Rain on our Parade!

After our trip to Alexandria Bay we only had  Monday evening and Tuesday left before Dennis and the family headed back to Iowa.   We wasted no time at all.  Dennis, Rich, Dalton and Chauna were off to do more fishing.  They requested that we hold off dinner until about 9:00 to give them time to fish until dark.    There was a lot of crappie, shell cracker etc. big enough for keeping.  And to add to his fish tales when he gets home, he can show everyone his 15 inch Bass.  And Dennis caught his big one as well.......a 16 1/2 inch Bass.  Nice job guys!

Tuesday - their last day with us, the weather was terrible!  It was cold, very windy and it rained most of the day.  Dennis and the two kids took the boat out in the afternoon to see if they could add to their fish count.....but the choppy water and wind brought them back a little while later with no great fish tales........they only caught a couple small fish.   Below the guys are busy cleaning  their catch as Dalton supervises......... I'm not positive of this count, but between the four of them they caught somewhere around 54 or 55 fish!  

 While the guys were fishing, Crystal was preparing dinner for all of us, in between she and I playing Mexican Train.  She heated charcoals in the grill and when they were gray, transferred them to be bottom and top of a dutch oven where she combined Frito's/ground beef, seasoning, cheese and salsa to create an excellent Mock Enchiladasfor all of us.  Prior to that she had made a delicious fruit bunt cake in the dutch oven that we topped with whip cream and had for dessert after dinner.  

With the weather so bad on Tuesday, we were pretty much cooped up inside most of the day.  At lunch time, Dennis cooked up their fish.  Above Dalton enjoys his catch.  We played a lot of games that day, UNO, SkipBo, Yahtzee and Mexican Train.  They headed out to get some souvenirs, and Chauna and Crystal are into Geo caching so they made a trip over to Alexandria/Chippewa Bay..

Above I'm preparing Chicken for our dinner Sunday evening.  The oven is very small so I breaded and baked half and barbecued the other half on the stove.   Too wet and rainy to cook outside.  We added a kettle of salt potatoes and some baked beans .  By the time the chicken was done, it was sooooooooo hot in our cabin that we carried everything to theirs to eat.  As I headed back for the last items it poured!!!!!!  And everyone got a good laugh!

They would be heading out very early on Wednesday morning so, we headed back to our cabin about 9:30.  But before  the day's end we made sure we got a few more family photo's.  Below is our three generation of men, with Dalton (age 16), Dennis (45) and Rich  (65).   Wow - are they handsome!  We have a great photo of Dennis and Rich and his dad - so we need to find a way to crop Dalton into that picture.  The other photo is Rich and I with Dalton and Chauna.  I guess Rich is right.......I'll never grow up.  I am indeed very short, especially when I tell you that Chauna is on her knees!!!

They were on the road before 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday............and our family vacation had come to an end.  Time went by way too fast.  But we are so thankful that we could spend this time with the people that we love the most.  We got an e-mail from Dennis about 8:30 that evening that they had made it home safely.    This was so much fun, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.  Maybe we should start planning this again for next year???