Fourth of July and Fishing!

Can you believe that the Fourth of July has already come and gone?  This summer is just flying by!

For our Fourth it was CRAZY hot out!  There were heat index warnings saying that with humidity it could feel as hot at 110 degrees!  We still went ahead with our plans, though.  The parade was at 9:00 AM and it wasn't super hot yet, so we rode our bikes down to the parade route.  Much easier than trying to find parking!  We pulled up a curb and watched the parade go by!

The kids entertained themselves with flags while waiting for the parade to start:

There were two floats in the parade that were handing out Freezie Pops.  The kids were so excited!

Like any good parade, there was tons of candy!  Nathan even got in on the action this year!

I don't know what prompted this, but the kids were all about love and hugs!  Too precious!  :)

The rest of our Fourth was spent hanging out at our friends house.  They had a cook out for lunch and dinner, a water balloon fight, and karaoke!  It was a blast!

Our weekend was a fun one.  We had visitors at our house - Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Marie came to visit for the the weekend and brought the boat.  We did our annual fishing trip on Lake Winnebago on Saturday morning.  Nathan was super pumped to use his new Batman fishing pole that he got for his birthday.

The kids are safely secure in their life jackets and ready to get on the boat!

Nathan was so excited to go fishin'!

Nathan took a tun driving the boat:

Once we found a good spot to put our lines in, the kids were down to business!  Mads with her Dora pole...

... and Nate with his Batman pole! 

Video of Nathan's first fishing trip:

Now, this next picture is misleading.  Andrew caught the first fish of the day, a sheepshead.  We wanted to show it to Nathan, so I was holding the fish.  I take no credit for catching the fish, I actually didn't catch a single one all day!

Soon after Nathan inspected the fish he told us he wanted a nap and fell asleep on my lap.  He actually took two naps on the boat!  What a perfect place to nap, though - the swaying of the boat, the warm sun and the breeze blowing - I was jealous!  :)

The next action in the boat was a fish on Maddie's pole!  She was nervous to reel it in herself, so Andrew helped bring the fish into the boat.

It was a bluegill!!  We only caught two keepers, and Maddie's bluegill was one of them!!

The Josephs family fisher-people!

Mads did get the chance to reel in a fish, though.  Grandpa got a fish on the line and handed the pole to Mads to bring the fish in.  She did a pretty good job!

Mads was even able to help out baiting the hooks.  When Andrew needed a worm she'd reach into the box and grab one right out!

WORMS!  :)

While we weren't able to go swimming (the water was too choppy) we still had a super fun time fishing and hanging out with Grandpa & Grandma!