Fishin' and Relaxin'

For Jason's birthday this year, he wanted to go out to the lake and take the kids fishing. Sounded fun to me! Problem now: Sammi is in Kindergarten. Gone are the days of taking her out of school just for fun. I thought one day would not hurt anything, although I wanted more! But since she only gets 3 hours of school a day, I didn't think she should be out much. Plus she has school pictures today.

Jason's aunt and uncle own an RV park off Lake Fork in the big town of Yantis. I say big loosely....I think I saw the population sign as 315. But I love East TX and love small towns. I couldn't wait. We took my dad's trailer and off we went! We got there and the first thing Sammi wanted to do was see the horses. Sorry, didn't get any pics of that. They have a lot of gorgeous horses! Even a donkey. There was a stray dog that kept freaking out Sammi, which in turn made the calm Joshua freak out. Fun!

After Jason parked the trailer, he came back to the house to get us and walked back with the kids while I followed in my car. His uncle came by and saw them walking and had them get in the back of his truck to take them the short distance. The kids were grinning ear to ear while they rode in the back.
After dinner, we tried to calm the kids down by putting on a movie for them. Thank goodness for portable DVD players!

This was to be Joshua's first time to sleep in anything other than his crib (yes, he is still in his crib...no judging!), a port-a-crib, or of course his car seat. I was a little nervous, picturing him falling off. He slept on the booth-type table where the table goes down to wedge between the booth seats, then the cushions slide down to cover all of it. It's actually quite comfy! Jason snuggled with him to get him calm. We even hedged our bets to see who would fall off first. Jason bet Sammi would, I bet Joshua would. Find out the winner later.

Here Sammi slept on the couch that works like a futon that the back slides down to form a bed. Then in the back was a queen size bed for Jason and I. Perfect set up for us!

After the kids were quiet for awhile and when I was done reading, I crept in to see how they fell asleep. I don't know about you, but I love to see my kids sleep. I peek on Sammi every night, also to put her blanket back over her. Joshua sleeps with his door closed, so I don't take the chance to wake him up. So any chance I get, whether it is in the car or elsewhere, I watch him sleep. Kids are precious when they are asleep! Well, when I walked in, I saw him on the floor, in the fetal position between his and Sammi's bed. Huh? If he fell, he made no sound, didn't cry, and went straight to sleep. Or he got down on his own and went to sleep there. I am going for option #2. I picked him back up and put him back on his bed. Never woke up. Then around 1:30 AM Jason and I were woken up to a huge thud. It was Sammi. She never woke up either as I picked her up and placed her back on the bed. She didn't even remember it the next morning. So I guess Jason won?

The next morning we all got up, made a great breakfast, then got ready to go fishing. The weather was wonderful too!

Jason just finished getting the bobber, weight, and hook on Joshua's fishing pole when I took this. Don't worry, the hook was in one of the eyelets, out of harms way. Well, that is what we all thought when just as I clicked this, he moved, somehow the hook came loose, Joshua waved the pole, the hook goes flying straight into the side of his hand. No, I'm not kidding. In a matter of nanoseconds after that happened as Jason and I were rushing to grab the pole and his hand to release the hook, Joshua freaks out and rips the hook out of his hand. I had to take a breath to finish typing this. The thought of how bad it could have been still haunts me. There was hardly any blood, maybe a small dot, not worthy of a band-aid. But tons of screams, so I took him inside, held a towel on his hand and rocked him. He eventually calmed down, then off he went to show everyone his "boo-boo". Think of how deep those hooks go and how much more he could have ripped out by taking it out himself? Thank you Lord for having it only go in a little bit!

I love it when Sammi wears baseball hats. I'm biased, but she is freaking cute in them.

See me with a firm grip on the pole AND his little hands?

Love this pic of both of their profiles and in hats.

Check out those curls....it started to get really humid before the rain came in, which makes all of us with curly hair get tighter curls. No comments that he looks like a girl!

Joshua caught the first fish! A tiny perch, but catching anything is fun and it keeps them interested....that's our main goal!

After getting nibbles on the line from turtles and catching lots of "grass bass" and "tree bass" (Jason told us his dad called it that when they brought in grass or branches instead of a fish), we clearly scared off the fish, hence Sammi's bored pose below. These kids are not like Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn that fished all day with a line tied to their big toe so they can nap from being there for so long.

Here is my sexy fisherman.

Jason knew I'd be blogging about this and asked that I put in a good picture of Joshua's shirt. For obvious reasons, it is Jason's favorite shirt of Joshua's. Thanks Aunt Julie for finding it! This will be going in the keepsake box when he outgrows it for sure!

After being there for over an hour or 2 (didn't keep count) and hearing Sammi said "I'm bored" "when will I get more fish?" we headed out to walk the land and go to other parts of the lake to just check out the sites. Sammi grabbed a bag for her scavenger hunt she wanted to do. I think all she got was a leaf, acorn, and branches. But she had fun!

After we had lunch, we got Joshua to lay down with a movie on and he eventually fell asleep and took a good, long nap. It was much needed! During that time, it started to rain, so the 3 of us went out on the deck and sat under the awning. Jason kept saying how the steady rain was perfect fishing weather, so I told him to go while I caught up on some reading. In the distance you can see him fishing in his yellow rain gear. He was loving it out there.

Sammi danced and played in the rain for way over an hour. She just loved it! She kept us cracking up. I loved just sitting and reading. So peaceful.

Here Sammi is showing the rain water she got in the coffee cup. She put on Jason's rain hat backwards. Oh well.

After changing out of her soaked clothes, Sammi sat with me and just watched the rain. Loved it! Her shoes are STILL WET today.

Even though it was for just one night, it was by far one of the best, relaxing trips (with the kids!) we have had in awhile. It makes me want to by a trailer and lease a spot from Jason's uncle so that we can go more often!