fishing with grandpa in virginia

I am finding it harder this year to keep up the blog than the other years.  I don't think it's a difference in the amount of free time.  Maybe it's because most of these pictures already were on Facebook, I don't feel the urgency?  I'm sad that I'm not keeping it current because there's lots of little stories that I am forgetting and I don't want this just to be a photo album.  But I do want to keep a record, so here are our photos and some memories from our annual summer trip back East.

We spent the week before the 4th of July in Virginia, on the river with my dad.  The theme of the week was fishing.  Owen wanted to earn his fishing belt loop and pin for cub scouts, and the basic requirements were to do some fishing, and learn about fishing.  We came to the right place.  Grandpa taught Owen casting skills from the porch and then from the pier and then from the boat.  They used lures and bait.  Owen learned that fisherman have to touch both fish and bait.  Owen drew a fish and learned about all the body parts, with help from Grandpa's fishing encyclopedia.  They fished every day, catching king fish, other small fish, and one day they caught a sea turtle.  Ben tried some, too, and caught a crab. Grandpa sent Owen a rod and fishing gear for his birthday, and he got to use it on our trip to Diamond lake at the end of the summer.  AND- he earned his cub scout belt loop and pin.

We went swimming each day, either at the marina's pool, the neighbor's beach or dad's beach.  Both boys enjoyed swimming in the river this year- both a lot braver than they'd been in the past.  Owen is a pretty good swimmer now and really enjoyed it.  Ben is excellent in an inner tube.  The boys caught fireflies, watched sunsets, and got to drive the mower.  They loved going out in Dad's boat, even when it was a little choppy, and we enjoyed a paddle in the canoe.  Owen help put together dad's father's day gift- a remote control "swimming" inflatable fish, and we all had a good time with that.

We had a big storm one night before we left, with massive winds that caused all sorts of issues in the area, including losing power.  Dad's generator kept the key stuff working, but we did escape to the movies to enjoy some air conditioning.  All five of us enjoyed seeing Brave.  The power came back on about the same time Dad dropped us off at the airport.