Water Ski Show

Aparantly there is a non-profit water ski club right in town. We went to watch their annual show just minutes from our house. It was quite the kick off to "Summah Daze" which is a fun little festival of events that will continue through the weekend. Here's a little phot montage:

Jason and Ella "watching"...she really could have cared less about the skiers!
There were many a people doing pyramids and such. There was quite the humorous clown act. He had the kids and me rolling. In his final act it looked like he was going to go over the jump but instead he popped out of his skis at the last second, ran up the jump and launched! These were two young guys that were great slalom skiers. They would slalom back and forth crossing under or over each other's rope. AND THEN!...they skied all the way around the boat! Yeah, picture that one. The boat has to turn on a dime while one whips around real fast. It was fabulous!Water ski ballett if you will. They went round and round the lake switching from one lift to another. That would take quite the balance and strength! We actually had to leave for the 2nd half of the show because it was Ella's bedtime. It promised to be fully of a lot more jumping and big pyramids. However, we did see these guys. Here they are in mid 360! And yup, they both landed beautifully!

Sarah Day & Immortal Dogs

Saturday was "Sarah Day". Since Jason had gone on a 4-day fishing trip two weeks before and last weekend I spent the entire time scrubbing tobacco nastiness, Jason said that I should just do something for me this Saturday. Isn't he great!?

I decided I would take a lunch, my ipod and a good book down to the coast (only 20 min away!) and lounge on a beach. I headed out early, as it gets crowded quickly and was all settled on my beach blanket before 10am. And guess how long I lasted? Just shy of 2 hours. And then I missed Jason and Ella so much that I headed straight home! I decided what I wanted to do most for me this Saturday is spend it with the two people I love the most!

We packed our little family up and headed to the cute little park we discovered last Sunday that's just 5 minutes down the road from us. Again...lazed on the blanket, swam in the water, walked down the trails and swung in the swings. We had a little BBQ in the evening and went out for a family walk around the neighborhood afterward...perfect weather for it! And Jason and I finished off the night by watching "Marley & Me". Such a good movie! Quite a tear jerker at the end there. But Jason cried more than me on this one! He said he cried for about the last half hour. This led to a discussion and final conclusion of pure denial that Hunter is immortal.

Oh What a Glorious Sunday!

This Sunday could not have been any better!

It started out with Ella sleeping in until 8am and waking to a fresh smelling house and a perfect summer day. A leisurely breakfast followed and then Ella napped fully and woke up just in time to head off to chuch. The stars were clearly aligned :)

There was a fabulous, inspiring, motivating message at church accompanied by a rockin' U2 song. And yes, I actually got to hear the message! The whole thing! With my hubby by my side! Because Ella stayed in the nursery the whole time! Our number didn't pop up once on the little "deli server"!

Back home for lunch and afternoon nap then off to explore. We hit a little local park that I'm in love with! 5 minutes from our doorstep. Sand volleyball court, large fields, horseshoe pits, playground and sandy beach! Dogs are welcome and it's free!

Hunter got his swimming kicks which he was over the moon about! Ella "swam" for the first time! She wasn't thrilled about it at first but warmed up to it quickly. Later we played on the swings and slides and then just lazed on our blanket on the grass in the shade as one happy little family. I wish I could have frozen time and stayed there forever!

Back home for BBQ dinner, bath and bedtime for bonzos. Then some quality time with my man sitting out back on a perfect summer night, talking and sipping white wine. Oh my heart is full to overflowing!

Enjoy the FABULOUS pictures!

Fishing, Family, and Friends

We went back up home again this weekend. Jason had a fishing trip planned for Fri-Mon with a friend. They went way out in the willy wacks for a really hard core fishing trip. They drove as far as they could drive and then they hauled their gear behind mountain bikes, riding the roads, exploring every inch of the river and just pitching their tent where they found good ground each night.

He said normally the fishing there would stink mid July, but due to unusually high rainfall, low temperatures and something to do with some migration of the fish to the lake, they "slayed 'em". He caught the biggest brook trout he has ever caught in a stream on a fly rod. 20 inches and really fat. He said it was a "mountain top experience" and he could've just gone home at that. But then they got into places where he said, "no exageration" they each caught at least 100 fish. He said every cast, had a fish on. He said "I got tired of catching fish and that has NEVER happened to me before!" After he had recounted each day, in detail, with the excitement of a giddy child he turned to me with a sigh and said, "Man. If I could do that once a year I wouldn't even need to fish other than that!" It was just the adventure my man was craving and it fully satisfied him. I can't even describe how wonderful I felt for him. It brought joy to me just knowing how much his sense of adventure had been fulfilled that weekend!

And as for me. I got some great time in with my mom. We did a lot of hard work (emotionally and physically) getting her house cleaned up...but I think it was good. She watched the babe two evenings for me so I got some good time in visiting friends and being able to have full, undestracted conversations. And then I got to go to "Mommy Monday" on mon. morning and see many of the girlies and their babes. Good stuff all around!

As for the sleeping through the night. I won't update every day anymore but this about sums it up. She always goes to sleep at 6:30 or 7pm and is always up for the day at 6:30 or 7am. The nights go one of three ways. She either:
1.) Sleeps through completely without waking up at all!
2.) Wakes up once or twice and fusses slightly and then falls back to sleep on her own.
3.) Sleeps straight through until 3:30 or 4 in the morning and then cries bloody murder so I nurse her and she goes right back to sleep.
And really, I'm okay with all of them. It is a major step in the right direction of sleeping soundly through the whole night. And a vast improvement from her waking 2-3 times a night out of what I'm sure now was habit.

A Boating We Shall Go

We decided to take Ella for her first boat ride! Earlier this week we scooted over to a pond that's 5 minutes from our house and tried out a friends motor on the back of our square stern canoe.

We slipped Ella into her hot pink super safe life vest, courtesy of my momma (thanks mom!), and puttered around. The verdict? Either she loved it or was just too tired to care.When we first put her in the life vest it was HILARIOUS. One of those had to be there things. But it was essentially like putting her in one of those sumo wrestling suits. She was all cinched in there with arms and legs just dangling out uselessly. She looks a ridiculous amount like my baby pictures in this shot of her!She just went with the flow and chilled...this is what she did the whole time:

Tara Learns to Fly Fish

This experience happened on the Grand Lake Stream fishing getaway which I detailed below. But it definitely warranted it's OWN post! Gotta love this girl.

Tara and Sam have been hiking UP and DOWN the river much of the day....no fish. They finally find Jason and I. Tara's about ready to call it quits. Jason gives her a quick lesson and one of his special flies. She picks it up quickly.By about the 4th cast she hooks one! As she fights it we see her frowning. "Why are you frowning!? You've got a fish on," Sam exclaims. "I know," Tara wails, "BUT I FEEEEL BAD FOR IT!"Jason nets it. Tara continues to contort her face...deeply feeling the fishy's agony and even more scared now that she thinks Jason will hurt it taking the hook out.I explain that it won't hurt, that the hook is small, and tell her how to hold it and release it properly so the fish will be okay. All is well with the world. She lights up, cracks a classic Tara grin for the camera and says, "That was fun! I wanna do THAT again!"A high five is in order.

LUCK-Y!

If you know anything about my hubby, you know that he eats sleeps and breaths fly-fishing AND is extremely good at it.

WELL! Last night I got home to find that he's been asked to take part in testing LLBeans new version of the streamlight rod! In doing so, he'll test the streamlight against two of their competetors from June through October, take notes, give his feedback and at the end he gets to keep the two competetors rods! So happy for him!

1st Ice Fishing Trip

We house-sat for J's parents this weekend and they live right on a lake. Saturday turned out to be GORGEOUS and a little ice fishing was in order! So I bundled up the babe and walked out to meet J (who'd been out there since the crack o' dawn as usual). True to form Miss Ella slept through the whole adventure but we had a good time! Jason caught 7 fish and our Golden, Hunter and J's parent's Golden, Ranger had a blast running themselves ragged!

I'm Pregnant Again...

...Um no, not for real (Wouldn't I flippidy do da right out if that were true!). I just LOOK like I'm pregnant again with my little one all wrapped in her sling and zipped up in my coat! We took advantage of the BEAUTIFUL weather outside and went for a nice long walk in the woods. There's a great little trail that starts right across the road from our house. She wasn't too thrilled to be stuffed into this thing (I think it'll be retired soon as she's growing like a weed) but she was so stinkin' adorable I had to do the mom thing and take a picture.Once we were all bundled and outside she fell asleep the second we started walking and slept the entire time. SOO cute!