Crappy weather, sprained ankles, and crazy work schedules aside, we’ve managed to get outside and have a little bit of fun recently.

Including taking Willa Jean for her first paddle.

We loaded up the boats and, at the advice of a friend, headed over to Lake Everest in Wilmington for an afternoon on the water.

I had never even heard of Lake Everest, but it’s a great spot. Pull up, unload, drop the boats in the water, and off you go. There’s also a public beach and swim area. And it’s only 20 minutes or so away.

We got her fitted into her PFD (puppy flotation device) and I promptly got the side-eye – as in, “Seriously? What do you fools have in store for me now? You do realize I am still just a baby, don’t you?”

But as soon as we started talking in really high-pitched, excited voices, she was all, “Heck yeah, that sounds like FUN! Let’s DO this!”

So we tossed her in the Hornbeck with Dave, thinking a canoe would give her a bit more room to get comfy. She was pretty concerned about this turn of events.

But seemed to settle in okay, despite her incessant whining and crying and carrying on.

And then she caught a glimpse of me, floating about 15 feet away in my kayak. “Wait, there’s MOM! MOM! OVER HERE! Mom, WAIT, hold on! I’M COMING!”

And we held our breath as she scrambled over the side of the Hornbeck and swam her little puppy heart out over to me.

I scooped her up and she settled in with me for about a minute, but then she caught a glimpse of Dave. “DAD! WAIT, DAD! DON’T LEAVE ME! HERE I COME!”

And, again, we held our breath as she flailed her way over the side of the kayak and back into the water to swim over to Dave.

This time, he caught the action on camera. Please note the evolution of my facial expression. I think it will provide a nice window into my psyche.

You can imagine how the rest of the afternoon went. We didn’t get a whole lot of paddling done.

And this picture speaks 10,000,000 words.

I hope she forgives us sometime soon.