And they think we're just fishin'...

Jason is a member of his works Rod & Reel club, and today was their annual family fishing derby. Last year just Jason and Xander went, Xander caught a huge fish last year and won his age group! No such luck today, but we all had a great time anyway.

Jason bought this hat for his Dad when we were in Hawaii celebrating our 1 year anniversary. When his Dad passed away Jason kept the hat, he doesn't often have an occasion to wear it, but he brought it today. Haddie really fell in love with the hat, she ended up wearing it most of the day...and SHE caught the most fish, Hmmm ;)

She could totally pass for a cute lil country girl.

Should have got all the poles ready to rock last night...patience was hard to come by for the kiddos this morning.

Dad got the kids poles in and then the waiting, and whining, started LOL.

Jericho and Xander were obviously there to scare away all the fish...they wouldn't leave their poles alone for anything. Well, until hot dogs, chips and cookies got served.

Family fun...I love it! We are so fortunate to be able to spend so much quality time together, my kids are growing up the way I wish I could of as a kid. I hope we are doing a good job of instilling the importance of family, and appreciating your family...I think that goes a long way in raising kind, helpful, happy...just all around good human beings.

Hayden caught our first fish of the day! She ended up getting 2 (though the second one was on Lily's pole.) Lily got 1 and Xan got 1...thankfully our only kid that didn't catch a fish was the one that really didn't care all that much.

I really love some of these in black and white.

We didn't get any whoppers today, we actually tried to throw a couple of ours back but they were too stunned or damaged to swim away, so we passed them on to friends who were there and will eat the fish...even small ones. When we got home fishless Haddie was pretty ticked. So next year it looks like we will be keeping and eating whatever we catch. Hopefully we can talk her out of it, I really enjoy fishing...but prefer catch and release myself.

Wow...nice job Hayden!

Lily Bug got our second catch. She would not take her eyes off that wiggling fish to look at the camera Hahaha.

I'm watching you fish...don't do anything weird.

Getting a little bored with this fishing business.

I love how these turned out.

Xander finally caught one!

Next Haddie (and sort of Lily since it was her unattended pole that Hayden grabbed when the fish bit) got her second fish of the day. This one wasn't a trout though. This was a baby Largemouth bass...lucky fish got thrown back and seemed to swim away fine. May you live to get caught another day little dude.

My FAVORITE photos of the day...these turned out so great, well as great as a non-pro can do I think :) And yes, I think one of these will end up a canvas on my wall...somewhere. Just got to pick which one, and color or black and white.
Help?! Jason is totally useless in these very serious situations LOL.

I kinda like the old more country feel the black and white gives...plus it kind of tones down the kids very different and pretty bright clothing choices LOL.

I just love them all so much!

The kids each won a small bag of raffle prizes...they were fans.

Such a lovely day, until next year!