Fun Family Fishing & a Photo Shoot

Tuesday, after I got home from picking up the 20 year old from the bus station, we decided to go out and enjoy the outdoors. We loaded up the family and fishing gear, stopped at Subway for some picnic food, and hit the road. We are fortunate here. We can be to about 10 different lakes in anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Not sure why they all look so serious in that picture. Sort of the deer in the headlights effect.

This is what they looked like for most of the drive ... goofy. We went to one of the lakes that is farther away, so it took us about 20 minutes to drive there. But not a lot of people go there - especially midweek - so it was very peaceful.

And beautiful. This is zoomed in across the lake. The lake actually extends much farther than it looks - there is a narrow passageway where the gap in the trees is, allowing boats to go through. You have to be extremely careful, and navigate through the narrows practically not moving at all because there are huge boulders that will kill your boat. Thankfully the lakes are very clear here and you can see clear to the bottom, so the boulders are easy to see... easier to see than to miss.

Anyway, it is a beautiful lake. I enjoy just getting away from town and being out at the lake. Seems like it calms me down just to be there. I think it's just the idea of getting away from the daily grind and breathing cool, fresh mountain air.

It was such a calm, peaceful night...

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the evening. It looks very calm and relaxing, but the 7 year old was holding onto the 2 year old because the two year old kept taking off toward the bridge at a full speed run.

He's afraid of nearly everything, but I would have been happier if he had shown a little more respect for the danger of the bridge. There's no water under it - we fished from down below here, but it would have been a pretty big fall.

Here's a view from below the bridge. It was at least a 12-15 foot drop. I liked the way the sun was peeking through under it.

Once we got there, everybody was in a rush to get fishing. I love that our kids enjoy the outdoors as much as we do. Of course everyone wants help right away so they can start fishing.

This is the most accurate picture of my husband I can think of. In fact, it probably the one picture I have of him that best sums him up :)

Our daughter doesn't have a fishing license this year. She didn't feel like she would get enough use out of one, so never got around to buying one. So we put her in charge of helping the boys.

They both love to fish, but aren't quite to the point of being able to do it all themselves. She gets them all rigged up and then casts for the two year old, and they go to it.

Just look at that excitement!

Speaking of excitement... we had some exciting moments, until we figured out the 7 year old was snagged on the bottom :)

Same problem here, though it's a fun picture. We all kept getting snagged, and lost several hooks :(

My daughter's real passion is photography. While the boys fished, and then ate their picnic dinner, she roamed around and took pictures.

She got some great shots.

Then she found a fence and decided to try to get some good pictures of the boys.

She told him to pose like "The Thinker." He just looked at her with a blank stare. Hard to pose like something you've never heard of ;)

We found an awesome, huge tree with a "playhouse" underneath it. The boys had great fun running around under it.


We wanted to get the baby in on the action, but he wasn't real happy about it. He had been sleeping in the truck for most of the time, and thought being awake ought to equate to being fed...

The two year old was trying to comfort him. Sweet brothers ;)

Here's a silly one for you ;)

I wanted a picture of all the kids together, so I took these next few. This one was the best, despite the crying 2 year old. He was over it by then.

I like this casual, scattered look :)

Most of the pictures turned out more like this - ha. Do you know how hard it is to get five kids to all stand still and smile at the same time???