More 'yaking adventures

One evening last week, I was laying on the couch, watching tv and relaxing with the dogs. All of a sudden, I see a mouse run across the living room floor! Naturally, I jumped up and stood on the couch and screamed "MOUSE!" Dave came running in and we tried to corner the little guy. He was really quick, and knew all the good places to hide, like under the couch and end tables. We chased him from one side of the room to the other at least 4 times. Finally, we had him cornered under one of the end tables, and we were blocking the only way he could get out. With pot lid in hand, Dave picked up the side of the end table and slammed the pot lid down over the mouse. We got him!!

So we had him trapped, but couldn't figure out how to get him out of the house without him escaping. So we left him under the pot lid while Dave went upstairs to take a shower. Luckily, our buddy Ben gave us some good advice and said to slide something thin like a magazine under the pot lid, and trap the mouse between the lid and magazine. We couldn't find anything thin and sturdy enough at first. I then realized that we have these thin plastic cutting boards that would work perfectly. But of course, I didn't want those to get dirty. The set of cutting boards has 2 boards: one for poultry, one for red meat, one for veggies, and one for seafood. We don't eat seafood, so I figured I'd just use the seafood one! So Dave slid it under the pot lid and carried the little guy outside. We brought him WAY down behind the garage and let him loose. Hopefully he doesn't try to come back!

We really haven't done any work in the house this summer. We've been spending most of our weekends kayaking and enjoying the weather. A couple weeks ago we went kayaking with our friends Ben and Sarah on the Alum Pond. It started out as a cloudy day and ended up being quite warm and sunny.

 It definitely started out as a cloudy day.

 Ben had quite the setup, with fishing poles and a camera mount.

There was some really nice houses along the water, and some had their own boat garages on the water.

 There was a little island in the middle, so we paddled over to check it out.

The clouds completely disappeared later on and it ended up getting really warm!

 Dave tried catching some fish with his bare hands.

 If you look carefully you can see some of the fish coming pretty close.

All in all, it was a good trip. I would definitely go back there again!

This past weekend we went with Ben and Sarah to kayak a section of the Chicopee River.

 The weather was gorgeous!

If you look closely, you can see a turtle on the log in this picture. 

 The river was actually quite picturesque is some areas.

 We paddled under the Mass Pike, which was a little unnerving due to the loud rattling when trucks went over.

 When we got farther down the river, the current picked up quite a bit. We had to hold onto a tree so we could take a break.

 On the way back down the river, we got to relax and let the current take us.

 Dave enjoyed a quick snack of a granola bar.

 Then he decided to sit back and relax!

 I even put my feet up!

 The turtles were all out sunning themselves. Luckily, I was able to get pretty close to this one before he swam away.

 Dave got REALLY close to this one.

 I think he liked the color of Dave's kayak!

 He really crept up on him and them caught him.

 Check out that turtle face! The colors of the turtles were amazing.

 Bright yellow belly!

 He was getting camera shy and tried to hide in his shell.

 This side shot really shows the colors of this one. Red, yellow and orange...really cool!

So then we let little Mr. Turtle get back to his swimming and sunning and we floated around a bit more while Ben tried to catch some fish.

Another great kayaking day, especially since we got to see so many turtles. Now that fall is approaching, it will be nice to see the changing landscape with different colors in the trees. I'm sure we'll have plenty more pictures soon!