Things we did this weekend.

Thursday night:
Went to park with boys and Holly's kids and Chad and Eli and Fletcher and Zach and Josiah while the lady-folk had a scrap-booking party. No major mishaps. Kids played well together except for the throwing of the gravel.

Friday Morning. Woke up at 5:00 AM. Chad and I went fishing and canoeing at Mertes landing near the Heron Rookery. Caught some sunfish and then caught two large Northerns... well almost. I pulled the larger (approx 30") northern pike to the boat and when we were trying to situate to pull it in the Northern took off and snapped my line and took with it a beautiful spinner bait. I would have been happy if not for the loss of the spinner bait because I got to see the fish and didn't have to take the fish off of a hook without a pliers (the pliers were left at home). It was as good as "a catch" to me. Whether I get credit for it isn't important (to me). I still got the thrill but MAN! that was a pretty lure. Bummed about that.

Friday Afternoon-worked half a day. Friday night. Just hung out and talked. Went with Chad to get his Fishing license.

Saturday Morning: Woke up at 5:00 AM. Chad, Eli, and I went fishing from the canoe again at Mertes. Eli woke up at 4:30 AM! Eli caught his first fish and didn't fall out of the canoe even once! I caught 3 Northerns and a fat bass.... fat bass... that sounds funny...This time I remembered the needle nose pliers and I didn't loose any lures.

Chad and fam. left mid morning. We pretty much just hung out but then went to the Steamboat days Carnival which wasn't really that great. Owen rode some rides. Sebby rode on one with Owen and started freaking so the carnie stopped the ride and got him out. It was funny watching Owen sit on the rides because he seemed so serious trying to figure out how all these rides were working. He was constantly trying to see the gears and such while he was sitting in the rides.

Sunday we went to church and then watched the Parade which was pretty awesome. There was a little bit of everything. Biplanes and old war planes started off the festivities by flying overhead. I might post some pictures of that.

And last but not least was the most satisfying event of the weekend. The boys and I came across a fishing pole that had washed ashore in a big tangled mess last summer some time. It looked like the pole had been at the bottom of the river for quite a while. This fishing pole has been sitting in my garage for about a year now and had almost been thrown in the garbage a few times because cranking the reel was almost impossible. I instead decided to clean it out on Sunday and with a bunch of Q-tips, some WD-40, Soap, and paper towels. I now am the proud owner of a nice Shakespeare reel that I let Owen use to fish with later that night. It was actually pretty cool because it's the type of reel that you have to rap your finger around a tab and the line and then release as you cast so it's a little complicated and Owen figured it out with a little guidance. His hands are just barely big enough to rap around the pole handle and the tab and he has to use two hand to get it released but he was able to cast it and catch two fish with it on Sunday night. That was satisfying.