Fishing

Back in the beginning of June we started talking with the girls about a special summer gift for them, and then we talked about it again, and talked about it some more. It was very exciting for the girls to contemplate all the things they might get! Finally, they decided they wanted to get fishing poles. So last night we loaded everyone up and headed to the store. Summer, Claire and Pyper each picked out the pole they wanted, and then Rhett got some of the gear we'd need for it.

Today, we got up at 4am to go fishing.

Just kidding.

At about 8:30am, everyone was up. We Skyped with their cousins Inara and Alba in Sweden, and then we ate breakfast. After that, we got ready to go . . . which ended up taking a looooong time. Rhett worked on getting the fishing poles all ready--winding the line on it, etc. But the girls were so excited that they'd push the button on the reel and then pop! there goes all the line. He'd have to untangle it all and do it all over again. 

We finally had everything ready and we headed out. We actually wanted to try out a lake other than our own, so we went to Newman Lake, which was about 30 minutes away.

(Click on this picture to zoom in. It's my favorite. I love how you can see all the girls and Rhett--minus Junie.)

I think Claire was the most excited out of everyone. Look at her sitting there slightly smiling.

Rhett spent the ENTIRE time doing this:

And he didn't lose his patience once. What a guy.

I just kept praying that we'd get at least one fish to make all his hard work worth it. And guess what???

We actually caught THREE pumpkinseed sunfish! Claire caught the first one, and Summer caught the second two. Claire was actually just holding some string that Rhett had cut because it was tangled. The string had the hook and bobber on it. She was holding it in the water, then all of the sudden, she had a bite and she pulled it right out! Long story short, Claire's fish escaped (luckiest pumpkinseed fish ever, but he/she looks really silly with about 4 feet of fishing line sticking out of its gills and mouth).

The girls really wanted to bring the remaining two home to keep them as pets. Pyper asked Summer, "Summer, since I didn't catch one, can I name them?" So, the girls decided that their names should be Sparkle and Twinkle. Unfortunately for everyone, they died. They are now resting peacefully in our garden next to the peas.

We had such a fun time. It was pretty hot so we cooled off with frozen yogurt in Liberty Lake, and were planning on heading over to our lake after dinner, but we decided to wait for another day. We had such a great time and made great memories.

And a special thanks to Aunt Annie!