Firsts on the Fourth

Maybe I should title this "Happy Belated Birthday America!" This past holiday weekend we braved the rain and packed up both dogs and elle and headed down to Matagorda, Texas to my parent's bay house. It's been 2 years since Lee and I had been there and Elle's first time. Despite a few rain showers on the way down there, the weekend was perfect! No rain, breezy enough to keep the mosquitoes away and overcast just enough to be pleasant outside.

Saturday we took Elle on her first boat ride. I wouldn't say she hated it, but considering she's not even a fan of wind blowing in her face during our morning walks, you can imagine how not ok she was with the wind blowing in her face during the boat ride! We went fishing but didn't catch anything so we headed back to the house. Saturday night we hung out outside and Elle watched my cousin shoot off fireworks.

Elle on her first boat ride

Sunday, after the boys came back from a successful fishing trip, we took a short car ride in to Blessing, Texas to eat lunch at the historic Blessing Hotel. We then headed down to my dad's deer lease to go bass fishing on the lake. Elle got to drive the mule for the first time - and as suspected -she loved it. Elle did amazingly well considering that it was super hot, we were out there for a few hours, I forgot her sippy cup so she was drinking water out of the water bottles and it wasn't that breezy. She was pretty content to play in the make shift tent we made with a sleeping bag and some chairs! I think she was also enjoying watching the dogs jump into the pond whenever we would catch a fish. Their freedom was taken away and they had to be tied up but Elle sure did like watching them jump around. On the drive out to the lake, Elle was fascinated with the buttons on the mule. Sure enough, she somehow managed to turn on the lights on the mule which we didn't discover until we were ready to leave and the battery was run down! Thank goodness for Lee and my dad because they were able to get the the mule back up and running and we were able to get back to the AC! Our day in the sun wore our little lady out and she was asleep by 7:00pm and missed all the fireworks. Oh well, maybe next year...

Elle and Grampy (and Reggie) ready to head back to the AC!

Monday we went fishing again and Elle got to see her first live redfish up close and personal. While she likes to look at fish in books, she not that big of a fan of the real things. She hid her head on my mom's shoulder when Lee brought the fish to her. Too bad the dogs aren't like Elle and shy away from fish. Reggie went diving for shrimp in the live well and came up with a mouth full of bait and Dutchesse fell overboard a few times trying to eat our fish before we had them landed. Crazy dogs! I will say that being in such close quarters with the dogs all weekend really helped Elle get over her fear of them. Fear is probably the wrong word - she likes to look at them when they are far away or outside. We ran out of bait at about the same time Elle decided it was time for us to leave. Little lady fell asleep in my lap on the boat ride back to the house.

Lee and Elle

I'm so glad the weekend went so great. Elle was a trooper out in the sun and being around the dogs. Although, my dad does have a pretty great shade that covers pretty much his entire boat so really the only time she was in the sun was when we were at the lake. I'm excited for the next time we go down there....I'm hoping it will be soon!!