A Whole Bunch of Pictures!

We played hooky from work again and hit the lake during the week on Friday.  Look at that little DiFabio face.

 

And then of course the classic Crystal face.

Joe and Tyler were feeding the ducks some leftover bread from lunch.  Currently they are sitting in arguably the best seat in the boat it's the front starboard side and when you take off it feels as though you are flying.  This is the seat that Tyler and I normally sit in while Austin sits in the seat next to Joe and Co-Captains the boat.  Joe pointed out that he had never sat in that seat before (and it dawned on me that since he drives all the time why would he have).  So I took over the wheel for sometime and let him and the girls fly.  While I can assure you that I am naturally a nervous person so my stomach does back flips while I am commanding the ship, I am getting better at it. 

 

We had a birthday party for one of Joe's friends kids at the Little Gym, the girls had an absolute blast.  Here's Daddy and his girls.

 

I just love the determination on her face here.

 

Little goofball trying to get on the balance beam.

For the first time since Joe and I have been together we went on a hike with Jeremy and Adam and Jeremy's son.  The first part of the hike had me cussing pretty good under my breath especially since Joe and I each carried one of the girls in a backpack but sure is pretty up at the top.  The kids are attempting to pick out just the M&M's from the trail mix. 

 

Here's the view from the valley at the end, this area is called "The Garden of Eden".  And we were enjoying a true Blue Bird day in Colorado.

Wish you were here....

The general status-quo for the boat is Tyler spends the whole time making this odd sound that is reminiscent of a cry-scream to let us know that she is uncomfortable with the current speed and wind.  And Austin laughs and hollers like the boat ride should be illegal.  At one point Joe powered out of a cove and we took off across glass like water only to have Tyler whimper and Austin shout "Go Captain, Go!".  It made me laugh pretty hard.

I took these pictures at lake and while it may have taken approximately 200 to get these few I thought they were good enough to post.

Birthday Present

Joe guessed amazingly well for my birthday and got me a completely bad ass camera. I have always had to borrow a friend and their camera to take pictures for Christmas and such so I am extremely excited to learn how to use my very own Nikon. Here are some shots while I was playing around in the yard with the girls.

The girls hanging out on the grass.  Austin with her unruly hair...as always.

 

 

We have this really great bush in the backyard that I planted this year that has these gorgeous yellow flowers on it most of the year.

 

 

This picture is just a general shout out to my grass...look at that, no brown or dead spots left. :-)

 

 

Ol' Mickey Blue Eyes.

 

Another amazing weekend on the lake.

Anyone who has kids understands that simply eating a sandwich with them around has additional stresses...so does the boat.  But they get better each trip as they learn what is expected of them.  Of course I tried not to laugh this weekend when Joe nearly stroked out as Tyler dumped out her Captain Crunch in the boat and then did a tango move across the tailing's that would have won her the So You Think You Can Dance finale.  As with anything in life it would be immensely easier if it were just us, but less rewarding.


Look at how beautiful that water was in the morning, a little chilly at 54 degrees but bundled up the girls still had fun.

 

 

 

Look at the Beta Fish that Joe and Austin picked up on their trip to Wal-Mart.  Austin named him George...and we have kept him alive for over a week.  Which in a house with two little kids and two cats is harder than it sounds.

 

 

Take 2!

Austin did much better at swimming lessons last night, although there were still some tears and she did tell the instructor that she hurt her feelings at one point.  That's Austin's new thing...to tell people that they hurt her feelings whenever she is sad or mad generally associated with getting in trouble.

Rough week with a wonderful finale.

We had kind of a rough week around here, the shop was broken into twice two different nights by the same guys and we lost a ton of money in inventory.  Since then not only have we beefed up the security but we have hired some additional employees that just sit in the parking lot over night.  Apparently in this business you must spend a ton of money to keep from having criminals steal it.  **Sigh** was the general mood around the house.  Then on Saturday we took Austin to her first swimming lessons, I can assure you that I could not have been more excited and then it ended up in a near epic fail as she cried and screamed most of the time.  They are private lessons so the instructor walked up to me as I am holding a hot mess of a 3 year old and just grabbed her out of my hands and walked into the pool with her.  It was embarrassing on all levels but after class the teacher came up to us and said please keep coming it will get easier I promise.  So we have another class this week, although Joe will be at softball so at least I will be embarrassed by myself if things go badly again.  Sunday was much better since we decided to go to the lake and go fishing.  It was a blast and one of the families that Joe plays softball with came down with us and tied their boat up to ours in the cove so we could all hang out.  I guess the one true tell to the fact that we had a long week...it's my job to pack lunch for everyone and when we got down there I was unpacking the cooler to make sandwiches and looked up at Nate and said whelp looks like I forgot plates, silverware and napkins.  We both kind of chuckled.  Then I looked up laughing and said and apparently the lunch meat and cheese.  Nate lost it at this point.  So we all ate potato salad sandwiches...not so bad trust me.


Austin with her instructor Kara during one of the moments that she was not screaming.

The two peas in a pod eating their morning cereal at the captains seat.

Joe flexing it out at the front of the boat.

Nate and I were fishing off the back of the boat.

Little Miss Tyler Mae walking around, which is much harder than it sounds in one of those life vests.

Somehow "Life is good!" just doesn't sum it up!

We went out for our maiden voyage in the new boat this weekend.  Joe is quite simply just amazing at not just operating the boat but the trailer and everything else it entails.  Obviously I trust him beyond words or I would not have had children with him but I also would not bring the girls for the first trip out on the water.  It was a fun filled day with lunch in a nice cove and zooming around exploring the rest of the time.  To let you know how smooth this boat ride and probably more importantly the operator was, Little Miss Tyler Mae fell asleep on my lap while we were cruising along at 35 miles an hour.  The only even kind of difficult part is that I have to have both girls on my lap mostly because I am neurotic but also because I don't trust that Austin is old enough to understand the consequences of not holding on, well and Tyler is just wild right now so she can't be trusted in the living room much less the open water.