.

This weekend, Ryan and I got to go to Lake Nacimiento with his family and the Van Dusen family. They booked some condos for the entire week, but since Ryan and I have missed a lot of work lately, we just stayed for a few days. We drove the boats out on the lake and found a nice beach area to set up camp. We went out on the boats (tubing, wakeboarding, scurfing), and spent some time on the beach (reading, eating, tanning and lounging). The Van Dusens have this HUGE blow up tube called the Island (pictured above). Half of it has netting on the bottom so it has it's own little pool in it. It was a really cool toy for the lake and we all enjoyed some time out on the island.

I went tubing for the first time. I'm not typically a fan of hanging off of a moving boat. Something about it just cries "DANGER" to me. But I gave it a shot. Allison and I both jumped on a tube and and Kris Van Dusen took us for a ride. It was a BLAST.

I even tried a little wakeboarding. I've tried 2 or 3 times before and never got up. I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get up this time around too. In the collage above, you can see Ryan helping me get situated. In the next picture, you can probably see the reservation in my face. I was scared. Allison told my to look like I was having fun, so I smiled for the next one. After several attempts, some painful falls, and some good instruction from my father-in-law Rick, I got up. I stayed up for about five seconds and then I face planted it right into the water. That HURT! So I let that be my last try for the day, though looking back I wish I would have tried a few more times to get more comfortable with it.

Next I hung in the boat and took some pictures of Allison, Ryan and Justin wakeboarding. They're all really good! Ryan and I enjoyed playing with my new camera too.

OH, did I not tell you? I got it. The Nikon D60. It came in the mail last Friday and I have enjoyed playing with it and learning what it can do. I can already tell that I have A LOT to learn, but I'm excited. I was especially excited to see what great pictures I could capture this weekend, even WITH my lack of knowledge and experience.