Fishing!

On Sunday we celebrated a belated Father's Day with my dad and family. My dad is pretty hard to buy for, so I decided to be a little creative and give him more of an experience gift this year. Though now that I think about it, last year we gave him a Brewer day, also an experience gift, so I guess I wasn't really that inventive this year. At any rate, I decided to take him fishing. Caden has been talking about fishing a lot (he does it in video games) and they couldn't get this experience from anyone else we know, so it seemed perfect.

I ordered two Mickey Mouse fishing poles from Amazon - pretty much the only kid fishing pole made - and they sent me seven! I thought it was pretty hilarious, but considering three of the four poles we gave my dad are already broken, I'm thinking sending seven was not a mistake. They know how crappy the poles are!

We did some practice casting in the backyard for awhile. Caden was really good at it from the start, and Shepard just seemed confused.

Once we got everything set up and my dad gathered his supplies from the neighbor's house, we headed to the lake. Originally I wasn't planning on fishing, but then I started thinking about how much I loved it as a kid and decided to get a one day license. When I went into Fleet Farm I was informed that if it's your first license you can get an annual license for only $5! I was pretty excited. I probably haven't fished since I was about twelve, but I always did love it. And was pretty good at it. :)

The first lake we went to was pretty boring. Not a single nibble.

We gave up after about half an hour. Little kids don't have much attention for something that isn't actually happening.

The park where we were fishing just put in a new playground so we had to let the boys play awhile. Uncle Tyler was put in charge of Shepard and came carrying him back a minute later with trails of gum waving from his feet. Gross.

We went back to my parents' for a delicious lunch and then this ice cream cake I made! My dad loves ice cream and I've never made an ice cream cake before, so it seemed like a fun challenge.

Grandpa and Shepard.

The layers! It had a peanut butter oreo crust, homemade double cookie dough ice cream, peanut butter sauce, more oreo crumbs, homemade salty peanut butter chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and peanut butter cups. It was soooo good. I'm really regretting leaving the rest of it with my parents! I think I'll share the recipe soon. Yum.

After relaxing for awhile we headed to a new lake where my dad guaranteed we would catch some fish.

Within two minutes I caught my first fish! And the competition began. I'm a really competitive fisherwoman. Really competitive.

Caden caught one right after me!

Shepard still seemed kind of confused, but he stuck with it a lot longer than I expected. Greg chose not to get a license, though I think if we go again I'm going to make him. It was a long night of just watching us!

Shepard's first fish! It was the perfect size for him!

More fish!

They took their worm carrying duties very seriously.

Greg was forced to start taking fish off the line and worms on the hooks because I was too freaked out to do it. I love fishing, but I can't handle actually touching things. Kind of a problem.

Caden's eleventh fish. Apparently a very good sized one because my dad gave it to someone who was keeping fish instead of throwing it back like the rest.

Fun times!

We were at the lake for close to three hours! The final count was Caden eleven, me eight, Shepard one, and Grandpa one. Caden had an unfair advantage because we were down to one working pole for awhile and I let him use it. I tried catching bass for awhile with the big pole and frog lure, but didn't have any luck. Anyway, it was an awesome day! Now that I have my annual license I'm ready to get back out there every weekend! I suppose it would help if I actually had my own pole. And wasn't too scared to touch the things I catch. So hopefully my dad knows I'm serious and we ARE going back again. It was an awesome father's day. Hooray for fishing!