Crappie galore at Brownlee

We spent two days at Brownlee Reservoir basking in the sun, walking the trails, playing catch, picking wildflowers, hunting turkeys (Jon & Hyrum), and catching TONS of crappie (pronounced "crop E" for those of you non-fisherpeople). The weather was beyond beautiful and we had a fabulous time! Yes, Elise, Idaho is a lot of fun; you should seriously consider joining us!

Lydia took to fishing quite naturally. If you look closely you'll see the fish in the water that she's reeling in.

Lydia enjoyed petting the fish. They were just her size :)

A close up of Miss Lydia reelin' it in.

Jon and Hyrum after fishing with our bucketful of crappie. I didn't get any pictures of Hyrum reeling in fish, which is a shame, because he alone filled over half that bucket. He'd drop his line out and seconds later he'd pull in a fish. That happened over and over again. He's quite the fisherman!

Bless Jon's heart, he spent 3 hours filleting our fish. What a great dad/husband he is! He's very selfless when we go fishing. He takes care of setting up all our poles, changing our lures, taking off our fish, getting our lines untangled, freeing our snag, and all else that goes with fishing. Then when we're done he cleans and fillets the fish and even cooks them!Jon does very little cooking, but any form of meat is his specialty and my weakness so I GLADLY step aside :)

I find it kind of humorous that my childhood memories of fishing are fairly similar with that of what happens in our family now. My memories are of my Dad running from kid to kid getting lines untangled, putting bait on hooks, getting hooks out of trees or body parts, taking fish off, begging us to be quiet so we wouldn't scare the fish, and rarely ever peacefully fishing himself. (Now that I'm older I realize being loud doesn't scare the fish, it annoys everyone around you!) I know there were times when we were younger that he actually did very little fishing and a lot of running from kid to kid. It was a selfless act to take 6 children fishing. Thank you, Dad! You're the BEST! (My husband thanks you also because now I have a love of fishing.) Writing this has made me realize again that so much of what we do as parents is for our children. Our goal is to enjoy time with them while helping them form fun, happy, enjoyable, and lasting memories. Then when it's time for them to be parents, they will naturally do the same for their children and the cycle just keeps going. Isn't the plan of life beautiful!

A short video of Hyrum and Lydia both reeling in a fish.

PS I found a few more pictures from our other camera and thought I would add them just so they can be part of our book.