Went to the Lake with RidgeStudents yesterday

We had a wonderful time... the Morris family (Heather and Andy Morris are pictured above) agreed to have us all over for a final summer blast before school kicks up again this week. We all took turns getting thrashed in the tube, while the guys cam up with different ways to jump off the dock after stuff. (Frisbee, water ball, seaweed) It was awesome!

I know it was supposed to be a day about the kids, but my buddy from the Marine Corps, Austin, who is living with us for a while (see this post) as he works on his degree in Youth Ministry from NGU and I got to go out in the tube after most of the kids had their turn. Andy had an evil look in his eye even before we pulled away from the dock. We knew this was going to be trouble.

Now I have been whipped around on a tube by a number of different people. Andy however, is by far the most brutal of them all. Austin and I had seen what he had done to the middle school boys, and knew that he wanted to show us that no adult, and certainly no former Marines were going to outlast him on the lake. This dude got us flying around the lake. At some point after catapulting through the air multiple times in Mach 5 whip turns, Austin suggested we bail out on one of the turns -and make it look like a good crash, before we got seriously hurt. I agreed it was a good idea... but we didn't have a chance to do so.

Andy took us across someones wake, and we jumped up 4 or 5 feet off of the water, and landed it! I wish we had fallen off at that point. As we rebounded off the landing, a side wave hit us and rolled us into the air. Now I have fallen off at faster speeds, but this was a brutal landing. Somehow, as I'm flying through the air thinking only about making myself into a little ball to absorb impact, my cheek slams into Austin's ear. Then my shin bounces off of his knee. Then our elbows collide. Basically, Andy rolled us into a brotherly embrace that coincidentally does not fair the participants too well while careening across the incredibly stiff water.

Fortunately there was no bleeding appendages, but a number of bruises have appeared since last evening that prove that we were indeed injured. But, what are two former Marines to do with a boat full of middle school boys are saying "you guys alright?"

"Yea man, that was awesome!"

But, I have to tell you - it was not awesome...