Eckman Lake

What a beautiful day for kayaking! I actually wasn't sure if it was or not, I had never been in a kayak before. I figured it was just a long skinny boat, so it would be super awesome. I love it when I am right!!

We have a lake less than a mile from my house, so before we took the kayak out in the river/bay, Jered wanted to start easy and boat around in the lake.

Spring time is so beautiful!

Found a dock in the middle of the lake we took a break at. It was very exciting, and not scary at all!

There was nutria and ducks all over the place! We came across some baby nutria, and for a second I thought they were muskrats. Baby things are always adorable, but alas, they are too fast for pictures! :(

What a wonderful sunset! My first kayaking experience was a blast!!

Life Lessons From The Beach

Life is a balancing act..... Watch where you step, there are puddles in the strangest places!Someone, or something is always watchingThere will be holes, even when the ground should be solid.

Rain Camping

We had the most wonderful weekend, in the rain. We hadn't made it out to my mom's property since the middle of last summer. We set up the gazebo and never got to enjoy it, so even though it was raining, we were determined to get some use out of it. So we brought extra tarps......

We had enough wood to have a fire almost all day Saturday, and then built another Sunday morning. Jered is the greatest fire builder!

Our rain camp. It stayed pretty dry until we started getting sideways rain.

Daisy didn't like sitting under the tarps or in the gazebo, unless it wasn't raining. She is such a dork, but she looks so cute when she is soaking wet!

We found a giant dafodil field just before the end of the property. They were so beautiful. A little close to the neighbors for me though.

The fire on Sunday was just as good as the previous one!

And the tarps made it through the night (barely). It was really windy. We went for a walk down to a swimming hole, even though there was no way I was going to swim. We passed a pond with tons of lily pads everywhere. They are shaped like hearts, that is so romantic!

Then it started pouring again.

Crazy tumors on these trees.

The river was green yesterday. Now it is brown and mucky. Daisy won't even swim in it.

We saw a deer across from the lilypad pond on our way back to camp. I thought it was a donkey at first, but the professional let me know otherwise. He/she just stared at us forever.

Daisy was wondering what we were looking at. She had no idea the whole time.

Probably better anyway, she just would have barked at it and scared it away.

There she is again, just laying out in the rain.

We packed up Sunday afternoon, ready to head home. It was then that the sun decided to come out. Figures, but sure made for some good rain camping.

Patterson State Park

This state park is so close to my house, and this is actually the very first time I have gone to the beach here. Lots of driftwood, good fire potential. Nice view of the bridge, and the little seals hanging out underneath. We didn't get close enough to get a good shot of them, but they are oh, so cute!!
Another great thing to do with an abundance of driftwood is to build a fort. We found this one in pretty good condition. It even had little shells and such on the ledges.

Daisy was very sad that she didn't fit inside the fort.......

Just kidding, she isn't sad at all. In fact she has been especially happy!

She played in all of these pools (way deeper than they look) and got all wet! I tried to stay up on the dry sand.

It is tough to run and hold a ball in your mouth. I wouldn't know........

Very windy, and it shows on the water.

A Whale of a Day

Another day at the Whale Center. This time there was only one whale, but it did make for some good storm watching.

That seagull seems confused......

RAINBOW!!!!!!

Now I know the day is going to be awesome!

Non-Morphed Great Blue Herons

I have never seen so many at one time!

Beautiful Green Lichen