Don’t tell my dad he was right. Please. But he (and my mom and almost every other adult who spoke to me when I became a father) told me that I would blink and 10, 15 maybe 20 years would be gone and my kids would be grown up and I would wonder where the time went. I was almost 30 when I had my first child, so I had started to realize my parents were smarter than I gave them credit for in high school and college, but I was still very skeptical. Then when my son refused to sleep through the night a single night the first 6 months of his life I began to doubt them again. There was no way the 3am feedings could fly by fast enough!

But now that son is 19. My daughters are 16, 16 and 12. I promise I only blinked twice! Where did the time go? Ah, time. People talk about platinum or diamonds or their home as the most precious commodity. They are wrong. It is time. And today our lives are busier than ever. Kids grow up faster, and spend much less time with their parents. And when they are “with” us, they usually aren’t really with us. They are on their phone texting, snap chatting doing whatever it is they do today to stay in touch with their friends. Some parents have no technology at the table rules, but how many nights a week does your whole family get to sit down at the table and eat together?

What does this have to do with boats and lakes and what you are visiting this website for? Kids love water. Kids love excitement. You have a captive audience. A HAPPY captive audience. Let them invite some friends and it gets even better! It is 99.9% impossible to not smile when you are on a boat (especially when you know the boating experience is hassle free!) on a beautiful body of water.

We only have so many years to make memories with our kids. Only so many summers we can get them to jump off cliff island. Or try to learn to wake surf. Only so many evenings when they are worn out from playing on the lake and they fall asleep in your lap as you ride back to the dock.

We are SO blessed to have South Holston, Boone and Watauga lakes here for us to enjoy. Unplug, grab your kids and head outside. Just don’t blink.