Clear Lake Day Five

Today was the biggest day, group wise of the trip. All my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Assorted Other Family showed up and we packed the place. In addition, there was a bass fishing tournament hosted by the tackle shop next to the hotel. They did the final weigh in on the lawn of the hotel, so all of the kids got to see the size of fish that you can catch if you know what you're doing (and have 50 or 60 thousand dollars invested in a state of the art bass boat with a fish finder etc.). The biggest bass was 9.5 lbs and was HUGE in comparison to all of the stuff that the kids have been catching this week, so they were in awe and really enjoyed watching that. After that....right back down to the docks to try to land the "big one".

Today Marisa was off to her 20 year high school reunion in Saratoga so she is gone overnight and will be back tomorrow for photos and the last couple of days here. The kids and I went out for a ride around the lake after breakfast in the ski boat and they took another "family style" nap. This time I pushed the two queen beds together and we all four slept in the gigantic result. The kids are so worn out and exhausted that I had to wake Tanner and Faith up at 4:00, for fear they would sleep right thru. The kids kept me busy all day. They met all the relatives, played, ate and generally just MOVED all day long.

Dinner was BBQ chicken and Tri-Tip which Uncle Bill cooked and it was just delicious (thanks Bill). We sat around the campfire and reminisced, talked, roasted marshmallows and just had a grand old time until the kids just fell apart, which was my cue to head off to bed. I have to sign off now, the kids are waiting for me to sleep in the big bed and Tanner is currently screaming that he needs a band-aid for a scrape on his ankle that is a week old.