Henry's Vacation - Part I

Captain Hank driving the pontoon boat with Papaw

 

Last week was Henry's 1st "real" vacation, meaning we didn't have to pay for daycare for 1 whole week, woohoo!  At Henry's daycare each kid is allowed 5 days for vacation each year but the trick is you have to use it all at once.  That's hard for us to do since we're never out of town for 5 work days in a row!

Cousin Emma's (almost 12) turn to drive the boat on the Mississippi River

Henry spent his week of fun at Papaw and Nana's cabin in Bellevue, Iowa.  Thanks again Papaw and Nana!  He spent the first couple of days with just Papaw and Nana.  Then the rest of us showed up: Joe and I, the Swayne's and cousin Emma (from California).

 

On the morning of the 4th of July, it was Emma's idea to go fishing on the dock. Henry decided he needed to go fishing too. Within 5 minutes of casting Henry's line, he had a bite!  Beginners always have all the luck! 

Henry's 1st fish he has ever caught!

 

A young sheepshead

 

Not too long after Papaw fixed up Henry's pole again Henry had another bite...

 

...this time Henry caught a bluegill! 

 

Alright, Mommy's favorite fish to eat and catch!

Emma still had no bites!  Papaw reminded me of why he didn't have many chances to fish when he took my sisters and I out when we were little!  He was too busy fixing up our poles and taking fish off the hooks.  This is so true!

 

Henry was so excited about the fish he caught.  He later described it as: 

"I catched 2 fish!  Papaw taked the stuff out of the bluegill.  Then we ated the bluegill." 

Henry currently adds "ed" to most of his verbs.

 

Later, Emma's luck changed and she did catch a fish, another sheepshead.

 

After fishing, we headed up a couple of cabins to gather with the neighbors for a 4th of July potluck.  Our cabin neighbors were so kind to invite everybody over for a potluck since the river has been quite high and flooding lately.  They wanted everybody to enjoy an outdoor picnic rather than looking at the water in their yards or cleaning up all that the river left behind. 

 

Emma and Henry decided they wanted to fish again so they headed back to get the gear...

Fishin' buddies!

You can see the river was still in some neighbors yards.

Here you can see how high the river is.  We usually have lots of beach in July.

Henry did take time out from fishing to eat a slice of watermelon cake that had a big "ant" on it!

 

Later that afternoon the Swayne's a crew of 6 showed up at the cabin ready for lots o' fun! 

A really happy aunt Jennie and Henry's cousins:

Zack (almost 10), George (7), Andy (5) and Mary (21 mths)

 

Off we go to see the Bellevue fireworks!

Papaw, George, Zack, Henry (hiding), Andy and Emma

 

The girls: Jennie, Emma and Jalene

Ooooohhhhh.....ahhhhhhhh!

Henry's favorite fireworks were the smiley face ones.  They had star and heart shaped ones too.

 

Love this picture!  Look at all those little heads in awe of the fireworks. 

 

There were only about 15 boats watching from the river this year.  In past years there have been as many as 50 boats.  There were lots of logs and junk floating down river this year from the recent flooding, this must have kept many people away from the river seats. 

 

Henry didn't like Jennie and I singing the National Anthem or God Bless America on our way back from the fireworks.  As we got closer to the cabin we had to shut our mouths out of fear of catching mayflies in our mouths...yuck!  Still not sure why they are called mayflies since they always come out in July.

Yikes, the mayflies just had to pick the 4th of July to hatch!  They were really bad right by the cabin.

 

We hope everybody enjoyed their 4th of July holiday too!