Gone...er...Fishing?

A few weeks ago, Alan decided it would be fun to take the kids fishing.  He tends to have fantastically optimistic visions of our children's behavior.  It's cute.  So, we're going fishing.

Step 1: We're going to need a few new fishing rods.  So we head to the nearest Walmart (which, thank God, is about 25 minutes away).  I had read that a new one opened nearby so we headed over there.  It looked like this:

 

I call it the "Big City Walmart".  It's in a multi-level building, next to a 24-hr fitness and a larger office building.  When we pulled up, the parking lot had a gate and Alan was all, "Oh, hell no!  We better not have to pay to park at Walmart!"  We did not have to pay, but we were the only pickup truck in the parking lot and we had to take up two spots.  I'm pretty sure they're breaking some sort of "Walmart Law" that says all their parking lots must easily accommodate pickup trucks.  Walmart is Walmart, after all.  Can't put lipstick on that pig.  Anyway, we chose some adequately-priced-for-kids fishing rods and headed out. 

 

Step 2: We are going to need some worms.  A few weeks prior, we had planted some seeds in a flower bed and noticed tons of nice, fat worms, so we head home and put the kids to work digging up worms:

 

 

Step 3: Go to Dick's to buy worms:

 

Step 4: Find the perfect spot:

 

 

Step 5: Find a different perfect spot than the one we had in mind:

 

Step 6: Bait the hooks and cast!

 

 

Step 7: Fix the cheap-ass reel from the stupid big-city Walmart and re-cast:

 



 

Step 8: Wait for the fish to bite:

 

 

 

Step 9: Cut the hook out of the tree:

 

Step 10: Give the kids a break and a snack.  They've been fishing a whole 1/6 hour.

 

Step 11: Cut the hook out of the tree:

 

Step 12: Do the hokey pokey:

 

 

 

Step 13: Call it a day:

 

 

No fish were harmed in this outing.  But plenty were fed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Adventures!

Alan and I decided before we even moved here that we had to get SCUBA certified while here.  It's one of the best places in the world to dive and there was no way we were going to miss out on that.  But then the twins...

Recently, I awoke from the bubble I've been living in for the last 6 months and realized I really wanted to do this...NOW.  But classes were all filled up for August and September, so we are on the schedule to get our SCUBA certification in October.  Wooohooo!  Can't wait!  To tie me over, and get a tiny taste of what it would be like, Alan thought I should try snorkeling.  He's done it before, and thought that I needed to make sure I enjoyed that before trying to dive.  So yesterday, we rented some fins, snorkels and masks, and hit the sea wall.

I cannot even put in to words how amazing it was.  The coral was so colorful and abundant and beautiful.  Swimming around the coral were all those beautiful fish you see at the Aquariums.  We don't have a waterproof camera, so I stole some pictures to show you what kinds of things we saw.  A dive camera is definitely on the list of "wants" now, though.  If we saw such amazing things trolling around on the surface, I cannot wait to see what we'll see when we dive. 

Of course, a clown fish living in a sea anemone:

Tons of big, bright blue starfish:

photo source

Moorish Idols:

photo info for Clown fish and Moorish Idol

A few Needlefish:

picture source

Tons of live coral, similar to this:

picture source

Of course, we saw hundreds of fish and I'm no fish expert, so it took long enough to even look up the names of the fish above, using descriptions.  You don't need to know the names of all the fish we saw.  What you need to know is it was amazing.  You really should be jealous.  You really should get yourself some dive training and get your butt over here to dive with us.  I mean, what's it going to take to get you people to come see us??  I had to create two lives to get my own Mom here, so I guess I'm going to have to come up with something really good to get everyone else here.  When the money tree out back blooms again, we'll buy everyone tickets.  How about that?  Deal.