Hey! Our Boat Floats!

Today, we took the bass boat out on Lake Balboa (in HSV - about 10 minutes from our house). We fished for about 2+ hours (with no fish to show for it) and spent a lot of time cruising up and down the lake. The weather was beautiful: sunny and about 70 F but a bit windy. However, when you're zipping across the lake, who cares about the wind.

Here are a few shots of us loading the boat on the trailer at the end of our fishing/boating day.

Heading onto the trailer:

No problem! We got it trailered and were ready to go. With practice, we're getting better at that whole backing and loading thing...

Ikebana Sensei At Work!

Rosie really enjoys ikebana (Japanese art of flower arranging) and is also very good at it. On Monday, Cranfords - the local grocery store - has their flowers on sale (2 bundles for the price of 1). Rosie bought some flowers and made several arrangements for the house using some of our home grown grasses. They were really neat looking. I asked her to take some photos to post on the blog for others to enjoy.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Rosie's Bass

Today we went fishing on Lake Balboa. Rosie caught her first bass from the new boat. Luckily Bob was able to take a picture with his trusty cell phone.

Hopefully this will be the first of many. Bob also caught two bass, but Rosie's was bigger than either of his. We had great weather--sunny with the temperature in the upper 70's and low 80's.

Giant Spider Web - Not A Sci-Fi Movie

We were eating breakfast on the deck one morning when we looked up and saw this giant spider web in the trees next door. It was really impressive. The web must have been 7-8 feet in diameter.

Here's a close-up of the web. The strands are thick compared to other webs we've seen. We don't know if the dot at the center is the spider or not. We didn't really hang around to find out. This is a "serious" looking web.

We bet this poor spider worked all night to complete this web; however, it was gone the next day. At least we got to enjoy it for one morning; hope it was profitable for the spider.

New Addition to the Family

After years of looking, fretting, studying, etc., we finally took the plunge and bought a bass boat - a Ranger 178 VS. Here are a few shots. The boat filled our garage more than I expected. We knew it would be tight, but it sure filled the place up.

We could actually close the garage door. However, Mini had to move to the third garage. Here are some pictures of the boat outside:

The motor is a 150 hp Yamaha 4 stroke. Ideally, it should be fairly quiet.

We then decided to rent a storage space for the boat. Here's our boat in it's new home.Now - if it will only help us catch fish. We'll see!

Our "PET" Deer

We've had a mother deer and her two fawns hanging around our area for the last month or so. They don't seem to be afraid of us or our dog, Sam. They just look at us and keep on eating when we walk close. Here are some pictures of the deer between our house and the golf course.

Well, it's time to visit another feeding place. See you later kids!

Gettin' To See The Kids!

The combination of Chris, Amy, Adam and Lottie moving back to the US (yeah!) and Rosie's Dad dying resulted in us getting to see all three kids on the same day - if not in the same place (to be explained later).

Chris and family arrived in Austin, TX (via San Francisco) from Japan on 06-JULY. We were there to meet them and help get their stuff (8 bags plus dog crate) to the hotel. After staying in the hotel for a few days while Chris and Amy took care of business (new car, cell phones, etc.), we all drove to Hot Springs Village to get ready to go to Papa's funeral on Saturday. However, Chris, Amy, Adam and Lottie all came down with the 24-hr vomiting and diarrhea bug - not fun. So they had to skip the funeral.

Doug flew into Little Rock from Michigan on Friday 10-AUG to attend Papa's funeral the next day. He stayed with US in HSV Friday and Saturday nights then returned to Michigan on Sunday. This was the first time Uncle Doug had seen his two nieces, Lottie and Kayleigh. Here are shots of Uncle Doug in action; isn't he a natural. Karen and Shane drove up from Dickinson for the funeral; we got to see them briefly at the funeral on Saturday. We didn't get a good family shot of Karen, Shane, Logan and Kayleigh at the funeral, but we got a great shot from Jennifer Stonecipher. Here are photos of the Houston gang. Aren't they cute!Chris's family stayed in HSV until Monday morning before heading down to Ft. Hood where Chris will be stationed. We had time to do some swimming and playing on the beach at Lake Balboa.Lottie enjoyed digging in the sand while Adam had fun getting his feet buried in the sand by Dad.

We also had time in the late afternoon to walk over to Lake Sophia which is right next to our house. Amy and Lottie found a good rock for throwing into the lake. They're ready to go.

Chris is showing Adam how to skip rocks across the water. Dad makes it look easy.

Nani had the best idea. She enjoyed cooling off with a little dip in the lake. She's a good swimmer.

We really enjoyed getting to see all the kids - if only briefly. We hope to get everyone together again at Thanksgiving in Dickinson.