Saturday was a busy day for us. Mainly Zoe. The first weekend of May is a big one here. We have the largest timed road race in the nation that happens the first Sunday in May. It's a big deal and this year 48,000 of my closest friends ran it with me. For the youngsters they have the Marmot March.
It's a mile run through our downtown park. They get a shirt they can paint, cheerleaders from every school cheering them on, mascots from around the area giving out High-5's and a ribbon at the finish line. It's our third year of running and Zoe has a blast. Her favorite part is the small loaf of bread she gets at the end, since Franz Bread is a major sponsor. She prefers to do her carbo-loading at the end of the race.
This year she even found a friendly pirate in the park who made balloon animals. She got a yellow poodle she calls Pinkie. I think she tries to think of names that just mess with my head.
I'm pretty sure we could've gone home, sat around and watched The History Channel with N all day and Zoe would've been a happy girl with her shirt, ribbon, loaf of bread, Pinkie and the memory of 35-High-5's from the cheerleaders. Combine all those things into one morning and pretty much the rest of the day is going to be ho-hum.
Not for this mom. No way. That was just the beginning to the Day-O-Fun! On Saturday the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife hosted their annual Fish In. All kids, ages 5-12, could sign up for an hour of fishing, get a shirt and new fishing pole and spend that time trying to catch some trout. They stocked the lake with 6,000 fish, so the odds were in our favor.
For days Zoe was asking, hoping, determined to get a pink fishing pole. We were pleading, nudging, softening the blow that she may not get a pink pole. It's not a girl's Fish In, it's a kid's Fish In and how many boys really want to get a pink pole? This is manly stuff that includes worms, seaweed, fish and, if you're lucky, fish guts. Pink fishing poles seem out of the norm.
We got to the lake at our appointed time, Zoe got her shirt and her pink fishing pole. Sometimes I think God is just up there laughing! The look on my face when they told Zoe to get her pink fishing pole was priceless. She immediately looked at me and said, "I told you so Mom!"
There were probably 50-75 other kids ready to catch their trout. We tried the dock first, but since there were so many people on it, most of it was slightly underwater. I'm all about lakes and water and just enjoying the moment. For the Fish In, they hooked up nets to the sides of the dock so the kids would almost be assured to catch something. I could see me getting pushed into the net with all the trout. I enjoying holding a fishing pole and I enjoy the excitement from hooking one and reeling it in. I do not enjoy any of the slimey stuff. I don't touch worms or fish and I really don't enjoy being near fish. I'll swim in a lake because I can't see the fish. With all my neurosis, we went to the shore to try to hook one.
We were the people who were standing next to the guy who hooked HUGE rainbow trout. Those fish had to be 10 pounds at least.
Zoe kept catching seaweed.
We got a little discouraged until Grandma got a bigger worm. My grandpa was a big fisherman. In the summers we'd head to a nearby lake, he'd get his boat motor out, rent a boat and troll for trout for hours. I loved his fishing pole because the line was all different colors, so he knew how far down it went and it had all these shiney metal pieces on it so the fish would notice his line. He got me my first fishing pole, a Snoopy one. I drop it every time a fish would bite. He'd laugh really hard at me. I was very girly, even then.
One of his tricks was to spit on the worm for luck. The second Zoe did that, she reeled in her first fish. I use the term "reeled" loosely. She dropped the pole, screamed "I CAUGHT A FISH", jumped up and down and then had N fishing the job. She's got a bit of each of us in her!
It was the perfect day.
No comments:
Post a Comment