Water skiing / Walking the Dog

This is the first time in my life that I've regularly walked a dog (except when I went through my yo-yo phase, which isn't anything like walking a real dog), and I am enjoying it way more than I thought I would! Lately, I've been making it even more fun by imagining that I'm water skiing. Try it!

• Nellie is the ski boat.
• I am the awesome skier.
• The leash is my ski rope.

The sides of the road are the wake. Uh, yeah. I usually ski down the middle of the road so my boat can only reach the edges of people's yards when she stops to go stinky.

I keep my elbows bent in, just in case I get an unexpected jerk. I don't always have 100% control over where or how fast we go. Sometimes I have to cross the wake in order to avoid getting tied up around mailboxes. Sometimes I lift the rope so another skier (short obstacle) can pass under. Sometimes I spin around on my trick skis to avoid getting tangled in my ski rope.

It's so much more fun than a regular dog walk! I'm not in this picture because I don't look great in a bikini. To my daughters: I promise to never wear a swimming suit while walking the dog!

On the serious side of life, I took my 11-year old daughter, Alli to a Waterloo Waterhawks ski show on Sunday. It was a special show to honor her friend and classmate, Bodee Peterson, who was killed in a water skiing accident last year. Alli misses Bodee and talks about him a lot.

Students at the University of Northern Iowa started a dance a couple years ago to do at sporting events. Around here, we call it "The Interlude". Bodee loved it. All the kids went up front to dance.

Thank you to the Waterhawks and to everyone who organized the ski show. It was a wonderful way to honor Bodee and to bring together those who miss him!