Oh my goodness... what a whirlwind this past few weeks has been!
So... backstory... we've been talking about ways to stay connected as a family as the kids get older and may not enjoy hanging out with their parents so much (whaaaat?!? 😂) We have talked thru ideas as a family. We are currently building a shed in a different part of the backyard (post of that will come when it's finished) and where the old shed sits is a perfect place to build a car port/landing area for some type of "thing". We talked about an RV of some sort (trailer most likely) and even rented one last year for vacation and enjoyed it. But we all kept coming back to one idea... a boat.
Doug and I didn't have a powerboat growing up and neither of us has spent a ton time waterskiing or tubing. Doug grew up fishing on row boats, and our family enjoyed a canoe for several years before selling it. We knew we'd have a steep learning curve and knew that a lot of people buy a boat and then it just sits and/or becomes a money pit. But we also know people who own boats who say it was the best thing they ever did as a family.
As the shed project progressed both Doug and I started looking at used boats and came up with our criteria (budget, size, age, etc.), just to get an idea of what was out there and if our budget was adequate. We weren't planning on buying anything until a space was made for said boat.
Apparently that's not how it went....😂 and we got serious about finding something.
We learned that good used boats are a hot commodity and go FAST! We'd find something and before we even had a chance to reach out to the seller it would be gone. I guess we aren't the only ones with this idea!
A couple of weeks ago I was crawling into bed around 1015 and was closing out all the apps on my phone like I do. Facebook was still up and refreshed as it came up. A "suggested for you" post from Marketplace came up (we had been searching for boats on Marketplace) and it was the prettiest little boat and seemed to be JUST what we were looking for. I went out to the kitchen where Doug was closing things up to come to bed and showed it to him. He agreed. The boat had only been listed for about 5 hours so we reached out to the sellers.
What happened in the next hour and a half was such a blessing, such a gift. There were SEVERAL people that had already inquired about the boat, the seller told us, and someone was actually coming at 9 the next morning to look at it. We asked if we could come at EIGHT. 😁 The boat was a little east of Tacoma, WA, which meant Doug would be out the door before 5AM, but we REALLY liked this boat! They seller said yes, then Doug asked if he could talk to the seller via phone. So at almost 11 Doug and Brady were on the phone talking. They seemed to hit if off really well and the boat seemed truly to be perfect for our family. He agreed to show it to Doug (and take it for a test ride... they live on a lake!) at 8 the following morning. We were super excited and headed to bed so Doug could get at least a few hours of sleep. About 15 minutes after their phone call, Brady texted and said he was feeling like maybe he was letting the 9AM potential seller down by showing it to us earlier, especially since he contacted them before we did. He was having second thoughts. We texted back and told him that if he had made a solid comittment to this other person then he 100% needed to keep his word. We liked his boat, but it's only a boat, and him doing the right thing was more important to us. But, we told him that if he had NOT made a solid comittment to this person then Doug would see him at 8AM the next morning. We waited an agonizing 15-20 minutes before he texted back saying he and his wife talked and they like US and wanted to sell US the boat! 💓 We were thrilled and excited as we went to bed.
Doug got up early and headed to Lake Tapps to look at the boat. It truly was as nice as it looked and the Crosslin's (the sellers) are just absolutely lovely people. Doug thoroughly enjoyed his time with them and we now seriously count them as friends!
He bought the boat and made the trek home. We were all waiting with anticipation for him to arrive, as you can imagine.
Here she is.. isn't she pretty?
She is clean and in such great shape.. and came with so many extras (waterskiis, a huge tube, ropes, life vests, etc)
Once we had the boat we had several things to do before we could take it out on the water, even tho she was ready to go.
We needed to go to the Marine Board to get the title and registration transferred and make an appointment with the DMV to get the trailer titled and registered. All I have to say about that is the Marine Board is one gazllion times easier to work with than the DMV. 😜
Doug had to get a "boat hat" 😂
Doug, Evelyn and I had to complete our required boater education class (Matthew will take it next year)
We spent a whole day cleaning the boat (it was already mostly clean but we wanted to take everything out and clean it ourselved). The kids worked hard and enjoyed relaxing in the bow for a break!
And we learned and practiced how to tie off to a dock cleat....an important thing to know how to do!
We had planned to make this past Friday our "maiden voyage" day. Doug got off work a little early and we headed down to Newberg to a boat ramp several people recommended. Sadly when we got there we found out it was closed for the Memorial Day weekend for an annual drag boat race 😢 We looked and found another dock about 30 minutes away but it wasn't meant for our boat. We all kept in good spirits despite our disappointment. We came home, had ice cream, and while Doug and the kids watched a movie, I looked into ALL the boat launches in our area and reached out to friends with boats to find a good place to go the next day.
So... Saturday afternoon, after doing cemetery clean up with Doug's family, we headed to Wilsonville for a boat ride.. for real this time. To say I was a bit anxious about the whole thing would be correct...haha!
My husband is a rock star and we worked well as a team and bygum we got her in the water like we were pros!!
Our first family photo on the boat!
We had SO much fun exploring the Willamette river and experiencing OUR boat for the first time!
Getting BACK to the dock proved to be tricker than getting the boat into the water, but Doug was patient and thoughtful and after a couple of failed attempts he NAILED it and we got to the dock safely and got the boat loaded easily.
We headed home with excitement about making many fun memories as a family and with friend on our new boat.
We will come up with a name for her after we take her out a few times.
THE MORRISES GOT A BOAT, Y'ALL!!!
