Easter Sunday

Since Paul and I live 3,000 miles away from home, we typically don't get to spend holidays with family :(.  So, today for Easter, since it was absolutely
b-e-a-utiful out (70 degrees!), we decided to rent a boat and take the pups to the lake! The girls love the water, so we knew it'd be a good time had for all.

Before I post any pictures, I have a story for you.  The funniest thing happened on the way to the lake.  Paul has a hitch on the back of his car to tow the boat.  We were on the highway and the dogs were in the back seat.  All of a sudden, Kobe looks out the back window and notices the boat behind the car and has an absolute meltdown. She starts barking and growling and jumps into my lap in the front seat (all 90 pounds of her!) and was literally clinging to me whimpering thinking that the boat was chasing us. Too funny!  I haven't laughed that hard in a while!

When we got to the lake, Paul put the dogs in the boat, backed it up into the water, and went to park the car.  I stayed with the boat and all of a sudden I noticed that the boat was slowly filling up with water! Paul forgot to put the plug in!! So we end up jumping into the water and putting the plug in and then bailing water out of the boat before we could even start our little adventure! 

After all of the chaos, we ended up having a wonderful day::

Beginning our adventure.. right before sinking the boat.. haha!

Kobe and Nala are ready to go!

Me and the girls :)

Love weeping willows! There were some GORGEOUS houses along the way

Little stinker passed out! Too much excitement ;)

Kobe contemplating chasing those ducks

Relaxin'

My cute little snuggler

My other cute little snuggler ;)

The girls were loving this beautiful day!

Captain Kobe

Hey there handsome!

Don't worry Nala, we aren't going to leave you there!

The mountain looking beautiful as usual

Cant get over this weather today!

It must have been a good day- Have you ever seen a pup smile so big?!

Such sleepy puppies!

The best of friends

Happy Easter Everyone!

We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did!

My First Hunting Trip

Here's a little bit of a backstory for you: 

I didn't grow up around hunting or guns or anything like that.. never owned one, never even touched one until 2009, right after my high school graduation.  My hubby (boyfriend at the time) and I went down to Florida to visit his aunt and uncle.  His uncle is a retired police officer, owns a few guns, and enjoys going to the shooting range once in a while.  Well, when we were down there, we went with him.  There I was, watching Paul and his uncle shoot the targets (jumping out of my skin every time one went off) thinking I would get away with just watching.  That didn't last for long. Of course they wanted me to shoot too. It'll be fun they said.. ;).  So, I manned up and took the gun, pointed at the target, and shot it. Little did I know, the shell casing would pop out the back. Well, indeed the hot shell casing popped out, landed on my shoulder, and within seconds I was screaming and crying in the middle of the gun range because I thought I had shot myself.

I have yet to hear the end of that one...

Here I am after that incident: fake smile, watery eyes and all-

So, now to the real story here:

Ever since we've been in Washington, I've tried to be more adventurous & outdoorsy: hiking, fishing, kayaking, etc. So, when I was invited by my husband and one of our closest friends, Petey, to go hunting with them, I agreed. I have to admit, I was super nervous to be around a gun (especially a big ol' rifle) after my previous traumatizing experience, but I was excited to challenge myself and to be outside of my element.

We hiked about a half mile up a mountain where I eventually took a deep breath and conquered my fear.  I shot the rifle and even hit my target!.. which was a tree...I refused to do any Bambi killing ;)

I ended up having a lot of fun on our little adventure.  We didn't kill anything (which I wasn't too broken up over), but we had a good time hiking and talking and searching.  Near the end of the night, we made a little fire and sat around it, maybe had a beer or two ;), and listened to the coyotes howling (which is really a beautiful sound..and a lot less terrifying than you might think).  This was a really positive experience for me, and I have to say, I'd definitely do it again!