The most wonderful time of the year

No, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. Not by a long shot. Kayaking season is!

As you might have heard, I still can't run. But surely my old lady hip won't keep me from kayaking. Trea and I first kayaked on a trip to Puerto Rico in 2009, and we loved it so much that we bought our own 2-person kayak a few months later. We live in a little town with lots of small, calm lakes, and one of our favorite things to do in the summer is take the kayak out and paddle around and just listen to the quiet.

The first time we took the kayak out, I bought a couple of waterproof disposable cameras, and we just got the pictures developed YESTERDAY. Because we're organized and on top of things over here. It was so fun to see three summers' worth of pics -- 2009, 2010 and last year.

Kayaking fun in 2009!

The lake where we go is gorgeous, and we usually just paddle around the perimeter, admire the beautiful houses, daydream about someday owning a lake house and look for cranes. We LOVE cranes. They're the pelicans of Arkansas.

Summer 2011

Summer 2011. We both slimmed down and got better hats since 2009.

On hot summer weekdays, if we can both leave work on time, we'll pack a cooler with a picnic and have a quiet dinner on the water while the sun goes down. It's a nice change of pace, good exercise and so tranquil. We love the lake, but we don't like most normal lake activities like skiing or tubing or wake boarding, so a real boat with a motor would be wasted on us. We just float and paddle and chat and hang out. With no phones, no TV and no distractions. Just peace.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.