In Deep Water

Ready to put the week behind us, we took the kids to Deep Lake in Nolte State Park in Enumclaw.  It's a beautiful little park and great for paddling in.  It doesn't have a life guard available and the shore line quickly drops off, so it's not an excellent swimming hole like Lake Wilderness.  It does, however, come complete with Swimmer's Itch, so there is that good thing.
Malynn and Sophie convinced Dan that they should be allowed to take the little raft out.  For two seconds he showed them how to row the oars.  The explanation mostly consisted of the girls arguing about who was going to be first to row.  He pushed them off into the lake and then he, Morgan, Alison, and Heidi took  off in the canoe.  That left the girls in the water and I on the shore to watch their heroic struggle.
Thank goodness they didn't have the strength to get out very far, because we would still be there at this hour waiting for them to manage their way back.  Malynn manned the oars first.  It was not as easy as she thought it was.  She would get a few good strokes in and then the paddle face would turn and her rhythm would get off.  Her strong left arm meant they circled to the left for every forward thrust.
I could see Sophie clutching at the handrail rope and could hear her high pitched whine, though I couldn't hear what she was saying.  Malynn's voice rang out loud and clear.  "Stop it!  I will NOT kill us!"  Every time the boat got off kilter she would grab the sides and do this little funny hop, picking the entire side up and swing it a few inches in the direction she wanted to go.  The girl was manually moving the raft.  Much to Sophie's dismay this was occurring.
I wondered at which point I should wade in and help them (not that I can be much help where water is concerned).  While this isn't the way I like to learn, it seemed like Malynn was figuring things out.  She finally gave in to Sophie's demands to let her try.  They switched places without capsizing the raft.  Sophie had great rhythm, which is pretty easy when the oars don't touch the water.  Malynn started paddling with her hands and directing the raft where they needed to go-- back to the shore.  Sophie was so helpful, putting her oars in counter to the direction they was going or braking them.
They finally made it back in the amount of time it took Dan and Morgan to paddle around the lake in the canoe.
Dan went out again with Malynn while the girls and Morgan played in the shallow portion.  We ended up making friends with a little 7 year old boy who kept challenging everyone to a "splash war". Everyone swallowed just enough lake water to make themselves sick and then we grilled hot dogs.  The best part about this kind of activity is that by the time you eat, everyone is starving and no one complains about what's for dinner.  Hot dogs never tasted so good.