Ride, Caroline, Ride!

Jeff has been teaching Caroline how to ride without training wheels.  She gets super excited about practicing and will be doing on her own real soon.  I'm so proud of these girls and so thankful for their awesome Dad!

First Day of School

Today was the girls first day of school for the 2013-2014 school year at St. Philip.  Caroline is in

Pre-K 4,  Her teacher is Mrs. Krutilek.  Juliann had her as her teacher when she was in Pre-K 4.  Juliann is in 2nd grade.  Her teacher is Mrs. Pustejovsky.  We started the morning with homemade pancakes, per Juliann's request.  The girls both had a wonderful first day and came home very excited.  I also had a great day working in my new role as an instructional coach at Northside Elementary.  We are all looking forward to a wonderful school year!

The Fish That Got Away

While we were at the bay, we went on a fishing trip with Anthony Collins.  He took us into Keller Bay.  We had a very memorable trip.  Katie caught a shark.

Nathan caught a trout; too bad, it was too small.

After trying a few spots, we headed to the well to fish.

Mr. Collins said we would try this spot. He said we would fish and you never know, we might hook a good one and have to track it.  I thought, "Yeah, right!"  Mr. Collins handed me his pole, while he got mine ready.  Next think I knew, I was reeling and reeling and not making in progress.  The fish that hit, took the line and ran!

That is when the decision was made to follow the fish.  I keep thinking it was a big shark, but it ended up being a jack kreville.  After about the first ten minutes, I didn't think I was going to be able to reel the fish in.  I thought I might need to hand over the pole.  Katie even came over at one point and reeled while I held the pole.

 

We chased the fish a long ways.  This is a picture of the well we started at.

getting further away

 

This is not a good picture, but the best we had of the fish surfacing.

and now we are farther

Still reeling and fighting the fish

Katie getting ready to net the fish when I got it close to the boat.  When she was about to use the net, he dove down and kept running.  She said he was huge and wouldn't have fit in the net.

I fought the fish for about 50 minutes before it got off the line.  It was a fun experience and my stomach hurt for days from when I held the fishing pole.  This was by far, my favorite fishing experiences, but like I say... "It was the fish that got away!"

Bobby caught a fish too!

The GPS shows the route we went while chasing the fish.

A "Little" Vacation

On July 20, Katie and Nathan came to EC for a little vacation.  That evening had a great time at the Buss' house listening to a fun band.  Sunday morning, we woke up and headed to the bay along with Yaya and Papi.  We enjoyed relaxing, fishing, bocce ball, washers, spades, wahoo, and enjoying each others company.

Our little gymnast, Juliann, showing off her skills.

 

 

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of crab legs!

 

Birthday Celebrations

The Sunday we returned from the bay for July 4th, we went to Jennifer and Jayson to celebrate Meme and Uncle Jay's birthdays.  We had some delicious food to finish off the weekend!