Part 7: Kayaking Wade Lake

Wade Lake is by far one of my favorite places to visit for its clear blue water and surrounding mountains.  It’s just beautiful.  This year we decided to kayak Wade Lake.  Gracie and I had never kayaked so I was a little worried.  She and Matt started in a tandem to get the feel while I was in a single.  Surprisingly, I didn’t tip over and got the paddling down with relative ease.  It was a beautiful day and we saw two bald eagles.  On a side note, the bald eagles have been in abundance for viewing this year.  They would fly up and down the streams and they were just majestic and so beautiful.  After a few minutes Gracie wanted to go it alone and being a strong swimmer, Matt agreed to let her.  She and I traded spots and I have to say, she may be small but that girl was quite the natural.  Well, that is until the big winds started and we had to paddle upstream to get back.  We ended up tying her up to us and so we could all paddle back.  Let me clarify here, Matt and I huffed it with the paddling back and Lily Grace sat back in her kayak singing to the top of her lungs laughing as she videoed Matt and I paddling back. When uploading pictures that evening, we came across the video she was back there making. Hilarious!

We did make it and Matt swears he would never do it again.  I won’t lie, the burn was real!!!!  My arms were like Jell-O.  It was a LOOOOOOONNNGGGG  way back up stream.  LG on the other hand, has put a kayak on her Christmas list for this year.  Ha! Ha!  Now let’s get back to that ice pack once again.  After we got back from kayaking, we headed down to the river to wet a line.  We were wading out to a very slick spot so Matt had put LG on his back because it got deep and he didn’t want her to fall.  I thought it was so sweet that I stopped to snap a picture of him carrying her.  As I moved around to catch better light for my picture I hear the yell and I see them go down.  Matt hit hard on his knee as he slipped on the rocks and went down.  You can see Gracie yelling "Daddy"!!! in the photo below.  I happen to snap the picture as they were trying to get back up.  I made my way over and got LG who is frantic because Matt has just fallen so hard and is in the water.  While trying to get her, she falls in and gets soaked and it’s cold.  She and Matt had left their waders at home and decided to wet wade.  We manage to get everyone out and as we turn to look at Gracie, she is standing their worried to death about her daddy with water spots all over her glasses and face and we all can’t help but laugh.  And the laughter really erupts when we realize that we need to get Matt home and ice his knee because it's swelling…. and you guessed it, this ice pack is about to get another workout.  We have laughed so hard about this and even felt like we just had to bring that crazy thing home.   The next day, he still had a limp and a bruised up knee, but Matt was fine and back on the water.   After all, it’s vacation!

On our way to the lake, this cow stood his ground in the road and for a moment, thought about head butting the car.  

The water is so clear and blue at Wade Lake that Gracie and I got a picture of this fish underwater.

Gracie was quite good at kayaking and loved it!

Just as last year, Matt got to celebrate his birthday in MT.  Gracie and I started his day off with cards that we had brought from home.  LG made him this card with a Montana theme.  So cute.

Look at Gracie's face.  This is when Matt fell and hit his knee hard on a large rock.  This is also when he would cash in on use of the now popular ER ice pack.