Vacation...Part 2

Perhaps our most memorable adventure took place on lake Ouachita (wa-chi-ta) where we had the brilliant idea to rent a paddle boat.

Problem #1: 5-month-old babies do not like wearing life jackets that are intended for 12-month-old babies.

Problem #2: 5-month-old babies cannot sit by themselves in a paddle boat and must be held while on said boat.

Problem #3: A person cannot hold a 5-month-old baby on his/her lap and peddle a paddle boat at the same time.

Problem #4: If only one person peddles a paddle boat, you don't go in circles (contrary to popular belief) but you also don't get very far before the solo peddler's leg muscles seize up in spasms.

Problem #5: if you rent a paddle boat for 1/2 hour, but your legs seize up because there is only one person peddling, and then the wind picks up so on the way back you are peddling into the wind and against the current, you end up keeping the paddle boat for 1 1/2 hours (fortunately, David was peddling on the return:).

Ours was the sparkly red one and we quickly discovered that the sparkle finish retained heat from the blazing sun well enough to scorch your buns if you weren't careful:

Oops, I guess these pictures expose us as having removed the life jacket at one point to give our boy some fresh air.

Our little water baby:

After a good night's rest we headed to a beautiful botanical garden in Hot Springs. This picture does no justice to how strenuous it was pushing the stroller up the hills keeping in mind the fact that my legs were laden with lactic acid built up from the previous day's paddle boat adventure.

Just moments after this picture was taken,

Caleb had the mother of all blow-outs and I quickly discovered that I only had a cold-weather spare outfit with me. So we put it on him and then rolled and unsnapped wherever possible to keep him from overheating. Dipping him in the water helped, too:)

From water baby to mountain man!

A little more to come...