More wakeboarding! :)

So I have found a new love... Wakeboarding! It's absolutely awesome and I love doing it, however I got my first taste of REALLY crashing last weekend. I was out in the water Sunday morning and feeling rather brave decided to try a "trick." I was going to do a 180 on my board. Yeah - I caught an edge and face planted the water... HARD. So I remember feeling like my face had literally fallen off, and then about the same time Tony was jumping out of the boat right to me. He made sure I still had a face (all my teeth were there and my nose wasn't bleeding) and then towed me to the boat since I pretty much couldn't move. My face was swollen and my eye... well it's bruised a little. I feel pretty cool knowing that I have battle wounds from wakeboarding! The good news is that even after I totally crashed and burned, I took a rest for an hour or so and got back up. I was a little nervous at first and just kind of hung out in the "safe zone," but I finally got the courage to actually wakeboard and do something out there. So my adventures in Wakeboarding continue! I'm having so much fun learning and I have the desire to get better and better. I'm going to be so sad when it starts to get cold and we can't go up to the lake anymore. I will just have to replace the wakeboard with the snowboard for the winter and get up there again as soon as it's warm enough! :)

So prior to my wakeboarding adventure, I had a really neat opportunity last weekend. I was able to volunteer and participate in CAST for kids. CAST is an organization that invites kids with disabilities to come up to a lake, get on a boat and go fishing for a couple of hours. This was my first year doing CAST, but Randy, Tony and Amanda have apparently been doing it for a couple years. I'm sure this tradition will continue and I'll have the opportunity to do it again next year. Leading up to this year's event, I heard all sorts of stories about a kid named Kyle. He was assigned to go on Randy's boat with Tony last year and this awesome kid kept calling Randy the boat guy. From what I understand he spent the entire past year talking about "boat guy" and Tony and how he was going to catch more fish with them this year. So Kyle's dad called the director of CAST and specifically requested that Kyle be assigned to "boat guy" again. When Kyle showed up, there were a bunch of volunteers just hanging out and waiting to be instructed on what to do. Randy started walking toward a group of people and I heard across the parking lot "BOAT GUY" and looked over in time to see Kyle running to give Randy and Tony the biggest hugs! Just know that they had made an impression on this kid that lasted an entire year and will probably last a lifetime is enough to make me have that "warm fuzzy" feeling. I was so proud to be there and excited to have the opportunity to meet Kyle and all the many wonderful kids and their parents. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have in my life to meet these people, know that I am a part of something bigger, and know that these kids don't have a lot, but just being able to interact for a few hours one day a year with these kids makes a big difference to them. I can't wait for next year! :)