TONGUE RIVER CAMPING was our spot of choice this year. We ended up getting to go there THREE times which is a lot for us for one summer.
Josh had a BLAST catching fish… we were catching so many that he very quickly learned to take his own fish off from the hook and either put in the live well or toss back into the lake. Here’s how it goes:
The first time we went was with Tim’s cousin. They introduced Josh to kneeboarding! He REALLY ENJOYED it and I think we may have to look into purchasing one of these for ourself. Here Josh is getting instructions from “Grandpa Ken” – Kevin’s dad who stayed on shore to help the kneeboarders get going.
He made it LOOK SO EASY!
I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to falling off and being alone out in the water while the boat turned around to go back and get him, but he did just fine and it didn’t stop him from trying again.
Back in the boat we got the play by play from his point of view! He LOVES IT!
Waiting for his turn to come around again.
Emily wasn’t too sure about the whole kneeboarding thing as you can tell by this picture. She is DEEP in thought considering whether or not she should give it a try. She opted to not try it.
However, I decided it couldn’t be THAT hard.. I have good balance, I’m hard to knock off from the tube, etc so I decided to give it a try….. I tried FOUR TIMES and well let’s just say I spared them the wasted time of giving me a 5th try.
CRAWDAD HUNTING: Grandpa Ken introduced the boys to crawdad fishing/hunting. Josh totally got into it. He and Tim went up and down the entire bank looking for them. First they look for a good spot:
Then they poke around the rocks with sticks.
Then they get ready to reach under the rocks.
Then they hopefully pull one up! 
Grandpa Ken who is actually Tim’s great uncle is pretty fast at catching them so he passed a few to Josh.
For some unknown reason, Nathan decided to use one of Angi’s bowls as a hat (LOL)! He wore it all afternoon.
He doesn’t like to get too close to the crawdad action so he watched from up on the bank.
His crawdad poking stick is no where NEAR the water (LOL).
BOATING! Nathan ALWAYS falls asleep in the boat. Here we are snuggled up on the boat after Nathan has fallen asleep. I just LOVE being on the water. I love the sound of the waves and the water splashing.
When the kids got tired of boating they played a few games on shore. Here they are playing football and Em’s favorite shirt says… “If synchro were any harder it would be football.” I’m not sure she proved her point with this pass… notice the arm formation… it looks to us like she’s getting ready to hit a volleyball not toss a football (LOL).
The second tiem we went was with our small group as well as Tim’s cousin and some other friends of theirs. One of the guys in our group tried to get this HUGE air mattress into his tent. None of us thought he could do it, but he eventually got it in there but the tent was bulging at every corner (LOL)!
The first day or so Nathan really enjoyed playing in the water with his swimmer thing, but it doesn’t work very well with a life jacket on which always made me a bit nervous.
So, one of us always swam very close to him. This time it’s Emily’s turn.
One time when I was watching him he flipped it over an got scared so we no longer had to worry about him wanting to get in the water without us! Now he’s perfectly content to play on the shore.
FISHING: Usually we spend most of our time tubing because the fishing isn’t very good where we usually go. However, the fishing was VERY GOOD on the Tongue and we went out several times a day. The boys were very patient. The boys were having a contest against the girls to see who could catch the most fish. FWIW, the girls won! Grandpa Ken was the referee!
Emily couldn’t believe it when one of the fish rubbed up against her leg and scratched it! It hurt for several days.
Keena and Emily took one side of the boat, but whenever they were catching fish the boys always wanted to trade sides… they would trade and the girls would STILL be the ones catching fish.
On our first trip to the Tongue, Angi could hardly catch ANYTHING! On our 2nd trip she was catching them left and right until she accidentally cast Kevin’s brand new fishing pole into the lake….. yikes…. that put a sudden end to her fishing.
Then she decided to hang out with Nathan.
Josh is quite happy with his catch!
Nathan had fun watching the fish in the live well. Here I think it looks like he might be wanting to hold the fish or something.. but these fish have sharp edges on them so we didn’t let him get too close.
TUBING and HORSING AROUND: All of the kids had a great time doing anything in the water. Here are pictures of Amanda and some of her friends.
Josh and Zach tubing.
Emily isn’t sure if she wants to tube again or not!
Kids from our small group:
