A Tale of Two Fishies

It was the best of times . . .

After a fun filled day in the party raft, a delicious steak dinner, and perhaps a margarita or two, we all made our way back down to the dock to let the kids try their hand at fishing. Lacking worms, but having a ton of left over steak, we decided to use this for bait, and carried with us a large sandwich bag full for the fishies pleasure.

The kids had a blast - there were some pretty good casts tonight - and some pretty crazy ones too. My favorite had to have been Mike using the Barbie rod and his hook and line flying off the dock behind him! Fortunately no children were harmed in the incident.

It soon became apparent that fish do enjoy steak - there were lots of little nibbles to be had. Unfortunately, Ben the bait snatcher was with us, and within 5 minutes of getting to the dock, he had eaten the whole bag of steak. When we asked him to stop, he moaned in a sad kind of way "I just can't quit." Even the dog was amazed!

By then, Emily was the only one with bait left on her hook. After a close encounter with a large trout, she removed her hook to discover one piece of mangled meat. Ever the optimist, she continued trying to catch that elusive fish.

Meanwhile, Mike continued on with the Barbie rod, and surprisingly landed a little fish all on his own! It was great fun watching the big guy reel in the fish with his little pink rod hahaha. The kids were thrilled to see a fish up close, and were eager to take their turns holding it before finally releasing it to rejoin his friends.

Not long after, Emily caught a fairly large trout as well. Her squeals of excitement echoed throughout the valley on this calm night. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera, but I swear it really happened!

Finally, we decided to put our rods away and return in the morning with some hot dogs and fresh coffee. On her way off the dock, Emily encountered a gigantic spider - that kid literally flew up 80 stairs in no time flat, sharing sound bites of sheer terror the entire way. Her cousin Courtney was not far behind. In all fairness, the spider WAS the size of my thumb, so definitely no laughing matter for an arachnophobe!

Yes, it was a great night indeed. I love my family :)