The Best Days EVER

"This is the best day ever!" is something we here on occasion when the girls are having fun.

It was something that was said by all on this particular day a couple weeks back.

My husband loves to fish and living in Alaska is his little piece of heaven on earth (I am pretty sure God has a stocked pond with every fish in the world waiting for him one day in heaven).

Well, Ella has caught this fishing bug...real bad.  She wants to be a "fisher woman" when she grows up. She is pretty much a natural...you would be impressed!

So Daddy and oldest daughter go to fish in the waters off Seward, Ak on a good friend's boat.  And she had a trip of a life time!  She caught 30 fish (with help from her dad, but she doesn't realize he helped her).  She was on it!

We shared this cod with our friends who came last week and it was DELICIOUS! yum yum

How could she not have the best day ever....she saw a whale for goodness sake!

Tail and all...and she heard it sing!

Amazing!

I am a tad bit jealous.  Not because she got to see it and I didn't, but that I didn't get to see the look on her face when she saw it.

But while the biggest sister was gone, I had the 3 youngers.  

We went to the park.

We ate lunch at Burger King.

We had ice cream and chocolate syrup (they did, not me) while Campbell napped.

 They played in the mud looking for worms.

 And jumped on the trampoline...the only toy that was played with that day.

And they claimed this was the best day ever, also.

Here is the point I have learned on my short parenting years...

You can buy your kids every toy on this planet and they are still bored and unhappy.

You can plan super exciting adventures for them to go on and they can still be ungrateful and upset.

What your kids want is YOU.  

They want you to play with them...to be with them.

Ella and JT could have been fishing a cow pond in Mississippi and it would still have been the best day ever to her.  Why?  Because she is spending the day with her dad and he is investing time in her.

The day at the park down the street and lunch at the cheap food place and playing in the back yard was the best day ever.  Why?  Because I was right they with my kids, playing.  

These are years I will never get back. 

 These are years that are worth the investment of my time.

They don't need things to be happy, they need their parents to love them and be happy being with them...to play WITH them.

And the smiles on their faces are worth every dirty dish and pile of laundry I have waiting.