Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

Last weekend was Flagon Creek Bass Club's Umpteenth Annual Family Day. My sister and I have been participating in this event since I was about five and she was about three. We have many, many fishing trophies at our house. Family day is always near Father's Day. Last year Corey had drill that weekend and Jake wanted to play in a baseball tournament, so I loaded Landen and Dixie in the car and we had a blast.

Tradition is everything in our family, so even though Corey was gone for Father's Day, they were observing it with me, and that meant a day on Black River Lake. This year Cydney and Justin and Dixie came too.

Landen has a terrible case of The Afraids. He has gotten teary every time we've mentioned Black River Lake for six weeks. He's afraid of the water, because you can't see in it. He's afraid of the boat going too fast, and the top of it going into the air, and it leaving the water when it hits bumps. I was determined to make him get in the boat to see there's nothing to be afraid of, but my dad insisted that he wasn't making Landen scream on Father's Day. Maybe next year.

Jake does not have The Afraids. Jake is a "sure, why not?" kid. It's awesome. I wanted to go boat riding when we got there, so Justin took Jake and me out in my Dad's boat, and it was no sweat to that kid.

But then when we got back, Cydney and Dixie were sitting on the boat house, and Landen was WET!

Please excuse the life jacket. I swear when my dad says he has vests for the boys, he doesn't mean the vest I wore when I was their age.

Landen had started jumping off the boat house into the water! And he got his brother to do it with him.

We clearly achieved a major triumph over The Afraids this year.

One of the best parts of the day was watching all the kids fall down. There's no way for me to say that gently. There's a boat ramp at the camp where we were that day, and the bottom of the ramp, the part that was covered in water, was also covered with algae. So these little kids would go scurrying off to get in the water and their feet would slip out from under them. A couple kids fell so hard they rolled over and were facing us on the porch when their momentum ceased. Justin and I kept hoping and hoping that some enthusiastic adult would bust their ass on that boat ramp, but alas, the joy was not ours.

Even though Jake and Landen did not fish (I wouldn't let my dad get them up at 4:30 AM to take them), they still got trophies for participating.

And I took pictures with them, for the third time in their life. The first was one night at Corey's clubhouse in the fall of 2007. The other was at our wedding. I am usually behind the camera taking pictures of them with their dad.

And then the BIG FUN started, because Jake was willing to ride the tube! With Justin. And I took this glorious photo of their dismount.

He didn't love it.

And because I can't think of some poetic ending to this blog post, other than saying I had a wonderful day with the boys and my family and the bass club, I give you this photo of Cydney and Justin.

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