t stop laughing after it… so much so that we pretty much had to quit because every time we’d go to throw it again, we’d just start all over again.

It’s definitely an inside joke, but I have the feeling it’s going to be one of those little memories that sticks with you for a long time and know that I’ll love looking back to read about it later. Right there and then, I was back to being a little kid playing catch with his dad and loved every minute of it.