A 3 hour tour

Jack,

This past weekend marked your first voyage on a boat.

Highly anticipated, I might add.

You were quite excited at the prospect of seeing a boat close up, so you camped out on the balcony watching all the boats pass by and excitedly pointing at each of them.

You called them all NEMO.

The boat was a little late in arriving, so it wasn't long before we had all joined you out on the balcony to play the waiting and watching game.

You decided the one padded chair on the balcony was yours and were quite adamant about it being yours.

"Mooooo Mommeee mooooooob" as you tug on my hand.

I would relocate and you would quickly reclaim your treasured spot.

In the manner of the men in our family - namely Uncle Bobby and Poppa Dough - they LOVE to tease people when they know what buttons to push.

So a game evolved.

You would get up for any of a million reasons - to get your milk, to find Katchow, to call to Grandma - and you would return to find Bobby or Poppa in your chair!

Here you would set about tugging on the offending persons hand and pleading with them. "Moooob Poppa moooooooob" "Mooooooob BaaaBaaa MOOOOOOOOOB!"

And would reclaim your much defended place on the balcony once again.

Here you are particularly worked up because I took your binky in the hopes of getting some cute pictures.

You can almost hear the cries of BEEEEEEE BAAAAAAAAH! BEEEEEEEE BAAAAAAH!

Then - just before it all went to hell in a handbasket - we spotted our boat!

I think you had had your doubts as to whether or not one would eventually show up that we would claim.

You were pretty awed and watched as the boat approached the docks and we all sprung into action getting ready to go down and check it out up close for ourselves.Finally, it was time to check it out for ourselves!Let me tell you - it's a beauty!It's got a pop up shower, a table and more seating than you would think you would ever use, plus a beautiful shade that unfolds right over the back part of the boat.Here you are with your life vest on. Since this was the delivery of the boat, the adults had to go over all the features with the salesperson delivering it and it took quite some time.

I think you thought this was the extent of what it could do initially and, therefore, weren't terribly impressed initially.

You had Baa-Baa and Yaiy-yaiy, though, so all was good!

Here you are checking things out with Daddy.

Looks good!

Finally, it was time for the maiden voyage.

Here we are backing out of the dock.

Here we are making our way slowly to the channel where we will be able to go faster.

Here are Grandma and Poppa on the tritoon that they bought - enjoying the fruits of their labors!

When we started to go a little faster, the breeze was beautiful, the sun was shining and there was so much to see - not to mention the fact that we were in the middle of the water! THE WATER!

A few minutes into the ride and you started to find your comfort level. You loved the boat, although I have learned that you prefer the slow to moderate ride. Anything fast and you start to panic. I think the wind blowing hard in your face makes you panic because you don't know how to breathe in all that wind coming at you and you start whipping your head about and crying and grabbing at me or your Daddy for protection from the wind.
But when the pace of the boat is nice and relaxed, you LOVE it. You laugh and look around and point to passing things like water slides that land in the lake and the big red balls that hang from the power lines over the water which you think are balloons. Also, there was a huge number of hawks and large birds of prey down at the lake circling and you would point at the birdies and make tweet-tweet noises. I had a blast playing with you on the boat. You thought it was great fun to be on a ride with the wind whipping past and NOT have to be in a carseat!
You made the most of the experience by standing as often as possible and playing cute little tickle games with me.I loved it!I wasn't the only one either!
I think we all fell in love with the new role of boat owners! Here are some pics - see if you agree with me!: Daddy chillin' with Rufus:
Cruisin the Lake!
I like to refer to this next one as "Oh Captain, My Captain" because it makes me think of the movie: Dead Poets Society and Carpe Diem and all that: Check out these grins! Life is good, isn't it?!?Daddy took to driving on the boat like he had done it a million times before. I was impressed!

Then Bobby took over! Holy crap on a stick!

Did you know a tritoon could go mach 2?

Look out, Lake! Old Bangy has arrived!Here Bobby and Poppa take it all in.

WHAT'S THAT? Oh, YEAH?!? Why don't you come down here and say that?

Kelly at the wheel!

I've had five cups of coffee-let's see if this puppy can FLY!!!Poppa - how many times do we have to tell you - DON'T TAUNT THE DRIVER!!!

This is my "I-know-you-are-taking-a-picture-of-me-but-I'm-trying-to-look-like-I-don't-notice" face:

Now I'm admitting I know the picture is happening but apparently waiting for it to be over like an innoculation.

When we finally called it a night that evening, we lost Poppa at about 8PM.

And when I say lost, I mean that he temporarily died.

Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Really put a damper on the rest of the night.

Jack, I'm really excited to share the lake experience with you as you grow up and hope you have a ton of happy memories of the lakehouse and the boat like I do from my childhood.

I still can't believe we have a boat!

Love,

Mommy

Oh - and very importantly - on the JOB FRONT! We don't have any "official" offers yet, but it's looking good for us to stay in Saint Louis. Sounds like Daddy's company is working to create a job for him here in Saint Louis, so that takes a huge amount of stress off, but I'll feel better when we have it in writing!