Yay Steve

My Uncle Steve is in town YaaaaaaaY!
I love my uncle Steve. He is a giant goofball. Loves his family, loves his girls. I'm one of em. He was 17 when I was born and he lived with mom and I for awhile when I was little. I was his #1 girl for 12 years until he had his oldest daughter. Yeah, I was jealous, but only half heartedly lol.
Steve has a penchant for being a lot of fun for us kids. He was the one with the best ghost stories, the one that sneaks us chocolate, the tickle monster no one could take down, he was and is the best. He was the one who tried to kill us on home made boogie boards that he's pull behind his boat. One such great invention was the "Zip Sled" of 1985.
Picture a giant sheet of plywood (6 foot by 10 foot I think) and we cut it lengthwise down the center. That gave us 3 feet of board space to perch on with 10 feet to fit us all on there. It was 3 of us. Shaun, Wade and myself.
About the first 3 or 4 feet of the board didn't count because it had to stick out above the water. We drilled a set of holes for the ski rope to attach to, and a whole other set for a different rope for a handle to hang onto. Smart, eh?
Lord as my witness it's a flat out miracle we did not all die.
He pulled us with a speed boat...... keeping in mind that the zip sled was not constructed with aero or water dynamics. Flat hard edges at 90* angles. We became adept at turning the dastardly thing with weight shifts timed with the waves. We didn't see all the waves. It was an insurance providers nightmare and we really did have a fantastic time on it. Got good enough to start doing tricks, like getting on each others shoulders, making a pyramid. In one spectacular bust up, I got a wedgie that I think thought had killed me dead. Going one bazillion miles an hour on an unlicensed piece of plywood gets a wee bit tricky on the turns.
On the upside I only managed one chipped tooth!

That summer was pretty awesome. One of those summers you really thought was going to be around your whole life.

Now Steve is a little older, but really no different. He has a better boat, and a better idea of how not to disfigure the children in his care. Now it's my children's turn to get to go play with Uncle Steve, and I gotta say it makes me pretty darn happy. I saw him today at my moms and his face just lit up. He grinned either with joy or with maniacal glee at the sound of hearing we would be joining him for the 4th of July. His daughters are not quite as into the rough and tumble of the boat anymore being prim, proper and fashion conscious like only college girls can be. But me? His first girl? Yeah I never grew out of it and I love that I get to share some of my childhood fun with my own brood.

We all need Summers with Uncle Steve memories.