Fountain and Park Fun

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I have lived in this city my entire life and I do not know everything that is in it.
I did not know that a cool fountain that kids could splash in existed.
I also did not know a playground was located right next to it.
It is in Riverside Park.
I know where Riverside Park is....I just have never been in Riverside park.....
even though I did my student teaching at Riverside.....
The power of observation people, it's a good thing. =)
Anyway......
My sister Dianna took her and our brother's boys to it last week.
They had a ton of fun!
So, she invited my sister Mary, me and our kids to go with her this week.
I wasn't too sure how well Lily would like it.
She is not a fan of sprinklers.
Camden showed her the ropes though, and I think she really enjoyed it after she got used to it.

There was no "getting used to it" for the boys though......

It was all or nothing for them!

The playground is literally right next to the fountains.

Cooper and Carson showed my boys that their wet swim trunks make you go down the slides fast!!
They loved it!

Lily liked climbing up this net.

Then is was back to the fountains....

.....and back to the playground.....

..and back to the fountains....

After several times of running back and forth, we settled the kids down for a picnic.

Thanks Dianna for inviting us!

The kids had SO much fun!

Fishing From the Boat

On Wednesday morning while we were in Branson, we rented a boat and went out on Table Rock Lake.
It was the first boat ride for Lily and I think it was the first boat ride for Riley too.
Zach has been on a boat, but he hasn't been on one in years.
Riley and Zach loved being on the boat and they were really excited when Grandpa started to go fast!
Lily on the other hand, was not too crazy about it at first.

Once we got to our first fishing spot, she decided it wasn't too bad.

The boys couldn't wait to start fishing!

I love this picture of Zach. =)

My three fishers!

After what seemed like forever, Zach caught a fish!!

He was SO excited!!

Here is Jeff showing him how to get it off of the hook.

Such a good Daddy.

Not long after that, Riley caught one!

This is how Lily felt about the whole experience....

hot, and not fun when you don't catch anything.

We explained to her that she might want to leave her pole in the water longer than five seconds, and she might catch something. (this little piece of advice will be funny later on....)

Then Zach caught his second fish!!

Lily was getting a tad frustrated with this whole fishing thing, so Daddy helped her.

Her very first fish!!!!

Ever!

Yeah Lily!!

After that, we decided to move to another spot.

Mainly because we were HOT!

We were looking for shade. =)

The kids liked the cool breeze from this ride.

Here is Riley being our bartender for the ride. ;-)

Just kidding, it was just ice in his cup.

We had barely gotten our poles in the water when Lily caught her second fish!

Then Riley caught his second.....and third fish!!!

Zach was getting a little frustrated that his little brother & sister were showing him up.

Jeff let him borrow his big pole and Zach caught his third fish.

By this time Lily was getting a little bit bored by this whole fishing thing.

Actually I am surprised at how good she was for the four hours we were out there.

To make the time go faster for her, we would take turns throwing out her line, and let her reel it back in.

That was her favorite part, the reeling back in part.

By this time we were throwing her line out really far so it took longer for her to reel it in.

Remember when I gave her that great piece of advice about leaving her pole in the water & not just reeling her line back in?

Well, one of the times she reeled her line back in, she yelled out, "I caught a fish!"

No one really believed her because we had all been helping the boys and not really paying attention to what she was doing.......

until Sheril (my mother-in-law) said, "Hey! You really did catch a fish!"

We all looked over & on the end of Lily's pole was a fish!

She had reeled it all the way in by herself!

It was SO funny!

This is Lily's third fish, and the first one she caught ALL BY HERSELF!

She even threw it back in by herself. =)

After that it was time to head back, which was a good thing because it was starting to get hot, and the kids were getting tired and hungry.

We had a great time out on the boat.

I was so happy that the kids caught some fish, and it was a fun way to spend one of the days of our vacation.

Summer Randomness

Here are just a few things we have been doing this summer.
The boys took swimming lessons:

Zach moved up to level 3 and Riley moved up to level 2!

Sidewalk paint:

Riding in Granddad's new trailer (made by Uncle Bill) just for the grandkids!

Bowling!!

Those are just a few things that have been keeping us busy lately.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!!