Ryder's first time on the boat!

The other morning Hubs and I found ourselves in a rare situation -- with the three oldest kids having spend the night at gramma's, it was just us and little Ryder. So we decided what better time to get Ryder out on the boat for the first time, get him used to it so he can start going out with the guys. He has a slight terror of the water, clings frantically when we go swimming, so it would be interesting to see his reaction to this.

He was very excited to watch the process of unloading the boat into the water. Wasn't too sure about Daddy putting him in there though...

When we started moving across the water, Ryd was not too thrilled. So I sat him on my lap and pointed out all the other boats; when the water sprayed us, I laughed and "Woo-hoo!"-ed and slowly Ryder started to relax and enjoy himself. We reached our fishing spot destination, turned the motor off and dropped anchor, and Ryder hopped off my lap so fast and parked himself right by his Daddy. He wanted to help daddy go fishing.

Isn't he adorable? Look at that serious little face. And his little hat!

We pulled the boat into this little cove area (to act like a windbreak) so we could have our lunch. When Ryder saw the food coming out of the cooler bag, suddenly he had no fear of the boat whatsoever. He got right up and moved to the center seat, and just stood there happily munching away. Daddy put out for him small pieces of rice cake pizza and smoked fish, and he gave Mama the giggles with his method of watermelon eating: open mouth, put food in, then slowly shove the whole thing in while chewing and swallowing at the same time. It looked like a cartoon, like Bugs Bunny eating a carrot, lol. Oh, and the ropey drizzles of watermelon juice/spit that would just pour from his mouth, nice.

Daddy bringing out the pizza.

On the way back, Ryder wanted to sit right by Dad, and he even helped steer the boat; it was cute. He was feeling pretty confident and happy about this boat thing, and just casually sucked back a bottle while steering the boat. Ty actually gave him real control one time and we were stopping and jerking, slowing down, speeding up... Ryd was giggling and having a ball.

We had a great time! Can't wait to take him out again.