The Great White Hunter

Monday we decided to take the kids to the lake. Shelly and Zerin had come up to join us. We were planning on doing a Salt Lake Museum trip but the moms were out voted by the dads and kids. Oh Well. Chris and Zerin decided to try their luck at spearing some poor, defenseless trout. 30 minutes later, they came out and declared that there were absolutely no fish at all in the lake. They decided to terrorize some crawdads instead.

While the boys were out hunting, Shelly, Me and the kids had fun on the shore. Cassidy and Allison are great friends. Allison is at the stage where all babies are cute and Cassi loves the attention. We had a blast watching them all play. Eli was ecstatic that he was completely surrounded in mud and, better yet, he was allowed to cover himself in it. Rocks to throw and mud to bathe in...how much better can it get for a little boy?

One of the best parts of the trip was watching Zerin and Shelly try to get their kids to swim. Cassidy put up a fight when we first put her in the water because it was much colder than her baths. She eventually resigned herself to the fact that her parents were big fat meanies and sat reluctantly but quietly in her baby tube, glaring at us the whole time. Poor abused child!

Shelly and Zerin, however, were not so lucky. From the screams that both Alli and Eli put out, you would have thought we were killing them. Combined with Cassi's first reaction, I'm surprised that we didn't clear out the whole lake. Those poor fishermen thought they were escaping to a quite, serene lake to do some fishing. Good thing there were no fish to scare away!

Allison is the most adorable three year old I've ever seen and she knows how to play it up. She wailed the whole time but did great! I was so proud of her. The first time she got in, Zerin eased her into the water while she screamed. She told us later it was because she was scared the fish and snakes would bite her. The second time she got in, Shelly basically picked her up and plopped her in the water *Swim Kid!!!* So much for agency (just kidding Shelly!!!)

She is such a great mom! She even got Allison to look down at her feet, reassuring her that there were no fish (as Uncle Chris and Daddy confirmed) and no snakes. Meanwhile Eli, who I have never seen sit so good and quite while his mommy left him, was quite content to sit on the shore and watch his sister have to swim. We had so much fun!!!

All and all, even though she makes her kids swim, Alli can't wait to grow up and be like her Mommy!!!