One Big Fish

As our children are getting older we have come to realize how important it is for to do some little family vacations with just us. It is fun to build memories that are special for us to share with one another in year so to come. Last year we took our kids on our very first camping to just with our family. We had a great time, so we decided to back to Yuba Lake. It is a great place to fish if you don't care too much about what kind of fish you catch. We catch and release, so any old fish is good enough for us. We simply enjoy how it feels to bring a fish in. We probably caught close to 30 fish, but we got ONE BIG FISH!

I was so excited to see this fish out of the water. I was a little unsure about holding it, but I figured it may be a long time before I ever get a big fish again.

Hannah had a small barbie fishing pole that she got when we first started fishing when Hannah was four. Well Hannah had caught a couple of fish with her pole on this trip. Paul helped her get everything set up with the pole leaning on a small rock. Hannah was playing close by when all of a sudden there was a tug on her line. Paul told Hannah to hurry to her pole before the fish swam away with it. She reached out to grab the pole and sure enough the pole splashed into the water. Paul was right behind Hannah and ran into the lake in hopes to reach the pole, but the fish was too fast and the water was not very clear. Hannah cried that the fish will forever have to swim around dragging her fishing pole behind. Paul tried to comfort her and explained that lots of times fish are able to wiggle off the hook. Who knows what came of the fish, but Hannah was still not too happy to have lost her fishing pole to a fish at Yuba lake.

Hannah had a wonderful time. One of her favorite parts was putting the fish back in the lake. She would hold on to the fish and slowly loosen her grip until it was a enough that the fish quickly swam away.

Connor did very little fishing, but he sure had a fun time being a little fish. After pulling that big fish out of the water I sure had a difficult time swimming. I am much more comfortable with swimming pools. You can see what is in the water and they check the chemicals every few hours.
The girls had a good time turning themselves into statues.

We really enjoy roasting marshmallows.

We had a beautiful view from our campsite and we had a fabulous time together.

I don't think a mother finds any greater joy than seeing her children smiling and playing together. I am sure that she finds no greater frustration than seeing her kids fight and yell at each other, but such is the balance of life. Opposition in all things allows us to better understand happiness and joy.