Fish Slayers!

Last weekend we were supposed to go camping at Diamond Lake...but we found out that it was going to be pretty cold. Since we were sleeping in a tent, we decided to nix that idea.

Then we were going to go for just the day...but we found out that the friends we were meeting up there had all been exposed to something we didn't want our kids exposed to. So we nixed that idea too.

Instead, we made it a family fishing weekend. Grant got a Toy Story fishing pole for his birthday, and we (Paul) were anxious to try it out. Paul borrowed a drift boat from our friends, and Grant and his friend, Addy, practiced up the night before.

 The next day we made it out of the house early to start our day of fishing at Fish Lake. We got out on the water at about 10:30...doesn't the early bird catch the fish...or something like that? :) Grant was so cute as he cast his little pole and waited for the fish to bite. He had only taken a couple of casts (really just dropped his line over the side of the boat) before he said "somethin's on it" real casually. He reeled it in and caught his first fish! He was ready to go home at that point, but we talked him into staying a little longer. But no matter how hard he and Daddy tried, they just didn't bring anything else in. Although they might have caught a few more if Daddy would have reeled them in instead of letting Grant do it. ;)

 

Mommy and Aubrie enjoyed watching the show, reading a book, and eating snacks.

Grant was so proud of his fish, and Daddy was so proud of his boy!

 

We had lunch at the little cafe on Fish Lake. I can't remember if I've posted pictures of Grant making this face before, but it is his new go-to face when he is posing for pictures. We couldn't figure out why in the world he kept making that face. Then one day when he was looking through pictures we had taken, he said "I have my binoculars on in that picture." Of course...binoculars. Why didn't we think of that?!

Grant got to eat his fish for dinner that night. Daddy grilled it up and we all got to eat some. Grant doesn't usually eat dinner, and he definitely doesn't eat fish, but he actually ate quite a few bites of his fish. I think he liked the fact that he caught it!

But we didn't get enough of fishing yet. The next day we went with our friends out to the Expo ponds. Grant and Addy had fun fishing for a little while, but then decided that it was more fun to swim in the pond. We had a little bit better success at the ponds. Paul hooked three fish, and Grant got to reel all of them in.

He has his Toy Story pole, she has her Barbie tackle box...how cute is that?!

Dads with their manly fishing poles

Aubrie really enjoyed the fishing ;)

The Zoo!

Auntie Addi and Auntie Kate weren't able to make it to Grant's birthday party a few weeks ago, so they wanted to do something special with him. We have been wanting to take him to the zoo for a while now, and it seemed like the perfect time to do it. It was quite the trip! Grant, Aubrie, and I drove to Eugene and met Gammy. Then we drove with Gammy to Corvallis to meet up with Auntie Kate. We helped her with a few things in her new apartment, and then drove to Portland to see Auntie Addi's new apartment.

The kiddos did pretty good in the car, but it was a long day!

We all stayed together in a hotel. That was an adventure! Paul and I always try to sleep in a different room with Grant, because we are afraid if he wakes up and sees us then he will want to get up even if it is the middle of the night. And a hotel is especially tricky because he has to fall asleep while we are in the same room. Plus we had Aubrie with us, who does pretty well at night, but I never know exactly what she will do. I didn't know how it would go, but everyone did really well, and we got an "ok" night of sleep (the Aunties might say differently though!)

On Saturday morning we went for a special birthday breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Grant had to be convinced that he would like the chocolate chip pancakes covered in whipped cream, but once he got a taste he was all over them!

Finally to the zoo! Grant was excited. He loves animals. He told me before we got there that the animal he really wanted to see was an armadillo. Once we actually got there though, he got it in his mind that he wanted to see the elephants. He would stop briefly at every animal (mostly because we made him) but would say "next animal" and move on very quickly so that he could see the elephants. The giraffe though turned out to be what stole most of his attention and time. He sat and watched the giraffe for about 20 minutes. He kept trying to call the giraffe over to him. At one point it did start walking our way and he was so excited! Aubrie had fun at the zoo too, although she did sleep quite a bit. :)

We were THIS close to the cougars...although there was glass in between us!

Another of Grant's favorites was the BIG fish!

He couldn't stop talking about the "ginormous" elephant with the "gigantis" poops!

And what birthday would be complete without a little something sweet?! Gammy took us all to yogurt after the zoo. Yum, yum!

When I was packing for our trip Grant saw me throw in his swimsuit. I told him that there might be a pool at the hotel. Oh man, was he excited! I think he talked more about going in the pool than he did about the zoo the whole way to Portland. If we would have known that all we needed to do was find him a pool! :) But we did finally make it to the pool.

Thank you Gammy for a fun weekend!!!