We went to Lake Mohave Saturday with my parents, sister Erin and her kids. The boys were excited to go in Poppa's boat and tube, try wakeboarding and play with their cousins. After we found a good beach we had lunch and let the kids tube and play in the water. Then it started getting windy and the water was to choppy to wakeboard so the kids tubed again and we decided to head in and try again next week. On the way back, the wind started getting worse and the waves were huge and were coming over the front of the boat. The front of the boat started filling up with water. The pumps were not able to get out the amounts of water we were taking on. Everything that was in the front of the boat, seat cushions, toys, cups/bottles, towels started to float away as we realized that we were sinking. All 7 kids had their life jackets on. The adults grabbed ours and put them on as we were jumping/floating out of the sinking boat. I gave Tommy to my mom, who with Erin, Cami and Cass went one direction together and floated on and with a seat cushion. I took Nathan and went into the water and got over to the tube that had David, Cade and Carter in it. I gave Nathan to Cade in the tube to try to keep him safer and out of the water. We were in the water with 3-4 foot waves for about 20 minutes before 3 boats stopped to help us. The first boat went over to where Erin, my mom and the kids were. The second one came over and took Nathan, the older boys and myself (and the tube). The third one took Keith and my dad. They got us to the dock where we were reunited with everyone. On the boat that picked up me, Nathan and the older boys, the lady was talking to me and told me that they came from Willow Beach that morning and earlier they had stopped to help some boyscouts whose canoes tipped over, and about ten minutes before they found us, they had turned around to head back to their car and her and her husband looked at eachother and said that they needed to turn around, they did and found us. We were truly watched over and blessed as a family Saturday. It so very easily could have turned out differently. We are so grateful for the people that stopped and put themselves in danger just to help us. The kids all did so great. They really didn't panic, they all listened really well and followed instructions. They were scared and worried about what they could see and family members that we couldn't see, but kept saying prayers in our minds, and knew that we would all be taken care of. The rest of the night, boats were bringing in things that they were fishing out of the water from our boat. If it didn't sink we got it back, even the jar of peanut butter. It took the vessel recovery company all night to get the boat out of the water, where it was completely upside down. Monday the Park Rangers called my mom and asked if we would be interested in doing a public service announcement with our story about the importance of life jackets. There were several local news stations there as well as the two local papers. The Park Rangers gave all the kids t-shirts that say 'I got caught wearing my life jacket' and youth sized lifejackets. Tommy even got to go in the Ranger's police car and make the lights and siren work!! 
3 comments:
Crazy! You guys did a great job with your interviews.
I am so glad you are all safe. thanks for posting the links, since I only saw one version on TV. You guys all interviewed very well, but I am not sure you;ll convince your mom to get another boat:)
Oh my goodness! That is crazy! I am so glad that everyone is safe. What a scary thing to go through!
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