A Day with Raquel

Okay, y'all. Just so you know, this post is going to be picture-laden. Like, the most picture-filled post I have ever done in my life. :] Thus, if you despise pictures of girls having a blast, then politley click the exit button. ;)

..Still here? Yay. Because here is the 'surprise' I gave a little blurb about yesterday.

I think most of you know of the extremely lovely Miss Raquel, and her little spot on the web, God's Daughter. Her blog is one of those that 'everyone knows about,' :) and loves. However, I'll bet you didn't know that we know each other, and have known each other for about..oh, at least six years. Yesterday, after a little planning and so forth, everything worked out--and she came over, just to spend the day with us! I hadn't really gotten to talk with her/see her personally for at least a year, so this was going to be fun. We had a whole day planned out, complete with canoeing, a tea party, walks, and a photoshoot just for our blogging friends--you! We thought it would be fun to "surprise" our readers with a fun post full of pictures together, just because we know alot of our blogging friends are unaware of our personal friendship. :) Thus...

..The first thing we did when Raquel arrived was head over to the computer for a few moments. She suggested that I do a little post about the "surprise" to come. :) So, there we are, blogging away...together, this time. ;)

..After a little chatting/deciding what to do first, etc., we went out and took a little walk down our road. We stopped by a barnyard and did a mini photoshoot.

^^ This is one of my absolute favorites. <3

..Isn't that blouse cute?? She's so purty. :)

..It was windy. :P

We returned from our walk, and were feeling quite warm. It was around 85 degrees out already, and so even a short walk in the sun was enough to dehydrate. :P After some discussion, we came up with an amazing idea: we could go canoeing at the bay across the road! This bay is extremely flooded after increasing snowmelt and dam let-outs, so, it wasn't going to be smelly and low like it usually would be at this time of year. We changed into appropriate clothing, and set off for the docks.

After boarding our canoe and setting off across the choppy water, we felt instant relief from the heat. The wind felt amazingly cool, and when we pulled up to a drifting dock in the middle of the bay, we had decided against swimming.

^^ See? This dock is like randomly stuck in the middle of the bay. And yes, we are daring to jump. Not into the water, haha...

Hehehe. When we get the camera, we go wild. ;)

We left the "drifting dock" and traveled into what used to be an island. Now, with the flood waters, it has the appearance of an African swamp. The trees are half way under water, and branches obscure the way. We pretended we were on the Nile...:]

^^ Yes, Raquel is atop one of the submerged trees. Isn't this crazy cool? We paddled through this part with many bumps and scrapes...

Manuevering through the jungle {taken by Olivia, who also climbed a tree}

..After about an hour or so on the bay, we returned home, and decided now was the perfect time for our tea party. We changed into nice dresses, and got out the shortbread cookies, lemonade, and vanilla icecream. We set out a blanket on the lawn, and relaxed.

Relaxing...:)

Beautiful friend! <3

After our last photo shoot, we headed indoors, and gathered around the piano. You see, we had this great idea that we could make a little movie of us singing for you, and post it along with our pictures. Unfortunatley, her dad came before we could finish the one we wanted, and thus, that plan didn't work out. :( But, we had fun practicing. :)

Altogether, it was a lovely summer day with Raquel, and we had the greatest of times taking a gazillion photos and planning how we would construct our posts. :) Don't forget to stop by Raquel's and take a look at her picture-filled post, which I am sure will be up soon.

Oh--by the way: Raquel and I were talking, and we came up with another pretty amazing idea which concerns you all. ;) Stay tuned for a few polls and updates...in the meantime, come to my house, y'all! I would love to re-create this day with each of you. <3

P.S. (Thank you to my lovely sister Olivia, who was our main photographer. ;)