Ducklings and children...

This weekend was the first weekend my two youngest could make it to the boat.  Though they have wanted to, the schedule for soccer finals and end of the year events at school kept them from getting there.  I was so excited for them to see it and to spend some quality time with them.

That morning, as I left for work, a duck and her ducklings came up to the boat and reminded me how nature and life sometimes are a mirror of one another.  Zen says that there is one moon in a pool and in every pool is the one moon.  I took some quick pictures before work and headed out...

They were ecstatic when they got there.  My youngest, who is 10,  kept saying we had our own ship like in Pirates of the Carribean!   She is so sweet and loving....she was simply happy to be spending time with her dad.  I let her sit in my lap as much as she wanted and we explored the whole boat together with her brother, who is 13.   They were excited about the adventures they would be taking with their dad now that we had a vessel that we could take out and seek new worlds with.

We went to the marina store and bought some fishing gear and bait and spent the weekend listening to music and fishing.  We caught about 40 fish, but released them when they looked as if they were having trouble breathing in the fish bucket.  We could have caught even more, but got tired of taking them off the hook once nightfall set in.  My son is a great young man...he is always patient with his little sister and helps her in any way he can.  I had to smile as he carefully explained to her how to take a fish off of the hook without hurting it too much and without it hurting you too much with it's fins.

Yep, it was a weekend to remember and I got 2 thumbs up on our new lifestyle of living on the water.  I had to laugh at my son, who continually got texts and phone calls from girls....he was talking to one and said he was at his dad's house....on a boat...and the house was the boat.  We both laughed at it.

My kids mean the world to me....I wish I could get them all the time, but I know they also have a life beyond our world and I want them to be free to experience all that life has to offer like their dad has.   I couldn't be prouder of them or love them any more than I do...

Oh, and one more thing we did....we christened the swimming at the boat.  After a few hours of talking about it, we found the ladder to hook to the side and my son courageously jumped in and his little sister was not far behind.  Dad joined in a few minutes later after testing the temperature with his toe first...