My Puppy Story: Kneeboarding & Kayaking

Mia and I have had a very exciting week! First, my friend Neely invited us out on her boat, along with a few other friends. Her and her husband, Andy, are big into wakeboarding and wakeskating. I've never even attempted wakeboarding before, so I was a little nervous. I ended up getting up on my 2nd try so I was pretty pumped. I got up a few more times after that, but couldn't manage to do anything fancy. I didn't want Mia to lose out on all the fun, so I attempted to get her up on the kneeboard. She seemed pretty comfortable on it while we were just hanging out in the water so I thought, why not?! She did so wonderful! I can't wait to do it again with her (this time, without my nice sunglasses, so I don't have to freak out when they almost fall off!).

Getting her used to the board

Getting ready :D

Almost!

Check her out, so awesome!

Uh-oh, losing the good sunglasses, time to let go!

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So if all that wasn't enough fun, the very next day we went kayaking. I can't even describe how sore I was from the wakeboarding, so I knew it was going to be difficult for me, but I've been wanting to take Mia kayaking for a while now. Also, we had awesome plans to kayak down Rock Springs Run with NOBODY else around (Dad got a sweet hookup from a friend who owns property out there) so there was no way I was going to pass that up. My dad has two recently purchased kayaks - one is a brand new, beautiful 14.5' tandem (can convert to single) and an older 9.5' single for Cathy and I. It was interesting fitting both me and Mia in the little single, but we managed. I did get frustrated at her a few times (every time she would even move an inch it felt like she was ripping my sore muscles right out of my legs!) but it was still so awesome. She did better than I could have asked for. Cathy and I did switch about 1/2 way, so I got to rest in the tandem and let Dad do all the work ;)

It was so awesome being on the river without anyone around. We saw tons of gators, a spotted fawn and 3 baby bears! I think this is the first time I've ever seen a bear in the wild. We could hear the Momma Bear crashing around on the ground, but she never showed her face (I'm sure she could see us though!).