Paddleboats

We have been trying to do a better job at checking stuff off our bucket list this summer, and one of the things on mine was the paddleboats at the Julia Davis park downtown. We were going to go to the Leonardo exhibit at the Discovery center, then as we were at the ticket counter, we found out there was an extra charge for the kids for this exhibit, and since we only had about an hour and a half till Bree's naptime, we left. We had pumped the kids up for an outing, so were left with kids wanting to do something. We wandered over to the nearby park, and noticed the paddleboats! Grace yelled dibs on Dad, and Reese wanted to go with Bree and I, so we split up accordingly. Since Bree was so little we got to go in the one and only pelican boat, which was awesome.

Bree was apprehensive about getting in the boat, but once in she had fun. We paddled away, Reese excited to steer by himself. We went through the "amazon jungle" part, pointing out ducklings to aubree and making duck and goose sounds for her, and she repeated some of them.

We circled about with RD's boat, and explored the "secret lagoon" and saw some fish, that RD said were carp.
Reese and I were loving it.
I had so much fun hanging out with Reese and doing something we both thought was fun, laughing, pretending, and talking together. It was exactly what I always hope our dates with the kids will be like. RD thought it was time for us to go in, so we reluctantly followed them in, watching RD rock their boat from side to side as they pretended to be pirates in a raging gale and tsunami, and hunting sharks (aka the carp).

I shouted for the time, and since we had a few more minutes, we took one last loop around, as I tried to influence Reese to pick this activity for his next date.