Free Fishing!

We were able to enjoy not one, but two free fishing derby's this spring! On May 7th, Daddy was not able to come home for the weekend so I braved the cold wet spring morning and took the kids by myself. Thank goodness there was lots of helpful and knowledgeable men and women there! I will never claim to be a fisherman and have only done it once or twice as a child. This fact was immediately shown as other people had to help my kids while I watched and learned. The little lake was well stocked with hundreds of trout so all 3 kids caught at least one fish. Care Bear caught hers first and then decided she was done because it was cold and wet. Thankfully they had a big fire going so she decided to stay a little longer.

I think this picture speaks for itself!

Along with fishing, there were activities for the kids to do. They had a prize drawing where all three kids got some pretty good prizes along with coupons for free food to local restaurants.

Jaco entered the casting contest but was beat by last years champion girl!

The next Saturday, May 14th, Daddy was able to join us along with our friends the "W" family. La-La started the day by catching a frog!

La-La and NW had kissie fishies!

La-La patiently stuck with fishing while all the other kids climbed the dirt hill by the lake and played while La-La's diligence payed off with lots of fish!

KW, Care Bear, and HW washing their hands in the "clean" water.

Care Bear's catch!

Jaco refused to touch the fish with his bare hands. He had to hold it with his sweatshirt as a barrier. Hoping this boy will survive being a scout! :-)

Daddy helping Care Bear reel in a catch.

I love Care Bear's look on her face...

This is a most unattractive picture of me, but even I caught a fish! Sshhh...don't tell anyone. Just the kids were supposed to be fishing.

At the end of the day, between the two families, we caught 17 fish. we got together the next day after church for a fish fry!

La-La had so much fun gutting and cleaning the fish. She had no problems getting dirty while the other kids stayed as far from the cleaning station as possible.

We had two great weekends in a row, and you would be proud of me because I even ate some fish!

Horsetail Falls (5-1-11)

Justin moved to our new area on April 1st while the kids and I stuck around until school was out. Sometimes we would go see Daddy and other times, he would come see us! One of the weekends that he came to us, we went on an easy but beautiful family hike. We did the Horsetail Falls loop which led us to two beautiful waterfalls; Ponytail Falls and Horsetail Falls.


Some cool green curly plants!

Dandelion earrings!


The Girls!

Taking a shower in the woods!

Handsome Jaco

Beautiful greenery!

Some part of a skeleton La-La found

Ponytail Falls

The three kids behind the falls

View from behind the falls

Care Bear and Mom looking up at the falls
Jaco behind the falls

We picked up an orphan along the trail...wait that
is just Care Bear covered in black mud from falling under the falls!

Surprise surprise! La-La caught a new pet! Not sure if the frog was as happy as she was!

Horsetail Falls

Muddy wet happy girls!

If you are ever in the Columbia Gorge, I highly recommend this hike, especially with kids. Not long, not hard, and tons of beautiful scenery!

Baby Squirrel

I'm back! We moved June 18th and I finally have a working computer so now it is catch up time...again!

Today's post is inspired by my daughter's love of all creatures and my friend Selina's recent post on squirrels. A couple days before we moved, Cody the dog would not quit barking. I finally sent La-La out to figure out what was going on and she very excitedly reported that Cody had cornered a squirrel. I put the dog away and told the kids to leave the poor scared little critter alone. I should have known better. Asking La-La to stay away from a potential future pet would be like leaving a juicy steak on the ground in front of a starving dog. I finally told her she could look but not touch because it was a wild animal and I didn't know if it was hurt. Her way around me telling her not to touch it? Pick it up with a towel so *technichally* she did not touch him! She put the frightened little critter in a bucket and tried to feed it things like cheese and carrots. After a little while, I pulled La-La aside and talked with her. I told her it looked like a baby squirrel and it probably missed his mama. Somehow I was able to convince her to let the little guy go. She went a little ways off and came back empty handed and broken hearted but happy to know she had done the right thing.