Dear to the Heart of the Shepherds!: May 2012

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Fishing Day!

The kids (and mamma) were so excited to go on a family fishing trip! Dani loved her yellow hat that grandma McNeff had given her (she didn't know that they all had hats in the car) She talked about it all the way to the lake!

When we got there Evan saw a duck and tried so hard to get it, but it would swim out too far so then Evan would turn and swim back.

Reed with his line in the water!

Marian getting ready to catch some fish!

The family setting up the poles and casting out!

Now what happened is the only person to really catch the fish was my dad and Karen. They were the only two who could cast out to the center of the lake where there were an abundance of fish. So my dad would cast a line out and turn around to set up another pole and whoever he had given the pole to would be reeling in a fish. Really if we didn't feel a bite after a couple of minutes we were reeling it in and casting it back out because every time my dad cast out you would get bites. So out of the 11 fish that were caught that day 10 of them came from my dad casting the line out and the last one was one that Karen cast out and caught. :o) (well Matt "caught" it, Karen cast it out and Matt had her reel it in) :o)

Here I am with the first "catch" of the day!

The kids loved it!

Dani was so cute, she just sat around with a bag of chips and "helped" everyone catch fish.

Here Grandpa McNeff is helping Reed reel in a fish!

Jeff out trying to see if there were any other hot spots out there. It was so beautiful up there!

Reed and Daddy getting the line ready to cast out again!

Dani with a pole of her own (for a few minutes anyway)

Marian was so excited because she thought she had a fish on the line. In fact I thought she did too the way the pole was bending, but it was just an "octopus" or aquatic plant life that many of us caught.

Here's the fam. fishing

My dad finally got to reel one in that he had cast!

Here is the one that Karen caught (with the help of Matt)

At the very end there was one last fish to be caught as we were all packing up and leaving, and Jeff got the honors of reeling it in. :o)

Here is Reed watching Grandpa take the hook out of the one he helped reel in.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Shepherd Dutch Oven Cook-Off 2012!

This years dutch oven cook off looked like it was going to be a wash out, however, a couple hours in and the sun came out and it warmed up enough to remove at least on layer of clothing :o)

This year the Morris's and Us made the exact same thing, inspired from the same place! Little Eli's baby blessing dinner! Jessie's SIL made a yummy white chili, it was so good we both decided to make it at the cook off! (it wasn't planned that both of us would make the same thing) They both turned out really good, but Chance and Jennafer had one up on us and they had the slightly better version.

The kids at first when it was still rainy and cold.

Marian kept finding moths that were hidden in the rocks (it was cold enough that they were slow enough to catch). She caught several and would carry them around showing everyone.

Aunt Tammy made Apron/Bonnets for the SILs

Roxy and Marian venture out to see how the playground is fairing.

Roxy and her preferred water bowl

The playground after the sun came out and dried up the rain!

Dinner time! Dani was telling this little 2nd cousin of hers that the hot dog was Marian's :o)

Food, food and more food (it was all excellent!) Uncle Dennis's Apricot glazed Pork roast is what won this year for the main dish. It was really really good! So were the black beans from Steve and Jenny, and the Baked beans from Adam (I think that's who did them). Our Chili's were also really good! (even if Jeff did turn the burner on high instead of low and almost burned ours, Thanks to Jennafer for saving the food when she noticed it!)