Water, water, everywhere...

Quick, name that olde English poem! Okay, enough high school English class references, on to the good stuff.

We got a canoe last week* and finally had a chance to take it out for its maiden voyage this morning. I was worried that I would spend the whole time telling Dahlia to stay in the boat, pulling her back to the middle, and generally frustrating the both of us since I would be stifling her fun. Well, thankfully none of that happened and Dahlia only tried to climb out once. After she put her little foot over the edge and I pulled it back down, I told her that Dolly stayed in the boat or we were all done, and she listened. It was amazing. She never listens the first time I say anything, so she must have been really motivated to not be all done with the boat.

Dahlia spent her time prancing about in the bow of the boat, I was right behind her with one hand on the strap of her penguin lifejacket the whole time, and Nathan dutifully paddled and steered the boat all around the Arboretum for us. We all had a blast and will be back out there again very soon I hope.

Here we are having a killer time, notice the family of geese in the background.

Hey Duckies!

I love the boat!!!

After all of the canoe excitement, Dahlia fell asleep in the car on the way home so we decided to drive to the beach near our house and have a car-picnic for lunch while she slept. She woke up soon after and it was hard not to let her jump in the water with all of the other little kiddos. She really has no problem getting in super cold water and seemed to enjoy the wet sand quite a bit.

She was not too happy about falling in, but once I helped her up it was all good again.

*It was Nathan's idea to sell his beloved kayak and buy a canoe in its place. He said he would rather be out on the water with his girls than all by himself, and figured we'd get a lot more use out of a family canoe instead of a one-seater kayak. What a sweetie!