*UPDATE...fishing VIDEO added!*
Fishing, fishing and fishing! Yep that pretty much sums up the day!
Fishing, fishing and fishing! Yep that pretty much sums up the day!
Okay so the real story is Kevin and Grant had an all day guided fly fishing trip planned on the North Platt River in the Grey Reef area of Casper, Wyoming (hope all those names mean something to someone! Lol) More on the fishing later but let's get to the important part.... If the two oldest males in the house are gone, who's left? YEP! You got it, grandma, I, Tate and the littles! :)
A little morning snuggler after watching his best friend depart for the day. However, this kid NEVER complains about being left out of 'older kid' activities! I mean never, ever, he always has a great attitude and makes the best of the day! ❤️ What a champ!
Breakfast time!
And you do remember what "home" currently is, right? Yes that super duper motor home PARKED in an RV park with no grass and two play items in a little fenced off area. It wouldn't have been so bad if the wind wasn't gusting at like 100 mph (ok just a little exaggeration), but seriously the motor home was rocking back and forth! It was quite deceiving though because it was gorgeous sunshine outside just windy and only 34 degrees! In fact, when we woke up this morning to kiss the fisherman goodbye, there was snow on the ground. But needless to say, all of us stir crazy ones survived the day with not too much harm inflicted on our psyches! Grandma kept organizing the toys and then re-organizing the toys and then following around the littles picking up the toys they left in their wake! Think she was bored? Lol
Really it was a delightful day of just letting the littles roam around our tin can, without being buckled into their carseats and play! And big brother number 2 was awesome in taking Reed to the 2-toy "park" here in the RV park. They played and played and slid down a gravel mound, stomped in puddles and played some more! And well we know what Esther was doing, she was going around the tin can at her leisure with Grandma following and picking up after her. :)
Get a STRONG cup of coffee and get comfy.... here's the fishy-fishing-telling. lol :p
This is the Mr. speaking, I don't do much in the way of smiley's though. Just deal with it! In all honesty, I was not too keen on the idea of doing a road trip of this sorts, so I negotiated! I said I would go if I could have a day on the water fly fishing. So after some research, and looking at the map, I settled on fishing the Grey Reef section of river on the North Platte, just outside of Casper, WY. We booked a trip with Grey Reef Anglers. We were picked up at our camp ground at 7 in the morning by the one of the stars of Duck Dynasty, actually his name was Jesse, but he looked just like Jase (beard and all)! Super nice guy and he also has four kids... who does that?! Four kids, that is just crazy talk! We head to the river, but on the way we need to pick up our lunch, he pulls off to the side of the road at a dirt road junction, get's out, digs around in some bushes and pulls out a bag. He get's back into the car and says... "Real classy I know, but the boss was to lazy to drive all the way down the road to put it in the office" I figure that's just how it's done in Wyoming! We get to the put-in and there are a few boats ahead of us in line, but nothing too bad. Grant is so excited about his new waders that he is walking around in the water while the guide is rigging everything up. Did I mention there was two inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was 27 degrees? But very light wind, so no complaining! We get in the boat, Grant up front, the guide in the middle rowing and me pulling up the rear. This is Grant's first rodeo and I want the guide to get him going and really just make sure he gets into fishing. Let me just say, Grant stuck 4 fish in the first hour or so and I hadn't even made a cast yet and I could not be happier!!!! The guide was fantastic and was great at giving Grant instruction and Grant was great at listening and doing! Grant being the great kid that he is, made sure the Pop's got some action, so I grabbed my rod and started fishing, I hooked three up fairly quickly and Grant was not going to let me catch him, so he grabbed his rod and hit it hard. End of the day count was Grant 14... Dad 6, there is no better feeling in the world then being out fished by your boy! We landed some really nice fish, the smallest was about 14 inches, but the average was closer to 16 to 17 inches, amazing fishery! The best was the fish that got away! Grant hooked into a fish and the guide turned around to me and said I might want to get my camera. So with camera in hand, I started filming Grant fight this fish, he did such a great job. You could tell it was a good fish by the way Grant had to do all he could to stay with this thing. Grant had this fish beat and to the boat, but as he was trying to lift it up so the guide could net it... he broke off. The fish was just too big for Grant to get closer as he could not reel anymore. It was a heart breaker. I trust river guides as they have no reason to lie... and our guide was certain that this fish was at least 26 plush inches. I imagine as the years go by, the fish will get bigger. All in all a wonderful day on the river and not one to be soon forgotten by father or son!
Really it was a delightful day of just letting the littles roam around our tin can, without being buckled into their carseats and play! And big brother number 2 was awesome in taking Reed to the 2-toy "park" here in the RV park. They played and played and slid down a gravel mound, stomped in puddles and played some more! And well we know what Esther was doing, she was going around the tin can at her leisure with Grandma following and picking up after her. :)
They did get in a few precious minutes of reading time.
And then big brother came in from playing outside and wanted to join in on the reading fun.
Get a STRONG cup of coffee and get comfy.... here's the fishy-fishing-telling. lol :p
This is the Mr. speaking, I don't do much in the way of smiley's though. Just deal with it! In all honesty, I was not too keen on the idea of doing a road trip of this sorts, so I negotiated! I said I would go if I could have a day on the water fly fishing. So after some research, and looking at the map, I settled on fishing the Grey Reef section of river on the North Platte, just outside of Casper, WY. We booked a trip with Grey Reef Anglers. We were picked up at our camp ground at 7 in the morning by the one of the stars of Duck Dynasty, actually his name was Jesse, but he looked just like Jase (beard and all)! Super nice guy and he also has four kids... who does that?! Four kids, that is just crazy talk! We head to the river, but on the way we need to pick up our lunch, he pulls off to the side of the road at a dirt road junction, get's out, digs around in some bushes and pulls out a bag. He get's back into the car and says... "Real classy I know, but the boss was to lazy to drive all the way down the road to put it in the office" I figure that's just how it's done in Wyoming! We get to the put-in and there are a few boats ahead of us in line, but nothing too bad. Grant is so excited about his new waders that he is walking around in the water while the guide is rigging everything up. Did I mention there was two inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was 27 degrees? But very light wind, so no complaining! We get in the boat, Grant up front, the guide in the middle rowing and me pulling up the rear. This is Grant's first rodeo and I want the guide to get him going and really just make sure he gets into fishing. Let me just say, Grant stuck 4 fish in the first hour or so and I hadn't even made a cast yet and I could not be happier!!!! The guide was fantastic and was great at giving Grant instruction and Grant was great at listening and doing! Grant being the great kid that he is, made sure the Pop's got some action, so I grabbed my rod and started fishing, I hooked three up fairly quickly and Grant was not going to let me catch him, so he grabbed his rod and hit it hard. End of the day count was Grant 14... Dad 6, there is no better feeling in the world then being out fished by your boy! We landed some really nice fish, the smallest was about 14 inches, but the average was closer to 16 to 17 inches, amazing fishery! The best was the fish that got away! Grant hooked into a fish and the guide turned around to me and said I might want to get my camera. So with camera in hand, I started filming Grant fight this fish, he did such a great job. You could tell it was a good fish by the way Grant had to do all he could to stay with this thing. Grant had this fish beat and to the boat, but as he was trying to lift it up so the guide could net it... he broke off. The fish was just too big for Grant to get closer as he could not reel anymore. It was a heart breaker. I trust river guides as they have no reason to lie... and our guide was certain that this fish was at least 26 plush inches. I imagine as the years go by, the fish will get bigger. All in all a wonderful day on the river and not one to be soon forgotten by father or son!
Upon the happy return of the fishermen, the rest of us were ready to get out of dodge and go to dinner! Yes we have a motor home where we could fix our own dinner and yes, that means Prince Charming has to 'unhook' us to drive to dinner! After being cooped up in the motor home for 10 hours with 3 kids and grandma... WE WERE GOING TO DINNER IF I HAD TO CALL A TAXI! Lol But thankfully I didn't! Prince Charming so graciously agreed that going to dinner would be a great idea! He asked the camp host for a dinner recommendation and so we went with it! It was called Sanford's. The kids loved it! The portions were for the Hulk and a good time was had by all!
This was shortly after I knocked my sweet tea all over the table! Lol Luckily the restaurant decor includes paper towel roll stands by all the tables!
By the way, I spent most of the day, while they were fishing, figuring out and writing this blog. But now that I think about it, it was Kevin's idea to begin with and here I am doing it! So I figure he thought this one out... if he got me hooked and into something where my creative juices could flow then I'd be thoroughly distracted while he was gone fishing! Lol Nice job babe - it worked! :) Oh ya, in between changing FOUR poopy diapers, feeding kids, putting them down for naps, getting them up and keeping them occupied!
