Marathon of Fun!

After our Memorial Day weekend of fun (all of the pictures on are my mom's camera so I won't be posting them) we headed to my aunt's house for a few days. My sister, her kids, and my kids along with my grandparents and my mom all invaded my aunt Dot-Dean and Uncle Raymond's house. Great aunts and more cousins dropped in leading to an impromptu family reunion.

Although the kids loved swimming in the pool, I think fishing takes the cake as everyone's favorite memory from our trip. The younger kids seems to enjoy playing with the caught fish in the bucket more than catching them. Archer hovered over the bucket saying "pish, pish, pish, pish, pish..."



Before our trip my little man had made up his mind that he did not like water of any kind unless it was served as a beverage. This just would not do. We are warm-weather, water-loving people. His uncle Jeff tried to persuade him with a boat ride. We could hear him screaming from the other side of the lake.



Patience won out and eventually he settled down. Now LOVES boats, swimming, lakes, ponds, swimming pools, sprinklers, and anything else wet. This boy does nothing half way. It's all or nothing.



Our main goal while fishing with the kiddos was to keep them from falling in. You can imagine with all those little ones how ambitious we were with such a goal (all little ones are not pictured below. There were many.) Notice Ella in the far right hand corner trying to fall in at the same time Archer is trying to escape in a different direction?



Here is Savannah and my cousin Jeff fishing. I don't know where Savannah gets her competitiveness ;) but she wanted to catch the biggest fish every time. She dropped her bait lower and patiently waited for the big ones and was successful. She got a little hard core about it. The other kids would leave to swim and Savannah would hold her post. She even upgraded to a real rod and reel instead of a barbie pole.






This is my cousin's son Caden's first fish ever (my little cousin Justin's kid for those of you who remember him). His expression is adorable in this picture with his Grammy that he calls Mimi.



Mom, Dawn, and I took a sunset paddle boat ride. It's rare the 3 of us get a moment together without the kids.



Next up (as if we need more excitement than swimming, fishing, boat rides, grandparents, great grandparents, cousins, and farm animals) 4 wheeler and mule rides with cousin Jeff.



And then we all came inside and crashed. I do not think it would have been possible to squeeze one more fun thing in. We had such a great time that we decided to make it a yearly event. Luckily my aunt and uncle agreed!