Best Day Ever - according to them (by Dad)

You know, the last couple of weeks at work have been a little stressful, working long hours on difficult projects, some with difficult people. There were some days that I'd leave for work before the kids got up and get home after they were asleep. Not fun. And not my typical work situation. Seeing and desperately needing the light at the end of the tunnel, I took Friday off. Wooohooo! I need some quality R&R and family time.

The plan was to take the whole family to North Fork Reservoir above Estacada. Lisa and Sam weren't feeling up to it, so it was just the girls and me, which can either be good or a complete disaster. Well evidently it went pretty well. You know it's going well when one of them says, 'BEST DAY EVER' (a quote from one of their favorite movies Tangled).

Honestly, I'd have to agree. It was for sure the best fishing/boating day we've ever had. The weather was in the 70's, cloudy / partly sunny (which kept us just cool enough but just warm enough)- aka perfect. The fish were biting and the lake wasn't too crowded so we could spin cookies almost anywhere we wanted to.

Fishing - all in all a good day:

Dad caught the first fish (sorry girls) - Cami and Lily were really hoping for it, since Maya usually gets it. We caught a total of 10 fish (rainbow trout), using only worms. Lily would say we caught 12 because she actually had 2 on that didn't get all the way to the boat.

You can't complain about that. :)





Boating - very adventurous:
Of course having three girls in the boat all day fishing is not realistic. They love 'the big motor'. To appease them and convince them that fishing with me is a fun activity, every once in a while, we reel in the poles and take her for a spin. We've learned how to spin around and bounce on our own wake, tilt the boat seriously while turning and most importantly to never stand up when we're going fast (that one was learned by earning a few bruises). I've included some videos of our adventures - the first one is short the second is longer, and the sound is pretty cruddy because of the wind.





In addition to going fast, Lisa was a lifesaver, making sure I had bubbles and new coloring books/crayons for each of them. Those helped keep them occupied during dry spells in fishing. It also helped that between Lisa and I, we packed enough snacks and treats to supply a family of 42.



After our 45 minute drive home, was it over? No way! We then had a backyard BBQ in the cool evening shade on the back deck, followed by smoothies made from strawberries picked from the garden. What a day. Those are the days you remember forever, and the day I desperately needed... 'Best Day Ever!'