Weekend at Pineview

This weekend my parents were nice enough to watch the dogs overnight so we could spend the night on the lake. We got up there around 11:00 Saturday morning. Most of Saturday we took pretty easy. It was busy as usual and the water was choppy and gross. We relaxed on the beach and went swimming.

When it came time to go to sleep we drove over to the cove and rafted up with some of our neighbors from down the street. Everything was great until 10:30 when some idiots across the way decided to blast their music loud enough to wake the dead. I think they left it going for an hour or so before they finally shut up. However, we did hear the next morning that someone ended up getting a ticket for it.

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning (about 7:30) because we were getting sprinkled on, and our neighbors were heading home. It turned out well though because there wasn't anyone else on the lake yet and the water was smooth as glass. We got in a good three hours of wakeboarding on the best water I've ever seen at Pineview. There were maybe 5 boats moving on the whole lake when we left. I think everyone thought we were pretty nuts because of the weather, but the water was about the same temperature as the air; maybe warmer. It wasn't too cold to get in.

Here's me in my cute new bikini.


Here's Pat getting ready to go. Look how smooth the water is!




Here's Jim with his duck friends that he just about landed on.


And here's one of my wakeboarding attempts. We didn't get the best ones on film because we didn't think of it soon enough. By this point I was pretty tired and cold, but couldn't give up.

The Embarassing Incident

Okay, so this event is so embarassing I can't even tell my husband about it. Everytime I think of trying I get giggly and start crying at the same time. I think it's because it's really funny, but it would be much funnier if it didn't happen to me.

So, we go boating a lot. That means I have to shave a lot. Shaving legs sucks, but is bearable. I am really tired of shaving my bikini line because I end up with ouchy ingrown hairs. I decided to try waxing. (You can tell where this is headed...)

I bought a do-it-yourself-in-the-microwave kit. I started on a section way too big. I pulled. It hurt. I gave up. I pulled the fabric off minus my hair and most of the wax. I did not realize this would be the biggest mistake of all.

Wax is sticky. The kit came with a bottle of wax remover. I tried to use it, but it didn't seem to do much. I tried to scrape it off with an applicator stick. It just spread around some more. I decided to hop in the shower and see where that got me. None of the wax seemed to be coming off. I decided to soak in the tub for a while. That might have helped a little.

This whole time I have been scrubbing and scraping trying to get the wax off. I have wax coating my fingers and under my nails. I finally drain the bath and turn on the shower again. I keep using more wax remover, which now seems to be sticking to my skin about as much as the wax, only it is slippery, not sticky. Then I tried to use my apricot scrub. Then more wax remover. Then more apricot scrub. Repeat.

I decide to try and shave it off since that's what I was trying to accomplish in the first place. I ruin a razor blade and throw it away.

I am trying hard not to break down in tears at this point. I'm completely mortified, so I haven't wanted to call hubby for help. Luckily he is downstairs in his own little world working on computers.

I am making a little (very slow) progress through all of this, only to realize that now my hands are completely coated in wax, and that is has spread to my thigh, my belly, and some must have drifted around in the bath because there's a spot on my butt too. I start trying to think of anything around the house that might get this stuff off of me. I decide that I will probably have the most luck with the dish soap. It gets greasy mechanic hands clean; why not me?

I carefully open the bathroom door and call out to hubby. No answer. I then streak through the house full speed to the kitchen, grab the dish soap and run back, leaving tell-tale wet footprints across the whole house. I quickly shut and lock the bathroom door again, hop back in the shower and start scrubbing. I keep using the wax remover and apricot scrub too. After cycling through a couple of times, I feel almost human again. By this point, I think I have been in the shower for an hour and a half.

I get out and start to dry off, only to have the towel stick to random spots. I jump back in the shower and give it another go. I finally get clean enough to dry off without sticking, so I get out on put on PJs (which do still stick to my butt a little). I spent the rest of the evening trying to pick wax out from under my nails.

Moral of the story: leave waxing to the professionals. If you are cheap, just stick to what you know.

Visiting the New House

My sister-in-law and her family have been in the process of building a new house for a long time. The house still isn't quite done, but it is to the point where they finally got to move in. We went up to visit and for dinner. We saw several deer walk right into the backyard:

We also played with my niece's cat, Moose. He is adorable, but not very cooperative for picture-taking:

I finally got to see my other niece's room. She had her cousin's husband (on the other sideof the family) paint and spray paint on her walls. I think it's turning out really cute! Oh, and kudos to the parents for letting her do what she wanted.

Family Reunion

Patrick's family has a reunion every year. The reunions are far from boring - in fact it is a weekend we look forward to every summer. This year some of our favorite people made it:

And most of the crazy irritating people did not. Here is who we affectionatly call "Skullet" (for the half-buzzed almost mullet hair):

And his wife (yes that is a woman - I think):

Weekend at Yuba

A few weekends ago we reserved a boat-in campspot at Yuba State Park. We had never been there before, but were told it was nice so we decided to give it a shot. We had our own camp site away from everyone else, and we had our own dock for the boat. The setup was really quite nice. The weather was a little spotty, but overall not too bad. There were plenty of windy times, but also plenty of times when the water was perfectly smooth.

The problem was the people. We had run-ins with way too many idiots to have a completely good time. The lake was pretty low, which made it narrow. There were just too many boats packed in too small a space, and nobody following the boating laws. We also had people use our dock while we were out on the lake, then get mad at us when we tied up to it. They finally left after stealing one of the bumpers off our boat, leaving it slamming against the dock.

Our camp site is clear back in the trees:


My niece Raqeal actually reading a book!

The dogs jumping off the dock after a stick:

The dock clearly states it is reserved:

Our boat's home for the weekend:

Demolition Derby

One of my favorite events of the season...