Daddy Daughter Dates

We love to spend time doing things with our kids.  It sometimes gets a little crazy doing things with all 4 of them.  So a while back, I started trying to do what we call Daddy Daughter Dates.  These are times when I take just one of them and do something special with them.  It is nice to get out with just one daughter so we can actually talk about stuff and not be interrupted.  We usually do something that we do not do as a family or cannot do as a family.  It does not happen as often as we would like but we really enjoy the times we do. 
Just recently I took each of the older two girls on separate trips to Borders Bookstore in Corvallis.  They each got to search through the entire store and pick out something that they want to buy.  Then we went to the coffee shop and had some hot chocolate and a cookie.  They were both very excited to go there but it was interesting to see the differences in them in picking something out.  Emma went right to a specific section and had picked out a couple books she wanted in about 5 minutes.  We looked around for a while after that, but she still just wanted those same books. Riah, on the other hand, wandered all over the store looking at everything for about and hour and a half and could not decide between a lot of stuff.  Finally she decided on an umbrella and a journal.  We all enjoyed the time together, and we got to find a few geocaches while in Corvallis as well!
One of my favorite Daddy Daughter Dates was a month or so ago with Riah.  We were able to borrow some kayaks from a friend and went kayaking on Cheadle lake here in Lebanon.  Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Here is Riah in her kayak next to the dock.  She was excited to try this, but nervous at the same time.  I helped her get into the kayak and she looked worried.  Then she asked if we had to do this.  I told her we did not have to and asked if she wanted to get out.  Still looking worried she said she would try, but would it be okay if we only went a little ways.  No problem, I told her we could stop whenever she wanted to.  So I put mine in the water and climbed in and we were off.  She decided pretty quickly that it was not only not that bad, but actually kinda fun!

 By the end, she was really enjoying paddling around the lake.

 Daddy, look at me!

 Enjoying a peaceful moment on the lake.

 Our expert paddler.

Now she has done something that her older sister has not done!

 Here she is coming back into the dock.

Her is my GPS with the track of where we went.  Of course there was some geocaches to get from the kayaks as well!  We spent about 1.5 hours on the lake then got some lunch and ice cream.  We enjoyed it so much that we want to get some kayaks of our own and do this more often!  Just cannot wait to see what kind of adventure the next Daddy Daughter Dates will bring.  (Emma wants to go kayaking too now.)