First boat ride

#1st hurdle - getting Quinn in a life jacket.
#2nd hurdle - getting Quinn to swim in lake water.
#3rd hurdle - keeping Hassie Clare from jumping out of the boat.
#4th hurdle - convincing Hassie Clare that she can't swim by herself without a flotation device in the middle of the lake.

All minor hurdles that proved not to be challenging. Well, except the first hurdle. I worked on that one for about a week straight with Hassie Clare's help, several times a day. And I couldn't be more proud of her.

We drove about an hour south to Lake Enid to meet some friends (thank you Angela and Starsky) that invited us down for the day to swim, boat, tube, eat and hang out in an air-conditioned camper (or maybe it was a 5th wheel ... not sure). Despite a little rain, lots of clouds and 100 degree heat, it was a great day to be in the water. The girls had a blast. It convinced Jamie and I that we have 2 little outdoor girls after all and we might consider buying a little pop-up camper and a little boat (despite Jamie's begs and pleas for super nice boat with a sleeper cabin).

For obvious reasons we didn't take a camera but here are a few shots from Jamie's phone:

Quinnie with her nervous smile sitting in Daddy's lap.

 HC flying a Buzz Light Year kite (well worth the .25 cents even though he is swimming with the fishies now)

Something about floating on water makes Quinn instantly sleepy. Always has.

Jamie & HC tubein' (that's how we say it in these parts:) 

 Me & Quinnie tubein' - she shocked us all and asked to go first. We couldn't believe how brave she was being at the lake.)

We got home, I put everyone to bed, unpacked all our stuff from the day and I headed down the street to my neighbor / BFF / friend of 20+ years. Between kids, jobs, families, etc., we never get time to just hang out by ourselves and talk. Well .... we spent 4.5 hours just sitting and talking and drinking and laughing and crying. It was fabulous. We decided that professional counseling is overrated and that we both NEEDED this desperately. With good intentions, we made plans to do this once a month. But the next time we vowed to have a midnight cut-off instead of a 3am cutoff.