weekend water baby

Shopping at Costco on Sunday. She lives a cush life.

To say that we had a really great weekend would be an understatement. On Friday morning I decided that I didn't want to make any plans for the weekend so we could be bums all day. But then work was coming to a close, the weather was gorgeous and sure enough : we wanted to do something fun together.

On Friday night, we went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Cajun Steamer with another couple and Emmy was well-behaved and sweet. It is so nice that she is pretty much over that clingy phase. She let everyone hold her and she watched us talking intently while sneaking fries off Joe's plate. 

I woke up pretty excited on Saturday morning. My mom and step-dad bought a brand new pontoon boat and invited us to go out on the lake with them. Our only instructions: show up at 9:30 dressed in layers. DONE. Mom packed lunches and lots of snacks and drinks for everyone. She had Emmy's sunscreen ready and all we had to do was load up in there car and drive about 45 minutes to the lake. 

I was a little apprehensive about how Emmy would handle the boat. She had never been on one before and with the water in her ears and poor balance, I was afraid she would get sick. 

I was so wrong to be worried. She LOVED it. 

From the minute we got on the boat she was into everything, pulling up so she could see the water and smiling non-stop. 

When we started to go fast, I held her waist tight at the very front of the boat and she started to squeal! She held on to the bars and rocked her body up and down as if she wanted to go faster, Rich sped up the boat and she threw her hands up in the air! Laughing and squealing, she looked over to me and smiled the biggest, happiest smile I've ever seen. 

With that smile, my heart was full. I tried to freeze that moment in my mind so I could keep it forever and pull it out whenever I need it. This kid is amazing y'all. 

She just knew that we all needed to see that joy, that pure happy thrill of something brand new and exciting and innocent.  

And we learned that her future trips will involve wearing her life-jacket ALL DAY. She has no fear. None.

Rich even let her drive the boat. This was cool until she remembered she could crawl all over the place and dig out snacks and jam to the music. So many new fun things.

Saturday was great, it was perfect and I am so thankful for those memories and I am excited about the memories we will be making! I did learn a few things the hard way... 

1) Go early. She started to have a meltdown at 2. We were headed back anyway but seeing her turn into unsatisfiable toddler jell-o was not fun. I'd rather lose a little sleep to avoid that episode.

2) Apply sunscreen on nakey baby before you leave the house. Once the excitement set in, she wasn't content to hold stil.

3) Pack a baby bottle full of ice cold water. Emmy is pretty good at the sippy cup but she can CHUG a bottle and she needed more water than she was getting in the cup. 

Honestly, those were the only things we would change for the next trip which will probably be at least once a month over the summer!