Proud Mommy Moment #1 of the Weekend

Be warned. LOTS of bragging and reminiscing here.  But it IS my blog.  And that's what I wanna do.  ;-)

Drumroll please.......

My firstborn baby water skied ALL BY HERSELF!!!

This is HUGE for Olivia.  She's always been very cautious and she is not quite as naturally athletic like Landon.  But she kept saying she wanted to try and ski.

We finally got the skis out and put together.  We all fully expected to get out on the water, ready to put them on, and her back out.

But no.  She said she was going to try 10 times.  I don't actually have the very first pictures of her skiing (with Robert in the water behind her) because I was driving the boat.

Yes, me her mother.  Driving a huge piece of machinery with my baby daughter on the other end.

Nah, I'm a good driver.  Really.  I am.  And have my boating license.  Well, I sent off to get a replacement copy.  But I passed the test.  :-)

So, on the 10th try, Robert was too far away to swim over and catch up with her so she tried it on her own.  AND DID IT!!

I just can't tell you how proud I am that she faced her fears and didn't give up!

Look how cute she looks out there! 





With this type of training skis you start out with a rope connected to the ski and a handle you hold in your hands.  We couldn't quite figure out how that helped, but we hooked it up like it said.

So since it's tied to the skis, you can't tie the other end to the boat - if they fall you'll drag them.  So someone has to hold the other end of the rope (with a handle) until they get the hang of it.  And be sure to let go if they fell.

Then you hook 'em up to the boat when they've got the jist of it.





We didn't hook her up to the boat quite yet, but hopefully by the end of the summer, she'll be doing it that way.





See what I mean?  The lower rope under her hands really has no purpose.  She is basically holding on and pulling herself up.





Look at her go!










Robert would talk to her with hand signals.  Don't know what they were talking about but they seemed to understand each other.





 Landon watching on.  And working up the nerve to do it himself!

And of course, and short video clip!!!

So you think now that she can ski she won't want to tube?

Wrong. 





Here's what they look like tubing.

They did plenty of this too.  And worked up to some impressive speeds.


Olivia said her arms were "SO sore" the next day.  But that didn't stop her from going at it again!

The lake just keeps getting more and more fun as they grow up.  I grew up skiing and tubing and have SO many memories of it!  It just made me so proud to see her out there!!

Of course, I'm already super proud she's my daughter!