Whenever I’m over-the-top stressed, I head to the water.

Directly. To. The. Water.

The water has always been my haven, my happy. I grew up less than 1/2 mile from the water. Throughout my childhood my parents would walk us down to the beach and let us throw rocks, walk the beach and just play. I always loved the sound of the water. It really had a calming effect on me, always.

When I lived in NYC in my early 20’s, one thing I missed the most was the water. Yes, there was the Hudson and the East Rivers, but they weren’t the same to me. I missed the Narragansett Bay. I missed my hometown. I missed the peacefulness of the Rhode Island shore.

This past summer my brother-in-law took my whole family out on his boat. It was one of those “head on over” invites because the weather was so gorgeous. My sons were ecstatic because they’re swimmers and they love the water, too. That night for us was one for the books! We tubed. We swam. We laughed. We just had the best family night ever.

It got us thinking.

Should we get a boat?

Should we do this?

I married a Pittsburgh guy, but when he moved to Rhode Island he just felt home. He LOVES the water. I mean, he LOVES the water. When I saw the look in his eyes on the boat that night, I knew… I knew that this is what he needed, we needed for our family.

My brother in law told us not to start looking until September because that’s when people really start to sell. We waited. And my husband started to look like an obsessed-teenager. Every single day he would show me a different boat. It became a family joke!

And then. He found one. He set up a time to go look at it. He was so excited, it was like he was going on a first date.

And then he sent me these photos from the “meet-up!”

My husband loved it. He couldn’t stop talking about it, so he brought us to check it out. And we all loved it, too.

So guess what we did?

We bought it. We bought a BOAT LOAD OF FUN.

We brought it “home” last weekend and have had it docked near our house for the last week. My husband has gone every single day to work on it and check it out.

I have to say, this was a big purchase for us… but, I’m more excited about this than anything! We had our inaugural “Cruise” last Saturday with our boat – we brought it to where we bought a boat slip for it thru November. We were a little shaky at first, but we got the hang of it pretty quickly.

And… of course, I bought a CAPTAIN HAT!

I really look forward to times on our boat… still unnamed… I have a feeling we’re all going to become a don’t-mess-with-us boaters!

Boom!

Boat load of fun right here!