“Aaron don’t forget the towels to take onto the boat!” Shouted my mother from afar trying to form a group of family members to wait for everyone else.

 “On it!” I gave my mom a thumbs up, my eyes were gleaming with excitement and there was an ear to ear smile on my face. “It is finally time!” I said under mt breath as I was grabbing the towels from the soon to be empty trunk of the car. I skipped over to the big group of family members, each with a big bag of supplies for the day.

We started to head toward the docks to find the boat. Before we went to the boat, my grandpa slowly walked into a door with his shiny silver cane. I waited ten minutes before my grandpa slowly walked out with keys in his hand and raising it in the air like he had accomplished something amazing. We all looked up at him and cheered, laughing and smiling because we knew that it was just the beginning of the best day ever. We all started toward the floating docks. I could see my reflection in the murky, blueish brown water. When we finally got to the boat I stared at it, it was very open with a blue carpet like surface as the floor. There were benches on the sides, and there was a grill sitting in the sunlight near where you jump off. Then I looked up, there was a metal ladder that led up to the top floor. It was flat and had blue carpet like below, but, there were two lawn chairs. There were railings on every side and there was a big white slide, leading off the edge, it had a two foot drop off. Once I saw the slide I knew I would make the top floor my home. I dropped my bag I was carrying, knowing that someone else would bring it in the boat and ran to the ladder. While everybody got situated on the bottom floor, I climbed up the ladder. I knew the boat had been sitting in the sun for a while because it was steaming hot. As I climbed up the ladder, I was imagining my hands sizzling like bacon because the metal was so hot.  I staggered to the top of the second story.  I felt so high up I could touch the clouds in the sky.  I went to the edge of the boat, grabbed the railings and peered over. I could already imagine myself doing front flips, back flips and sliding on the slide into the water.  The moment suddenly vanished because my grandfather yelled, “Brace yourself!”  My grandpa put the key into the ignition and twisted the key as the boat engine roared to life.  With that, we left the dock and started our adventure. Along the way, we passed clay hills with jagged rocks and near dead trees.  Still on the second story, I was sitting on the floor, feeling the wind move through my fingers and brush past my face.  Finally, thirty minutes later, which felt like an eternity, the engine was cut off and the anchor was thrown.  Right before I could jump in and cool down from the sun, my mom said, “Aaron, you are not going into that water without a lifejacket!”

“But, Mom, I can swim!  I’ll be fine!” My hands flailing in the air with frustration.

“No, you could hit your head on the side of the boat while jumping and knock yourself unconscious!  Then you would drown.”

“What are the odds of that happening?” I was raising my voice and eyebrows. I knew whatever I would do, nothing would change her mind.  My mom took a life jacket off the hook, lined with jackets and thrusted a dark red jacket toward me.  I snatched it from her hand with a frown on my face and reluctantly place the life jacket over my head.  Now, I was ready to jump in. 

“Wait!  Don’t forget the sunscreen!”

“I already did at home, Mom”

“I know!  I don’t want you to get a sunburn!  Reapply!”

“Fine!” I took the sunscreen lotion, got a little on the tip of my finger and rubbed it on my arms.  Then finally, I jumped in before my mom could have said anything else.  I put a big smile on my face again and played with my brother for a little bit.  After a while I had the urge to jump off the second deck.  The first jump I had in mind to do was a cannonball.  I got the idea because I wanted to get all the adults wet that were sitting in the boat.  So, I ran and jumped up as high as I could and curled into a ball and splashed into the water.  When I bobbed up to the surface, I saw drops of water on the side of the boat no where near where the adults were sitting.  I saw that my plan was unsuccessful, so I didn’t try to get them wet anymore.  I climbed up the ladder a second time and did a front flip.  I felt so high up when I jumped, that for a second, I was floating in the air before I smacked down on the water.  I flipped several times over and over again until I got tired.  After I was panting with exhaustion, I climbed up the wet slippery ladder to the first-floor deck in order to get some shade and rest.

After two hours of playing around and having fun, my grandpa started walking around the boat, taking orders from everyone for lunch. It was either hotdogs or hamburgers, with any assorted chips of choice. When my grandpa got to me I picked a hotdog, they were one of my favorite foods. About 20 minutes later, the sizzle of the grill stopped, and two huge plates were filled. One with hotdogs and one with hamburgers. Once all the hotdogs and hamburgers were passed, we prayed before we could dig into our juicy meals. I wanted to get into the water again, so I inhaled, but also enjoyed my hotdog with ketchup.

For the rest of the day we played in the water, grabbed quick snacks, and had the time of our lives. At 6 o’clock the sun was almost setting, we pulled in the anchor, turned the engine on, and started heading back to the docks. On the way back, the boat was quiet, almost everyone was wrapped in towels with red faces from the sun. When we got to the docks, my grandpa went ahead to turn the keys in, while we gathered the empty bags that used to be filled with towels, snacks, and hotdog and hamburger toppings. After my grandpa slowly made his way back to the group, we said our goodbyes before we spread out to go to our individual cars. We loaded up the car with the empty bags and made our way home.

“Wasn’t today fun everyone?” My mom asking everyone in the car.

“My favorite part was jumping off the second deck.” I said with a tired voice as I was leaning on my mom’s shoulder looking at the sunset in front of us and then glancing back at the docks behind us.