nineteen miles.....

One River. three guides. ten women. eight hours. nineteen miles.

This past Sunday me, along with a group of strong and amazing women, went on an all day Kayak trip on the Guadalupe river between Comfort and Sisterdale, Texas. We stared out with a chill in the air and fog so thick we cut it with our kayaks. It wasn't long until the sun came out, burnt off the fog to reveal the beautiful banks of the Guadalupe and warm up the water that was chillin our bums. It didn't take long to start breaking a sweat and for the muscles to start burning!

The water was quite low, which created tons of fun rapids and obstacles to bypass giving us the opportunity to really learn how to maneuver our boats and learn how to 'read' the water. I think looking for random, large rocks in the middle of the river was most important, because even with a boat between you and the rock, it still hurts when you hit one without expecting it...unfortunately there were a few I hit pretty hard.

I learned two very valuable lessons while on this trip. One, is that yes, you can very nicely request with your paddle the direction you would like your boat to go through an approaching rapid. You can paddle your little heart out, beg and plead with the river, but in the end, it is only a request and that in no way guarantees you will get your way. That happened to me about twenty minutes before take out. I was kickin it and getting the hang of navigating through the rapids. I was sore, hot and looking for the get out. I was getting a little cocky with the water and right when I wasn't expecting it, she spoke up and said, "sister, you are not in control of this." And over I went. Luckily Kayaks are easy to get back into and I was able to track down my drenched back of snacks.

The second lesson was a lot easier. When on the water for any length of time, you can never have to much sunblock or water. I put on tons of sunblock through out the day, but still ended up with a little bit of sunburn. And I think I could have guzzled about five gallons of water and still been dehydrated.

At the end of the paddle, when we finally saw site of the ever evasive bridge in Sisterdale with the truck parked under waiting to bring us exhausted women back to Comfort, it was one of the most rewarding things I have put myself through. I was sore for about 3 days, but waiting for the next opportunity to get back on the river...hopefully next time to share the experience with Scott.




of course I couldn't bring my big camera as much as I wanted to, so I settled for disposable cameras....they work better than nothing!

Hill Country landscape.....

I've never been much interested in landscape, I've never really thought I had the eye for it. Living in the Hill Country has given me the inspiration to see landscape more artistically, so I have been practicing as we take our infamous rode trips. I never use to get Scott to stop or turn around so I could snap a picture of something nice along side of the rode, for no other reason than not wanting to speak up. Now that I am in such a beautiful place I can't help but stop to take pictures. So poor Scott never knows when I will request a u-turn for cool cloud formations, an unusual deer stand or neat sign, but he takes it all in stride. I am lucky he understands my obsession with photography!
These two are in between Van Der Poole and Leakey


This one is close to Garner State park

these two were on a ranch in Campwood


Enchanted Rock

Soccer Mom.....

I am officially in the club...the soccer mom club! I use to always joke about 'being a soccer mom', not ever against it, but not really thinking I would be doing it.
We have wanted to get kyle involved in something for a while now and at the last minute were able to get him signed up with the local soccer club. This boy was so stinking excited to go to the store to pick out his very own soccer shoes, shin guards(although he though the 'cups' were shin guards) and soccer ball I though he was going to explode! he was a little disappointed when he could get a helmet, I guess we haven't done a good job teaching our sons the difference between sports. Needless to say he tried on his black and blue shoes and insisted on wearing them out of the store!
He is number 2 for the cowboys and had his first game this past Saturday! They play 3v3 at this age, for 2-15 minute quarters. Each group of 3 plays for five minutes and we had the hardest time keeping kyle on the field for his amount of time. Every time he did something or play stopped, he would run to me or Scott for a rest or to give us a hug!!! Otherwise I do think he has perfect personality for this game, he is aggressive and with no real understanding of the game, scored the first goal of his first game!
I went into this very nervous, never having done anything like this before, not knowing what would be involved for me as a parent in a strictly voluntary organization. But found myself volunteering before I know it! I haven't looked forward to anything like this in a long time and am SO excited to be a team mom, to work in the concession stand and help organize weekly parties! I know Scott and I are both looking forward to sitting out in the sweltering sun, the freezing cold and the wind to watch our little budding soccer star have a blast!

~unfortunately photographing sports is not something I have ever done, don't know much about and certainly don't have the equipment for. I gave it my best shot, but with the super bright sun didn't get anything technically great, but personally they are the best photos I have!

the part of the team that was paying attention, walking the line during practice.

K was the first to kick off...

and went straight down the field...

to score his first goal and the first of the game!

running to me for a hug.

him being aggressive...

tree house.....

I have come to the conclusion that facebook is about the biggest time suck there is on the internet. I refused to make a profile for months and months not wanting to get caught up in all that childish stuff....well I got caught up in it and have almost 200 'friends' to show for it. Some of these people I talk to on a regular basis, some every now and then, others I haven't seen or talked to since high school. Now just because I haven't seen or talked to these people doesn't mean they are not close to my heart, but keeping up with what they are eating for lunch or their mafia wars is not worth taking that time away from my family and my hobby that gets me on the computer anyway and I, by choice, let it take away to much time.
SO I am calling up that little thing called self control and I am stepping away from facebook. I am not going to delete my profile because I do still want to keep in contact, but I will not get on everyday.
The only reason I use to get on the computer when the boys went to bed was to research and study photography. Now when I sit down to the computer after work, when the boys are begging for attention, I let myself get sucked right into facebook, and for what? I rarely do anything with my photography anymore even though that is truly what I love besides my family.
With all this extra time I will have on my hands, I will do art projects with my kiddos after school, play ball with them outside and probably take a few pictures of them! And after bedtime, I will pursue my photography more.


Ok, now off my soapbox of my facebook shortcomings, on with the tree house!

Now anyone that knows Scott and me knows that we do not finish projects! With all the good intentions we just get side tracked with other things. Well scott got a wild hair a few months ago and started the kids a tree house out back. I was a little nervous when he first said something about it- thinking that we would end up with a few hundred bucks of wasted plywood stuck up in a tree somewhere. But he scouted out the perfect spot for this thing, four small trees in a perfect square not to far from the back porch and only a few yards from the deer feeder. Only a few months later believe it or not, with a lot of planning, re-planning, help from the kids and scotts dad it is finished. The thing is even painted. We let the kids pick out the paint for the inside- neon yellow and lime green, I broke out the sewing machine to make them spongebob curtains and it has an enormous red stag antler for the handle that probably weighs more than the kids.
Now if we could just get them to go play in it! I am sure with the weather changing...hopefully soon it will get some use. I imagine it might turn into a deer stand come deer season.

and now for the photogrpahy part:)

B Bar retreat.....

a girls weekend...just girls...out in the middle of nowhere...NO BOYS...

i was recently invited to tag along to a girls weekend and nearly turned it down because of my anxiety of being around people i don't know, and being away from my family. I have gotten way to dependent on S and the kids and decided that a weekend away would be really good for me and besides i needed to get my camera out without a kid hangin on my leg.

we ate and ate and ate a little more. i made new friends. we ate some more, watched a chick flick that was suppose to be just that a chick flick....i cried like a big fat baby in a room full of practical strangers. me and me friend M walked around the property, a 200 acre sheep ranch taking pictures. we had to keep awayng from a very curiously aggressive sheep. we stayed up late talking girl talk, slept late, played all kinds of fun games. i love games. i love to play games with people i know. the thought of playing games with people i don't know, the chance that i could make a total and complete fool of myself makes me almost go into a panic attack, but i had a blast being a fool. i had fun, relaxed and made new friends.

i missed my boys, I missed Scott and i was exhausted......all in a good weekend!

beautiful snow.....

i still can't believe we have witnessed snow 3 times in 1 season...in TEXAS! the first 2 times did not stick to anything, but it was still beautiful. this last time we had a nice blanket of snow over everything for a whole day and in some spots for 2 days! the boys were not as excited about it as i was, they were to cold! crazy kids! i took the camera out for a bit and got a few pictures that came out...it is hard to shoot snow out in the cold when you are not used to it:)

bullseye.....

if it was up to me K would not have anything to do with any guns at this age, but he now has his cousins old bb gun. i was not happy, but he and S really enjoy going out to find cactus and such to shoot at. at first S held it and K just pulled the trigger, but now he holds it himself. And he is actually pretty dang good. he can barely hold the thing up but he can hit what he aims at almost every time! maybe we should get him into one of those redneck shooting contests.....:)

by the river.....

last month my MIL, SIL, BIL, niece and nephew came to visit, on their way out of town we brought them to the river in town to see how pretty the park is.

for this group shot i climbed up a huge rock, contorted myself in the most uncomfortable position to balance my camera on yet another rock to use the timer...should have brought the tripod! i think there should have also been a video camera to catch me getting off said rock to make it into the picture!


this is T with daddy right after he fell