A Summer Day at the Spring

We had an amazingly fun day today! And even though I’m tired beyond belief right now at 9pm, I’m going to push through the exhaustion, because some of these details of the day I really want to remember! So let’s go! We started the day off early with a donut run for breakfast. And then since the boys forgot to pack swimsuits this time around, we had to go run buy them some. We struck out at Ross first, but struck gold with all kinds of things at Walmart – swim suits for the boys, shoes for Emerson to grow into, clearance polo’s for Jeff, cute night gown’s for me, and a new, smaller “umbrella” stroller, which Emerson instantly loved, when we tested it out around the house.

And then after lots of packing of cars (wow, it takes a lot of stuff to go to the springs for the day), we loaded up and drove over to Blue Springs in Marianna! Jeff, his mom & the boys rode in his dad’s truck (although his dad stayed home for the day), and Emerson and I rode in my car, so it would be quiet for Emerson to have nap time. And it worked like a charm – my girl slept the whole way! We grabbed lunch at Subway, and crazy floats from Walmart, and then we went to the springs!

Emerson was like, amazingly perfect today too. She barely whined or fussed, and was just so super chill and happy. I was a very vigilant sunscreen Mommy, and kept her slathered in it. We had one of those cute baby floats with the shade canopy for her, but she only wanted me to hold her, so she didn’t get into it fully even once. Instead, she preferred to just hang out on the edge of my float, and occasionally let me dunk her in the freezing cold water. 

We also took turns letting her just hang out in the shade of our pop-up tent, eating snacks and drinking apple juice. But not napping, never napping. There’s too much to do & see to even think about a nap!

And then we let her play in the sand for her first time ever! You could tell she wasn’t too sure about it at first, but then once she got going, and realized she could play in it, she warmed up to it. At first she wouldn’t even sit down, but you should be able to see from the progression of photos, that she kept squatting lower & lower, until her but finally touched the sand. And then she loved it!

After she played in the sand, I let her sit right in the shallows of the water, and she loved that too! She splashed in the water, and squished the sand in her tiny fists, and had a big time for a few more minutes, before it was time to go.

We finally decided to start cleaning up and packing up around 4:30, when we realized Emerson was just done for the day. While we took turns changing clothes and packing the car, Ryan pushed Emerson around in her new little stroller, and she just loved it. I gave her a bottle of cold milk we had kept in the cooler, thinking maybe she’d be hot enough or hungry enough to actually drink it cold, but she would only take a few sips of it. Shocker, right? We did get her to drink some water though, and eat some more snacks. Once she was strapped into her car seat though, she was completely asleep before the car even started moving. 

We took some beautiful back country roads on the way home, and I got to enjoy the green trees and the blue skies, while Emmie napped quietly in the backseat, and I listened to my current audio book.

And then because I couldn’t even fathom cooking once we got home, or even think of what else to do, I called Jeff and told him that he & the boys could choose what to get on the way home. So we had dinner at Steak & Shake, which was really yummy. Emerson ate her whole cup of applesauce, and almost the entire grilled cheese sandwich. Girlfriend was hungry after a big day at the springs! And then Gabe came over and gave her a sweet little baby massage/back scratch, and she really enjoyed it.

Once we got everything unloaded at home, I gave Emerson a bath, she had a bottle of (hot) milk, and then after fighting for about 20 minutes, she was finally asleep. All the rest of us took turns taking our showers, and now we’re all dry & smelling much better. It’s taken me about 45 minutes (aka – one Gilmore Girls episode) to write this post, and now it’s bed time friends! Thankful for an amazing & fun summer day at the springs with my little family!