An Afternoon Down by the Lake

Yesterday morning I had this stroke of inspiration to take Soren "boating" down at our little community lake. We bought a small blow-up boat and a life jacket for him. After his nap, I packed a lunch, drinks, sun accessories (hats, sunscreen, etc.), a blanket and blew up the boat. Then we loaded it all up with Soren on the wagon and walked down to the lake.

I had this feeling that this was either going to be a ton of fun or a complete and total disaster. I tried hard to stave off the disaster by packing well, but still a three-year old, a hot day, and a long walk to and from the lake is fraught with potential melt downs. The lake is only a mile or so from our house, but it is a VERY hilly mile. Especially the walk back home.
But it turned out to be a lot of fun! Soren loved paddling around in the boat. Especially when I let him do the paddling.
We paddled around for awhile and then had our lunch in the boat. We watched the dragonflies buzzing around, poked the paddle into the seaweed, and listened to the croaking frogs (which Soren still argues were cows hiding somewhere!)
The walk home was pretty tough. He rode in the wagon for about half of the trip, but then insisted on walking because riding in the wagon was "boring." On the steepest hills he kept stopping and saying he needed a break, but for the most part he was quite a little trooper. We did have to resort to a few Sound of Music songs to distract him on the final quarter mile, so I'm sure we made quite a sight traipsing through the neighborhood with our stocked up wagon and weary pace. It was a really terrific afternoon. One that is sure to be repeated many more times this summer.