Remembering Rob

Tim and I have many, many memories with Rob, but I think the greatest moments we spent with Rob were spent out on the boat. Rob taught us to wakeboard during the summer of 2006 and we have been loving the great outdoors, Milford Lake, boating and wakeboarding ever since. This video footage was taken the during the summer of 2006, shortly after Rob bought his boat. I feel the need to offer this disclaimer on Rob's behalf: we were all learning to wakeboard the summer this footage was taken, Rob included. Also, it was a pretty choppy day out there when we shot this film, though it is not completely visible in the footage. I remember the guys sort of whining about it that day. At any rate, Rob can wakeboard circles around all of us and definitely learned some new skills since this was taken. Rob would probably want anyone viewing this video to know that he was an awesome wakeboarder :)

Remembering Rob Yllescas

It is with a heavy heart that I write this entry today. Yesterday, our dear friend, Rob Yllescas passed away after a a hard-fought battle with injuries sustained in Afghanistan last month. I simply do not have the words to express the level of grief and sympathy that I feel for Rob's wife, Dena and their two little girls, Julia and Eva. Last night as I got home and spent sometime alone thinking about Rob and the impact that he has had on our life, I started to go through the photographs and videos that we have of some wonderful memories shared with the Yllescas family. I am completely at a loss for words to express the emptiness that Rob's passing will bring to our family, but I am still filled with several good years of warm memories. I have created this video as a tribute to Rob and the wonderful memories that he has left with Tim and I.

I also have some video footage of Rob from the first summer he had his boat (his pride and joy) and we were all learning to wakeboard. Rob is the one who fueled our passion for boating and wakeboarding and prompted us to buy our boat and continue wakeboarding. I will never get on our boat again without a warm memory of Rob and that summer of 2006 when we spent every weekend together. I'll never forget how Rob used to talk about getting his boat nonstop thoughout our deployment together in 2005. I used to just listen to him talk about how "good things were going to be" when he got back to the US and saw his family and bought the boat he had been dreaming about. It wasn't until I actually started spending time on the boat every weekend that I really began to enjoy it and share Rob's passion. I will get the wakeboarding video posted as soon as I get it rendered.