Fadedwords

I wasn’t really aware I was going to become such a photoger.  Lately I’ve done a lot that requires photographic evidence, hence the inundation of photographs in my posts lately.  Today is no different, as the past two days have been incredibly busy and fun.

On Tuesday Jake and I got up early, stopped for a quick breakfast, and then drove to Atlantic Beach to visit the aquarium at Pine Knolls.  We’d been talking about going since right after my birthday, and even though we were a little worn out from the trip to Mississippi we were excited about going.  We weren’t disappointed…

This was one of our favorite displays.  They had a real U-Boat inside a tank that held sharks and other fish.  Totally amazing.

We went down to the beach after the aquarium.  It was beautiful… I could’ve stayed all day long.

Then we had lunch/dinner at the Crab’s Claw.  It was a quaint little place right on the beach, with amazing food.  We both had steamer pots that were out of this world, followed by incredibly yummy desserts.  It’s one of the most fun days we’ve had together in a long time.

You can see the photos from our trip to Atlantic Beach HERE.

Then yesterday I went to Wrightsville Beach with Sarah, Alyssa, and Bethany.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day… not to hot, a beautiful breeze coming off the water.  We had comfy chairs, a big cooler full of drinks, and plenty of snacks.

The last time I was at the beach, last year, I was nearly 45 pounds heavier than I am now.  I wore shorts and a tank top because I was too embarrassed to wear a swimsuit.  I didn’t go in to the water above my calves.  I was absolutely determined that this trip would be different.  And it was.

We did a lot of lounging on the beach, which was really fantastic.

We did a lot of jumping in the waves

We did a lot of “oh crap that’s a big wave”.

And we did a lot of smiling, because we had a great day.

You can see all the photos from Wrightsville HERE.

I’m only a little bit burned in a couple places.  I’m so sore from playing in the water.  The waves were rough and incredibly big at times.  I’ve never been in the ocean like I was yesterday, and I’m proud of myself because it’s a slight phobia I’ve had.  It was a great day.

I’m glad, however, that today is not as eventful as the last few have been.  I have big plans of relaxing on the couch and catching up on my DVRed shows.  I might venture to Best Buy to look for a UV filter for my camera.  We’ll just see about that.

A good few days.  Really good.

Jake and I are home from our trip to Mississippi.  It was a short, but good trip.  We spent a great deal of time down at the lake taking pictures with our new cameras.  I’m glad we did, because I’m feeling much more confident with mine.

I took this, as well as most of the photos, on complete manual settings.  I’m very proud of that.

Jake and I played with the tripod and the self-timer

We met Boots’s new dog, Henry.  He is absolutely adorable, and an absolute devil.

It was a pretty good trip, although I think we’re both glad to be back in our own house.  Today we’re going to the aquarium down by Atlantic Beach, and we’re pretty excited to do it.

You can see all the photos from our trip to Mississippi HERE.

We’re leaving at 6:30 tomorrow morning to head to Mississippi.  It’s the annual family reunion on Saturday, so we’ll be there until Monday.  We’re both looking forward to being there.  Not only will we get to see Jake’s family, but we’ll also be able to see our friends Brian and Mary Jo.

Internet is a hot commodity down that way, so updates will have to wait until we’re home.

Hope everyone has a good rest of the week.

Apparently I’m not the only one in the house in love with a fictional vampire….

All I can say is this- “Paws off dude, he’s mine!”

I had a riding lesson bright and early this morning.  It was a gorgeous morning, in the mid 60s, so when I walked outside I was pretty excited to get to the barn and get started.  We got Missy in from the pasture, saddled up, and headed out.

Elizabeth told me that she wanted to long trot in the big pasture, without letting Missy canter.  She said, “Missy really, really loves that long side and she will probably break on you.” I told her that I’d do my best, and walked off.  We walked down one side and around the far end.  When we came around the corner I could feel Missy get excited.  I asked her to trot, and for the first 5-10 steps she was alright.  Then she took the bit… and we were off.  She cantered, despite the fact that I continued to post and half halt and try to ease her down.  Finally I just gave in a bit and let her canter.  It was a lovely canter, and we made it up the long side in record time!  From there we tried to get her to settle down.  We eventually were working on a pretty small circle around Elizabeth.  The goal was to get her to do a nice trot, which we did achieve.  Unfortunately our other goal was to get her to drop her head down and bend (as always).  At one point Elizabeth said, “I can see her flicking her ears back and I can see that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to.  She’s just too intent on playing!” She was having none of it today.  She fought against me, and even though she was absolutely getting my signals and understanding them… she just said, “No Way!!” We worked for close to 30-40 minutes at it before Elizabeth said, “She’s just not going to give to us today on that.  Let’s head back to the back ring and see how she is out there.”

The back ring is where the jumps are.  As soon as we walked out there, I could feel the excitement building in Missy.  The first time I asked her to trot she exploded… I’m surprised she didn’t leave me behind.  She wanted to canter, but I wouldn’t let her.  Then she wanted to take off down by the paddocks, and it took all of my strength to keep her on track.  We fought over this for a little bit before switching directions and trying on a smaller circle.  She was incredibly distracted, and both Elizabeth and I were getting quite a kick out of it.  Elizabeth asked if I felt OK to walk over a line of ground poles, raised poles, and then one cross rail.  I said I did, and began my approach.  As we moved over the ground poles Missy brought her head up and began to trot.  The first step over the raised poles and I knew that she was going to jump the cross rail… and there wasn’t one thing I could do to get her to stop, short of getting us both hurt.  So I settled in, went into my half seat and looked up.  She jumped like a champ, and I could just feel in her which direction she was going to go on landing.  We landed and she picked up a nice canter, going to the right.  Elizabeth said, “That was great!  You stayed right with her!” We pulled up after that and called it a day.

As we were heading in Elizabeth said, “I felt bad today because there was nothing I could say or have you do differently that would’ve changed the way she was for you.  She just got it into her head that she wanted to go… and she went.” I laughed a little and said, “At first I was feeling badly that I wasn’t doing something right, that I wasn’t giving her what she needed to simmer down.  Then I realized that there was nothing I could do with her today other than try to stay with her.” Elizabeth told me I’d done a good job just sticking with her, not getting flustered, and continuing to try to get her to come down a notch or two.  She said that today was just one of those days when Missy wanted to play, so we played.

It was a very fun lesson, and I’m proud of myself for keeping up with her today.  She was more than a little nuts, and I didn’t once get flustered or apprehensive.  Most of the time I was smiling and shaking my head at her.  Hopefully the next time I ride we get more actual work out of her.  Today I definitely worked harder than she did.