Summer Is the Best--Part VI/Summer Comes To a Close :(

My brother and his family came to visit this summer.  They couldn't stay long, but I had fun while they were here!  Just wished I'd taken more pictures.

Here are Jacob and Jason.  They had a lot of fun together, I'm glad they're to an age where they like to play with each other.  Love these kids!

Trevor flew his little jet on it's maiden voyage while they were here.  I love that Trevor has fun hobbies that the kids love, too.

We went to a movie.  I know, exciting.  The kids entertained themselves while we waited for the movie to start by trapping each other in these little basket things.

We also went to Virginia City while they were here.  It's a cool little ghost town.  We had to drive a ways to get there and I felt bad it turned out like it did because I underestimated the driving time and we didn't get to spend much time there before we had to get back for an appointment.  Nice.


I love spending time with my brother and his family.  They're so much fun to hang out with. I just wish we lived closer!!

After they had to leave to get home, we went to the Strupp Family Reunion in Island Park.  That was a good time.  I was excited all Trevor's brothers and sisters could make it.  We played on the reservoir in this boat we rented.  One morning after the boat had been tied to the dock, we came out and there was a mink in the boat.  It had dragged some half eaten crawdads in, too.  We (Bryson and Trevor) cleaned up his crawdad mess...and a different mess...and we tried to get the mink out but he was hiding in the front of the boat under the seats and we couldn't get him out.  We decided we'd just go water skiing and see what happened.  I went first.  It was funny to see the mink run up to the side of the boat and jump out into the water.  We saw it later, too. I assume it was the same one since he lives by that dock.  The kids chased him awhile and tried to catch it.  They didn't.  I guess that's good--they probably would've gotten rabies or something.  No pictures of the mink, though.  Boo.

We had a surprise birthday party for Trevor's dad.  This is one of the many things you can do with a party hat.  Aunt Lisa is such a fun aunt!

That's the extent of the pictures I got at the family reunion.  I'm waiting on some promises to email other's pictures.

This is what we did for Labor Day.  We have a little fishing boat that we bought, and it's really pretty nice to water ski and tube with, too.  We didn't know if it would pull us up on a ski, but it pulled us right out of the water and it's really fun to ski behind!  The kids didn't want to get off the tube all day.  Except Ashley...she wasn't a fan.  It's not a really clear picture, but she's about as happy as she looks.  Kind of weird because she wanted to go on all the rides at Lagoon, but the tube is "too fast" for her.  Whatever.  

The first day of school.  Ashley goes to a different school, and Jason (obviously) hadn't started school yet in this picture.  The kids like school and their teachers a lot.  I'm not sure I was ready for summer to be over yet.

Here's Jason's first day :)

Random picture on my phone.  I was driving to pick up my V.T. partner, and I saw these three bucks in someone's yard.  The part I thought was weird were all these bucks hanging out together. No does in sight.  Weird.

Summer Is the Best---Part V

After leaving the kids in Utah for Grandma and Grandpa to take care of, I went to the annual Redneck Fishing Tournament with Trevor and The Johnson's...it's not really a place for kids...a lot of drunk people around that weekend...

Everyone needs to experience this at least once in their lives.  Put it on your bucket list. Google "Redneck Fishing Tournament" and read about it.  It's in Bath, Illinois--a town of 350 people, but this tournament is quite the attraction and there are MANY more people in Bath the weekend of the tournament. They're trying to rid the river of Silver Asian Carp because they're taking over. They don't want them to reach the great lakes. In spite of their efforts, the fish get closer and closer each year.

You may have seen videos of these fish on America's Funniest Videos where the fish jump out of the water--a lot of times right in the boat.  It's crazy.  You don't need a pole, just a net (and the website says a baseball bat :) )  They don't know why the fish jump, but it has something to do with the vibration or noise of the boat engine.  The fish jump right behind boats where the engine is.  The best way to catch fish is to stay right on the tail of another boat...and I mean RIGHT next to them--like 6 feet from the boat in front of you--so you can net them as they jump out of the water.  However, it's risky because you get hit by these huge fish as they jump.  They've had broken noses and fingers, etc. at this tournament each year.  We all got hit a few times, Marci had the most hits.  A couple years ago when we went, Trevor's legs got cuts all over from getting hit with fish.  They jump in the boat often, and those fish are MOVING.  Sometimes you drive through a school of fish and there are so many fish jumping, it's all you can do to keep from getting hit.  You just drop your net and cover your head.  Good times. Seriously. You need to try it.

We all dressed in our redneck gear to go along with the redneck theme.  You should see some of the costumes people wear.  It's a circus for sure.

There are two heats each day, two hours each.  We only fished in the two Friday heats and the Saturday morning heat.  Then we had to get going because we had to drive 24 hours straight so Trevor and Jared could make it back for work Monday morning.

Here are some pictures:

I know the picture is blurry, but this reminds me of our trip.  We saw this huge sugar daddy at a gas station early in the trip.  They bet me I couldn't eat the whole thing by the time the trip was over.  It was hard, but I made it.  Mission accomplished.  It was good, too.

I love this girl.  She makes me laugh really hard.  We needed some temporary tattoos to complete our redneck costumes.  This is what Marci picked.

The view from our boat as we waited for one of the Friday heats to start.  Judging from how clean everyone still is, it's probably the very first heat. It looked like this both directions, but the Saturday heat was MUCH more busy with the boats packed more tightly and people EVERYWHERE.

After each heat, they would count everyone's fish and dump them in these bins.  Then use a fork lift to lift them into a truck (a diesel) and haul them off.  We only counted our fish one of the heats, the rest of them we didn't want to wait in line and we knew we wouldn't win since we only had 4 people in our boat.  So we just dumped them in the bin.  We caught 180 fish in one heat. 

This is the biggest fish we "caught".  It jumped right in our boat.  Not only that, but right in the bin we were using to hold our fish.  It had a death wish, I guess.

How filthy we are after a heat.  Those fish are so slimy and scaly.  You have dried scales all over and this is what the slime looks like after it dries.  We spent a lot of time in the shower after the heats.

One of the times Marci got hit with a fish.  She was wearing a baseball face mask even.  The fish knocked her over!  Poor girl.  She took it like a champ, though. (Marci...not the fish.)

The end of our trip.  The whole weekend I was laughing uncontrollably like in this picture.  We stopped at a gas station to get gas and they had a Sinclair dinosaur there.  Naturally we climbed on and took a picture.

I don't know how I composed myself long enough to get a normal picture.  It makes me smile just to remember that weekend.  Now go google the tournament and mark it on next years calendar.  It's that much fun.

Summer Is the Best---Part IV

One day while at Grandma's house, we took the kids to Lagoon.  Grandma Madsen came to help out with all the kids I wanted to take :)  Tyler, Hailey, Ashley, Jason, cousins Jared, Nathan and Natalie all came to have a fun filled day at Lagoon.  Here are some pictures to document our fun:

Hailey's really having a good time, she just thinks it's funny to look like she's not :)

Nathan and Ashley on the Spider.  I was surprised at how many crazy rides they wanted to go on.

Natalie and Jason--they loved riding together on some of the smaller rides.  When the kids wanted to go on the big rides, I went with them and Grandma stayed with Natalie and Jason.

The older boys would humor the younger kids and ride the little rides with them (they loved it...)

This may be my favorite face.  I think this girl is darling.  She looks a little scared, but she really wasn't.  I turned and said: "smile!" and this is the look she gave me.

 All the kids on a swing ride.  

Tyler and Hailey on the Colossus.  They loved this ride!  They wanted to keep riding it over and over, but I told them we should try other rides, too.  Ashley went on it, too.  She was barely tall enough.

We also took the kids to 7 peaks.  I don't keep my phone with me to take pictures with at water parks.  So this is all you get.