Ahoy me mateys

One of the reasons I agreed with this move to Michigan was because I was suckered into this wonderful promise at how glorious the summers here are. As I sit here and type this, during the first week of June, today's high is predicted to be 67 degrees. A quick peek over to weatherchannel.com informs me that the highest temperature between now and June 12 will be 75 degrees. Hmmm. Why do I have the feeling I've been bamboozled?

However, in a bit of divine intervention I saw what the possibilities could be over Memorial Day. With a glaring sun beating down on us, we made the short trek over to Grandma and Grandpa's (Ga-Ga) house for Megan's first boat ride. For whatever reason, she still doesn't know mama or dada are associated with us but it sounds like when she wants her grandpa she says Ga-Ga. And if he's in the room, the rest of us, Jill and I included, are second-best. It's quite maddening.

As you know the first rule of boating is ... fashion. Of course Jillian had to make sure she had Megan in the proper sundress with matching hat. Not quite as fashionable as Andy Samberg is on his boat, but still quite cute.

If you're related to a Ponstein you know the first rule in life is safety. We had to stop at Meijer's to get a life jacket for Miss Megan. There was a debate between getting a cute, pink one or the more unisex blue/yellow one. Jillian opted for the latter saying it was more practical in case future kids were boys. Seeing as how we are pressed to take care of just the one, I asked Jill if she was privy to news I was unaware of. She seemed confused before quickly assuaging my fears that she meant John and Christine's future brood, whenever that is. (I'm sure they're ecstatic at me calling them out in such a public forum.)

So life jacket purchased, our next step was to make sure our fair-skinned princess was properly prepared to battle the sun. Of course with that life jacket, I don't think there was much surface area for it to get to, but even I don't mock the sun. We tried to put the boat cover up, but because it was the maiden voyage for the season there were a few pieces that needed to be screwed on before the cover would stay up. In the approximate five minutes it took Carey to handle some other matters on the boat before attacking that issue, I believe Sue 'casually' reminded him about the cover, oh, about 38 times? Give or take a time or two. (For the record, I love my mother-in-law and think it's precious how she frets over her.)

It was right about this time that Megan decided her life jacket was too cumbersome and would like it removed please. Immediately. NOW! But with the boat moving, that was not an option. So we basically had to wait out her little tantrum until she realized for, I think, the first time she would not be getting her way. It was a major break-thru.

Tantrum finished, she loved the boat ride. Her hair flew in the breeze. She laid out on both mom and dad just cruising down the lake. Well, Sue was worried about the speed. I'm not sure we got out of neutral. Kidding. We zipped along Lake Michigan at a good pace. How much of that does Megan remember? Zip. After the first 30 minutes, she settled in for a 90-minute nap. And as we found out, the life jacket works great as a pillow. I have a feeling this will be the first of many Megan naps out on the boat. So congrats to Megan for getting her sea legs, sort of.