A Day at the River

Last weekend, our neighbors brought us some wonderful spoils from a day at the river, we decided to tag along this week.  Here are a few photos from our adventures:

Samantha Jadyn got to ride on the boat
while Josh, Christina, and I stayed on the shore.

One of Josh's shadows.  Christina seems to
think that she should always be within two steps of her daddy.

Christina and I tried to enjoy the quiet time on the dock,
but we ended up finding it difficult to sit still.

Which left Josh with some peaceful "alone time"
while Christina and I took a nap under the shade of a
weeping willow.

This tree shaded Christina and me
as we caught some zzzzz's.

She really doesn't understand why he
ever puts her down.

A peaceful stream that cuts through
trees.

The weather was beautiful.  It didn't rain, but
we had enough cloud coverage to keep the sun
from beating down on us.

All in all, it was a Sunday well-spent.  Relaxing, fun, and we got to spend it together!  Samantha Jadyn was so worn out from all the action they saw on the boat that she passed out on our living room floor:

A good gift from some great neighbors

Our next door neighbors brought some fresh-caught catfish to us last weekend.  What a joyful surprise!  I'd never cleaned a fish before, and was a little nervous with the thought of doing so without having done four hours of research on the subject, but figured a quick 20 minutes with Google and Youtube would have to suffice.  After all, I had four beauties sitting in our mud sink, just waiting for us to gut!

A neighborly gift!

Our 5 year old, Samantha Jadyn, just couldn't wait to see what we do with catfish.

Keeping watch over them.

She helped me prep our kitchen for the cleaning, grabbed her apron and step stool, and waited patiently as I researched how to "skin a cat".

"Enough with the pictures, can we see what
they look like on the inside?"

Good thing I have plenty of old towels that can take the abuse!  This little guy put up a good fight as I tried to break through the skin, peel it off, and rip his head off.  I think I may have coddled him too much before he met his maker.

Please excuse the lack of make up and fabu hair.
I was going to make it a bummy Sunday.

This will make you appreciate the fish
market real quick!

Deep conversations with a decapitated fish.

My husband even got in on the action.  He bought me a beautiful set of knives from The Pampered Chef that we absolutely love.  We both race to use them whenever something comes in my kitchen which needs to be cut.  He got to gut the last two... including the MONSTER of a catfish.  This guy put up the biggest fight of all.

Yum!