Our Labored Labor Day

Labored [ley-berd] (adjective) 1. done with difficulty  2. exhibiting a great deal of effort; lacking grace and fluency.

My abilities as a housewife.  Just kidding!  Well, not really - especially the part about lacking grace and fluency - but that's not what I'm talking about today.

This was our Labor Day.  Labored.  We went fishing, just the four of us.  This was our son's first time fishing, so we were feeling pretty excited and thinking this was going to be such a fun family day! But the day didn't exactly go as planned...

My husband and my son got up early and went to the store before my daughter and I were even out of bed.  They picked up fishing supplies and my son got to pick out his own fishing pole.  You'd think he would have been giddy with anticipation for his first fishing trip (he's been asking to go for months!), but he was so unbelievably cranky that morning!  Regardless, he was pretty cute carrying his new fishing pole around everywhere he went...until he decided to practice casting in our living room. 

My son was standing on one side of the living room with his fishing pole in hand, and I was standing on the other side of the room not suspecting anything.  That's when I saw a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye, felt something brush across the back of my hair, and heard a "whack!" on the wall beside me.  I jumped about 3 feet!  When I realized what had happened, I was fuming.  We had specifically told him not to cast inside.  That incident, combined with his whining, my daughter's crying, and both of their coughing and runny noses all morning, my husband and I just stopped what we were doing and put the kids in bed. 

The kids slept for about an hour and half, and both woke up in a much better mood!  So we finally got on the road and were at a nearby lake in less than 10 minutes.  We got the boat in the water and were ready to start fishing...and then the boat wouldn't run.  So, my husband used the trolling motor (I think that's what it's called) and got us back to the dock.  You should've heard my kids scream when he left us on the dock and attempted to get the boat back on the trailer - thank goodness it didn't take him as long as we thought it might!  He finally joined us on the dock, and the dock is where we stayed most of the trip.

Nobody caught anything, but my son had so much fun casting and reeling in, over and over again.  He's really good at casting!  (I'll even admit that cast across the living room was one good cast!)  And the look on my husband's face as he watched his little boy casting into the water was priceless.  Pure pride.  He had no idea I was watching him watch our son, but that look made the entire day worth all the labor!  And my daughter was adorable running around in circles on the dock, giggling, and she had a blast chasing and screaming after the ducks! 

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

 

 

I am so grateful for our family time this Labor Day...even if it was a little labored!  I hope you all had a great day too!