Labor Day 2009

First, the bait must be squished onto the hook.
One of the only things I was helpful with.

Annika soon tired of waiting for help.
She figured it out on her own.

Annika reading herself to cast.

Jaren and Annika casting.
Notice Annika putting her whole body into it.
By the end, Annika was very impressive.
She is a determined little thing.

Then we waited for a bite,

And waited,

And waited,

And waited,

And still we waited.
No one caught anythin this day.

Grace, so much the sixth child
Alleah, so much a first child.

Grace looked awesome. Hannah gave her a sucker in the car on the way up. A sleepy child sucking on a sucker is not a good combo. She ended up with sucker in her hair, all over her face and hands. I tried my best to clean her up. But what do you do? Grace ended up getting really dirty in the dirt as well. Quite the contrast with Alleah. Everytime that girl got dirty, a wipe was whipped out and no evidence that she was dirty was left behind. I'd like to say that I was that attentive a mother as Kelli, but I don't thing I ever was. My babies were always dirty. Grace is the dirtiest of them all. All I can say is that it's a good thing they're water proof. A good bath does wonders. And yes, Grace did get a bath as soon as we got home. I still know how to clean them up.

Jaren so bored he layed down.
I think he was just not feeling well.

Isabel wasn't into the fishing all that much.
But she was into almost everything else.
The firepit, the mud, and the water.
Some how she managed to get mud on her forearms and forehead.
I made her lean over the side of the pond to clean off.

This Labor Day started out rather slow and uneventful. Brent spent the morning golfing with his Dad and brother. After he got home, we tried to move around furniture, some were successful, others not so much. When you move furniture, for me at least, the cleaning bug hits. Cause sometimes there's a mess under the couches or other furniture items. My bug was for the kitchen. I washed walls, and mopped the floor. It's amazing how much more comfortable your home feels with clean walls and clean floors. All that cleaning put us a tad behind for the real even of the day:

FISHING at Vivian Park

As we came around the bend in Provo Canyon we were stunned by the amount of cars that were parked along side the road. My heart sank a little. I hate crowded places. We soon realized that most of the cars there were for the river-rafters. I hadn't seen that many people in bathing suites since we were at the pool last. The parking lots were full and if Brent's family members hadn't stood in a parking spot we wouldn't have found a place to park.
We spent the first part picnicking and chatting about recent events. The kids wanted to go and play on the playground but there were just too many darn people.
It was finally time to fish. We picked the WORSE time of the day to come. It was hot, noisy, and I'm sure the fish were full from the morning's fisherman. But we persisted. Not one person in our party caught a fish. And still we persisted. But both Jaren and Annika mastered the art of casting. Annika, I have to say, was pretty impressive. The other kids had help from Grandpa, Brent, Cory, and even I helped. I helped more with putting bait on the hooks. After about an hour a few fish to the bait, but lost them our attempts to reel them in. Tricky fish. This teasing caused Grandpa Woody to cast a few more lines causing the rest of us to painfully wait for him. We were ready to go eat some Blackberry cobbler that Donna had made.

After 2 more cast by Grandpa Woody we drove to his house for some home made Blackberry cobbler. A childhood favorite of Brent's. It was delicious. Driving home we were thankful that we were heading south. Northbound was packed, and moving quite slow.

This Labor Day I am thankful that my husband still has a job. And not only a job, but one that allows me to stay home and be with my kids and take care of the home. I know that Brent works hard every single day and I am grateful to him for that commitment and dedication to us.