OK, back story. So, it had been a long time since either Dave or I had rigged a rod and reel. And I hadn’t had much experience with spinning reels. But we found little telescoping spinning reels for a reasonable price at the sporting goods store. It came with the basics. We were going to put them together the night before we were going to go fishing but by the time we got the boys to bed, we were so exhausted we couldn’t tackle it. Pun intended.
So the next morning we were trying to assemble the rods, check out of the motel, make sandwiches and keep three tiny boys somewhat distracted. Lemme tell you. Two adults isn’t enough. Five adults wouldn’t be enough. But we did our best.
We got to the little fishing spot on a lake. The boys rolled out of the car and ran around like crazies. Because duh, they’re boys. Because TJ was still crawling, I had to put him on my back in a backpack in order to keep him contained and still run after the other two. Dave worked on the rods and we finally got everything ready.
It was hot. I mean, pretty hot for Southern Colorado. So I’m sweating bullets and had to stand in the shade of a tree in order to stay cool enough and keep TJ out of the sun. The first few casts went ok, but then Josh tangled the line on one. And I tangled the line on another. And little boys + hot out means my patience was in the toilet. I told Dave to just cut the line and start over, but his OCD kicked in and he wanted to sit there and untangle the line.
TJ started to get fussy and I put him in his car seat and turned on the car. The little boys started to get hungry so I pulled out the picnic lunch and fed everyone. While Dave tried to untangle the lines. Then we saw the afternoon storm clouds roll in. We all piled in the car and it started raining.
All three boys fell asleep and I got out my laptop. I edited some photos and Dave continued to untangle lines. That day, we may have fished for five minutes. And I was super grouchy because of how much work we had to do just to get there. BUT, what I love about Dave is how persistent he is.
We continued to persist and after about the third day of fishing, we started to get the hang of it (fishing and juggling kids) and I would just sit in the car with whichever child got tired and the others would do their thing. We didn’t really have a full tackle box with us and very limited fishing tools, but our little boys got their fish and that was worth writing this entire long ordeal.
Also, just to encourage parents… keep going, because the bonding that happens when you tackle the tough stuff together is the building blocks of character and flexibility. And you come back with a giant fish story.
An American humorist, writer and author. When boiling down the chicken soup of life, she finds those golden, fried nuggets of truth & writes them long after the kids go to bed.
