Lake Champlain

A couple weeks ago we took Violet out to Lake Champlain for the first time. In preparation for her trip we bought a couple of coast guard approved life vests. We found one at Walmart that had a zip up the back, a koala on the front and two straps between the legs. The second one was from LL Bean which had the zip up the front, was neon yellow and had one leg strap. Both are designed to help her float face up in the water. To say she wasn't a fan of them on the boat was an understatement. The meltdown occurred shortly after this photo . . .

Lucky for her she was able to get out of the life vest when we put her down for a nap inside the boat. Obviously she was happy about that!

The best part of the day was when it came time to put Violet in the water. We switched her from the Walmart vest to the LL Bean vest and I handed her over to Marc. While he rested on a life vest he held Violet perpendicular to the water and slowly lowered her into it - watching her reaction the whole time.

Lucky for us she seemed to be enjoying it. The next step was taking her from perpendicular to horizontal in the water and then letting her float.

Violets First Swim from Christina A on Vimeo.
She absolutely loved it! It was an absolutely gorgeous day and the water temp was somewhere in the mid 70s. I would guess that Violet was probably in the water a good 15-20 minutes before we decided it was time to get out. Of course she could only leave the water after the obligatory sunglasses shot with all the swimmers.

Apparently swimming was an exhausting activity and we were left with a tired little girl and a quiet ride home.