This weekend was beautiful with highs reaching into the 70s both days we just Had to take advantage of it!
We started off the weekend with a fishing trip that turned into a daddy-baby exploring trip.
Who knew that it could take 4 hours to prepare the basics for a fishing trip?!
Last Fall we got a new shed. This shed was assembled just in time for winter. The floor in it isn't even fully done yet. With cold weather setting in we knew that we had to get it finished and get stuff inside of it. Needless to say, things just got shoved in with no rhyme or reason to them. Stuff was piled on top of other stuff and it is just a giant mess!
So to go fishing what do you need? poles, tackle, chairs, and bait. Let me just say that I am a shopaholic for fishing stuff. We have 3 or 4 tackle boxes, a bunch of bags of random tackle, stink bait in the living room, along with chicken liver and a couple of lures and hooks, and that is just what I can think of off the top of my head! I have a Ziploc of lures in the armrest of my truck, there was a gallon sized Ziploc of assorted lures and jigs in the closet... yeah, I'm bad, I know. I own 3 pairs of shoes and several hundred bucks worth of just tackle. I even get a monthly subscription box of tackle. I might have a problem... Maybe I should buy a new much bigger tackle box on Amazon with my Prime membership! I am really liking the options that Plano has.
My poor husband Scott spends a good hour just trying to locate and assemble all of the fishing stuff. In that hour he managed to get a good chunk of the tackle together. All the while I am dealing with little Mr. James and trying to get his stuff together while also making sure that he is happy.
After a while Scott comes in and informs me that he can not find my favorite fishing pole. My Abu Garcia baitcaster is missing... 😨
I paid $52.85 in February 2015 and got free shipping with Amazon Prime. This is a 7' solid pole made out of graphite with a BMAX2-L reel. I bought this out of season and my reel alone is currently selling for $93. I think I got a heck of a deal on this, I absolutely love Amazon!
I decide that I am going to take matters into my own hand and go searching on my own. The shed is a complete disaster zone. Scott told me that the fishing poles were on the right side of the shed so I start there. I indeed locate some of our poles but notice that several are missing from that pile. I take a deep breath and move to the other side of the shed.
I have to move stuff to even get to that side of the shed, then once there, I have to dig down through stuff. Finally I see it. My beautiful black and red Abu, sitting on top of our catfish poles. I do manage to fish my baitcaster out of the pile but the cat poles are stuck.
Once we finally get everything loaded up and on the road, it is almost 4pm. I wanted to be out at the fishing spot by 2! We got the poles, toys, baby carrier, pack n play, tackle, and ourselves all loaded up into my little 98 s10 single cab. Off we go after a stop at the gas station for drinks and lunch.
We meet up with our buddy Jay who puts his poles and equipment into the bed of my truck as well. He leads us out to the fishing spot.
The spot we have chosen is at the Indian Creek Nature Center. The Indian Creek runs through the nature center and meets up with the Cedar River within sight of where we set up to fish.
Trying to get All of the stuff down to the creek bed in one trip turns out to be an impossible task. We decide to gather up the baby and the absolute bare essentials to getting started. We choose a spot about half way between where we parked and the river. Of course, when you have a 5 month old, Nothing can ever be as easy as it should be. Setting up the pack n play took way more effort than it should have. It was being argumentative. I got 3 of the sides up but could not for the life of me get that last side to lock into place! After several minutes Scott informs me that the bottom can not be locked down in order to get the sides locked into place. DOH!
James has been awake most of the morning and just recently fell asleep before we arrived out here, so I figured ok, I'll just nurse him to sleep and get on with my fishing! He has gotta be sleepy by now right? HA. Apparently a 20 minute power nap is a real thing even for a 5 month old. I put him in his pack n play with a bunch of his toys and put a twin sized fitted sheet over his pack n play to block the wind and sun.
This worked for like a whole 2 minutes! Just long enough for me to get my spinner caught on some brush and snap my weakened line. I suppose it is better that it broke where it did so that we could retrieve my lure. So here I am, James is starting to fuss and I am already irritated by trying to get my lure back. Scott finally offers to come over and get my lure, and of course he gets it in no time.
I decide to try to give James a bottle and see if I can put him to sleep that way. After 6 oz. of an 8 oz bottle he decides that he is done and it is play time! Scott had decided to try his luck in a little off shoot about 50 foot away.
James wasn't having any part of being put down, every time I would try he would start crying no matter what I did. This is my reality more often than not honestly. I got irritated by this because I don't even have a line in the water! So I set him down in his pack n play and let him cry as I rigged up my baitcaster with a weight, a Doc's worm, and stink bait. As I was casting it out Daddy came to save the day!
He decided that he wanted to take James and go exploring. Once I got my line out I assisted him in getting the baby carrier on and getting James into it. The wind was blowing in gusts at about 10-15 miles per hour so we put James facing Scott to help block the wind. Off they went to go explore!
A while after they set off I noticed them up on the bridge walking across it. They got onto the trail and came down along the bank of the creek to say hi, Scott also took a video. They then continued on down the trail. half an hour, 45 minutes later I saw them crossing a foot bridge up the creek a ways. Once they came back James was fast asleep, cuddled up into daddy's chest. It was such a sweet sight.
As soon as Scott took James out of the carrier he woke up. This time though I was able to nurse him back to sleep.
While out with daddy James got to see beehives, a teepee, the building where they make maple syrup, he found a rock that he made daddy keep, he got scared when a car passed them on the one bridge but he really enjoyed the foot bridge! I cannot wait until we all go on the trails together!
We have decided that every outing like this we are going to let him pick out his own rock. When we get home we will label it and date it and start a collection for him.
What was your favorite thing to do with your young child? leave me a comment below!
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