October Break Fun

It is Monday, but it is October break and there is no school this week. Can you tell that Kaylee is just a little bit excited?

While waiting for the fun to begin she starts taking pictures. You've got to love digital cameras! If you don't then you should really stop clicking onto this blog.

Kaylee takes pictures of flowers in the backyard.

She even manages to find a small, sugar snap pea seedling that squirrel has somehow overlooked. Actually, squirrel might not even like sugar snap peas. So far we have determined that he doesn't seem to like tomatoes or bell peppers but he loves brocolli and cauliflower. Some members of the family who don't care for brocolli and cauliflower are actually cheering squirrel on in his squireliness.

These are pictures of Allie's new bed. She bought it for herself for her birthday this year. Richard brought it home on Friday night and by Saturday evening Matt and Allie had carried all of the pieces upstairs (no small task) and Matt had assembled the bed. Matt got to be the hero for the weekend for his brilliance in figuring out how to put the bed together and I'm sure he will be blessed throughout his life to assemble many more things. (bikes, wagons, pinewood derby cars)

Just when we were starting to run out of ways to entertain ourselves my niece, Kamarah, stopped by with her two children, Maelee and Charlie. Maelee had lots of fun looking at the baby chicks. Sarah enjoyed spending time with Charlie and seeing how big he had grown since she saw him at his baby blessing.

This is one of our favorite places to go. It is a park in Tempe, close to where I grew up. Actually, it is one of my favorite places to go and every once in awhile my family indulges me. Today was my lucky day.

We decided to pick Richard up from work and head to the park for a picnic, family home evening lesson and fishing.

Richard was great at untangling all of the fishing line and getting the poles ready to use.

Here is Matt getting all of the ducks and pigeons a little worked up by feeding them and trying to get them to eat out of his hand.

Paige likes to feed the ducks too.

Here is Sarah giving us her best fishing pose.

Matt seems a little skeptical that there are even fish in this pond, but he does his best to humor us.

Kaylee looks a little worried.

No, Richard hasn't taken up smoking. We are each enjoying a sucker for our family home evening treat.

Richard's patience is rewarded when he catches this 4 inch beauty. It's all about the fun people! And, for anyone wondering, we throw the fish right back into the pond and they swim away.

Here is Richard holding up two fingers to show that he has managed to catch another fish bringing his grand total to two.

Yes! Even I manage to catch one, making the whole night of baiting hooks and smelling like hot dog for the rest of the evening, no matter how many times I wash my hands, totally worth it.

All of a sudden we start having a lot of success. Sarah reels one in.

Kaylee has a false alarm and only manages to reel in these twigs.

But, later in the afternoon, she redeems herself with this whopper of a fish that is so big she needs Matthew to hold it up for her to get her picture taken.

Paige catches a fish and we are all having fun.

Matt has lots of nibbles, but only manages to catch this stick. But what a stick, look at the size of that thing! As darkness sets in we call it a day and head for home. A good time was had by all.