Amy and Jay: Here fishy fishy fishy...

Spring/Summer 2012 was spent FISHING. I never thought that I would be a fisherwoman, but I guess that I am. It all started with Dad buying his fishing boat when he retired--the first time--about ten years ago. Until 2012, I had ridden in that boat ONE TIME. But then it was like a "fishing bug" bit Dad. All of a sudden, we were planning one Saturday to go fishing...then the whole next weekend! It has really come in handy to have our house close to the Reservoir. So we fished.

Sometimes Jamie and Dad went fishing...

Sometimes just me and Dad went fishing...

When Jay finally got home from work...him and Dad went fishing too!

Dad just wanted to be out in his boat fishing...and he got all of us in the mood to fish! It was so much fun. Dad and mom both tell stories of how much Dad used to fish and she even went with him alot. Mom says that she enjoyed it mostly because she could suntan while he fished. One story involves Mom driving the trolling motor with her feet while she suntanned and Dad fished! I forget sometimes that they lived other places prior to me being with them. When they lived in Florida, Dad and his best friend Randall (who played for the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots until he tore his achilles tendon) used to fish the canals every day together. So it has been an awesome experience to see how passionate the men in my life can be about something like FISHING.

Dad told me that I could not drive the boat until I received my boater's license...so I did the three hour online course and passed with 100% of course: *sidenote: Jay had to have one too and I don't think he made a 100%, but I wasn't going to say anything.

Sometimes when we went fishing we caught BIG fish...

And sometimes we just had to make up some "fishing lies"...

I would have to say that 99% of the fishing we did was incredibly fun. Why only 99%, you ask? Well, there was this one trip in particular where Dad (who had continuously warned the rest of us to "watch the hooks" when we were throwing out our noodle jugs) got HOOKED! I mean, I can laugh about it now. It is funny in hindsight. Dad through the noodle and then he said "Well, I did it." Jay and I both turned to him. Blood was dripping down his hand, and Dad was almost in disbelief that that had just happened to him. Jay tells this story way better than I do. Because I panicked. I quietly panicked. Here we were, at least a 45 minute boat ride to a dock. Then a drive to the hospital. His finger wasn't just hooked in the side. Dad had gotten it through the MEAT of his finger. Jay looked at it and sucked air through his teeth. Dad said "well, you're gonna have to push it through to cut off the barb and then pull it out". All I could think of is WTF. The chicken heart bait that's covered in strawberry banana jell-o was still on the hook--the hook that was inside of my father's finger. I don't know how Jay even kept still and quiet. I was quietly repeating "don't we have a first aid kit?" "I'll find the first aid kit" "Will there be valium in the first aid kit?" "Jay, if you hurt my Daddy I will kill you". I did find the first aid kit. I found it when I was looking for a second pair of hook cutters (or whatever they are called) because the first pair wasn't sharp enough. The first aid kit had an ice pack in it that you were supposed to break and crack and it would get freezing cold. I spent to next fifteen minutes working on that while watching THIS:

(No, they aren't holding hands and praying)

But that was the only non pleasant incident! Other than that it was smooooooth sailin!

Discussing different fishing holes to start at.

Checking for a possible leak after we ran in to a totally random stump where it shouldn't have been.

Fishing amongst the cypress trees...

Alligators galore!!! EEK!

Thanks to Dad and his Fishing Fever that he gave all of us, WE (Jay mostly, but I agreed) had to get a boat when the opportunity presented itself. Steve Burr just so happened to have one that he had only used five times since he bought it...and we couldn't pass it up.

What a deal! It's a Bass Tracker...I hear that's a good thing.

Dad has a saying that goes "There's two best days in a man's life...the day he buys his boat is one of them--and the day he sells it is the other one." It really was a great day. We took it out asap.