Hiking, biking and paddling all within a 30-minute drive of our house. Have I mentioned that we love where we live?
To round out Memorial Day Weekend and our Summer kickoff, we decided to take Jack out in our canoe. We actually got him in the canoe with us when he was 11.5 months old, but I had to hold him the entire time and we were fearful of tipping.
This time it was the real deal – he sat in the middle, by himself and didn't tip the boat over or try to jump out.
Before getting on the water we casually mentioned that we were going to go ride in a boat and wear our life jackets and our little guy seemed to be on board with our plans.
Our only issue before launching the canoe was that Jack was adamantly against letting me put sunblock on him.
Since a fair-skinned toddler shouldn't be out on the water in the middle of the day without sunblock, I stuck to my guns and insisted on slathering him from head to toe.
In the end I won and we were able to get out on the water.
Since it was Memorial Day, and we were launching on Wolftever Creek with access to Harrison Bay, there were tons of boaters to share the water with.
Jack was happy to hang halfway off the side of our canoe and drag his hands through the water but he also enjoyed watching the boats, wake boarders, tubers, and people riding jet skis.
Other than sticking his hands in the water, his favorite part was probably waving at everyone going by – especially since lake people are always friendly and wave back.
Thankfully Jack didn't seem bothered when we had to ride out the wakes of bigger boats. I'm even more thankful that we didn't tip!
We paddled about 1.3 miles over the course of an hour. We took it slow and turned back sooner than if it had just been me and Daniel. We didn't want to run the risk of a toddler melt down far from shore.
Thankfully the only time Jack was really upset (besides the sunblock incident) was when we got out. He wanted to ride some more. Or at the very least, wade in the water.
We settled for some brief wading, and then promised ice cream from Chick-fil-a in an effort to tear him away from the water.
If this weekend is any indication, Jack seems on board with most of our hobbies and we are looking forward to doing more activities as a family.
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