Latest Addition to our Family...

For the past few years, we've sorta been wanting a boat. It's one of those things that we thought was fun to do with other people - on their boat. Their responsibility, their payments, their storage, etc.... but never sure if we really wanted to indulge ourselves with that expense when you only use it 3-4 months out of the year.
After our 4th of July camping experience this year on Lake Roosevelt, we got that "bug" again. That "wouldn't-it-be-nice-to-just-drive-around-the-lake-all-day" bug. It was then that we seriously started considering it.
Honestly, we don't camp as much as we used to. With the kids keeping us busy with their extracurricular activities (dance, soccer, and baseball), it really doesn't make since for us to pack up all of our camping goods, load up the trailer and head out of town for a 24 hour trip. It's too much work. So our thinking was, "wouldn't it be nice to just load up the boat and head up to the lake for a day??". Even if we want to sleep overnight, we can take along a tent, or just sleep under the stars.
So we began looking, thinking that next summer would be best. It would give us a chance to look at a few and see what features we do/don't like, etc. We've been looking mostly with private sellers - people who either have outgrown their boats, or financially cannot afford them anymore. Our main source of "research" has been craigslist. This is how we found our trailer and motorcycle, too.
We began looking at a few last week and quite frankly they were nothing to get excited about. It's amazing how everybody thinks that their boat is the best, and how little some of them were taken care of!
You must also realize that as we were doing this, we were quickly approaching our vacation - a week long stay on Pend O'reille Lake. Hmmm... wouldn't it be nice to have a boat for that??? =) Oh yeah....

So we did it -- we took the plunge. We found a boat that has been immaculately taken care of. It's the perfect size for our family for our first boat. (Yes, "first" boat - I've already got plans for another bigger one in the future...) It's a 2007 Stingray 180RX. These are the photos from the previous owners, and I'll post our own pictures later. We're picking it up tonight, then taking it to the lake on friday ~ WHOO HOO!!!!!