You get a line, I'll get a pole

I always get picture order WAY mixed up on here. This should have been more of the last picture...but ya know..

Lately we've been trying our hand out at crawdad fishing up at Ririe Reservoir. It has been a pretty fun family activity. . . especially the time when the boat quit when we were with my brother and his family. We ended up being towed back to the dock. :)

Our last trip though, was less eventful as far as technical difficulties, and way more eventful on the harvest of crawdads. We caught 10! a record for us.

See? They are strange little creatures, but that is part of the fun of it. We catch them with bacon and reel them in very slowly. I think the anticipation is a little greater fishing for these guys than with fish .
Cute little girlies in their life jackets.

Lily can be a wiggly mess on the boat, but she is awfully cute!!

Drew had the best luck and would catch 2 crawdads at a time in his net.

Lily loves to drive with her dad!

First catch of the night.

Anticipation is brimming.

Madelyn striking a pose!

What keeps these little guys entertained is mostly food and watching the crawdads crawl around in the bucket.

I was worried that we had so many crawdads and no one would want to eat them. I tried some with Jed the last time we caught a couple, they taste a lot like shrimp. But I don't like shrimp or anything that lives in the water for that matter..... But Drew and Madelyn surprised me. Madelyn loved them. Drew liked them. Hannah did not like them. :) When they are cooked those little crawdads turn bright red (refer to first picture). They look a lot more appetizing when they are cooked!

Following our crawdad adventure, we all packed up and went outside to sleep on the tramp! The kids have been so excited to sleep on it ever since their dad and I related our stories of sleeping on the tramp growing up. We finally did it.

Setting up. It turned out to be a rather chilly yet clear night. The stars were beautiful, and we enjoyed star gazing together. Drew and Madelyn like to find the Big Dipper. It was pretty fun to all be bunched up together on the trampoline.

Lily was pretty hyper and hit her second wind. Hannah thought it was funny to randomly get out of her sleeping bag and jump. Finally, everyone dozed off--except for me. I discovered I would be the world's worst pioneer. I could not sleep a wink because I kept thinking that Hannah and Lily were freezing. I constantly was checking them and feeling their cold cheeks and pulling up their blankets. I witnessed 8 shooting stars, studied the milky way, and watched as the stars slowly moved across the sky in my solitary waking hours. That night sky really is beautiful. Finally Lily started being a little fussy and Jed told me to take her in. I did. And I saw on the clock when I got in the house it was 3 AM!!!!!!! Oh my goodness.

But with kids as excited as this to sleep on the tramp, of course they are asking to do it again! And I will probably consent, when I am able to catch up on some Zzzzzzzz's. :)