Gone Fishing

Last week, Brad and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Brad: "Dr. G wants us to go to his family's ranch this weekend. I told him we would."
Me: "Who is Dr. G and what are we going to do there?
Brad: "One of the docs at the hospital. He's really nice. We're going to fish and hunt and have a cookout. It's just for the afternoon and evening."
Me: "Because I just love to fish and hunt, right? You know I don't like to hang out with people I don't know. And all afternoon and evening? I'm not so sure, honey."
Brad: "It'll be fun."

I was skeptical.

But like most things that Brad MAKES me do, I enjoyed myself very much. And so did everybody else, too!

Old Man Weather was smiling down on us because the weather was beautiful. Well, at least beautiful according to this very cold-natured mama. 90 degrees (really...I'm not exaggerating!), sunny, and just a little breeze to keep us cool. Perfect fishing weather. I have to admit that fishing is just not one of my favorite things to do. It just seems so mind numbingly boring. At least it always was when I've been before. Cast your line. Wait and wait and wait and wait and wait some more for one teeny-tiny little fish to bite your line. Then you have to deal with icky-slimy fish. So. Much. Fun. It just always seemed like a better idea to read a book. This was not the case on the ranch! You cast your line and wham! a minute later, you had a fish. Time after time after time. Phoebe got a little impatient if she didn't have bite after two minutes! So exciting! Oh, and did I mention that either Brad or Dr. G handled all the fish (I had too many pictures to take!). Even better.
Eli's first cast with help from Dr. G.

Eli's first fish. He ended up catching six total.

Getting a little help from dad.


And Phoebe was chomping at the bit to get a turn.



The gal's a natural! She outcaught her brother by two fish!


She even worked up the courage to touch one!


More fishing pictures. I might have gotten a little carried away with picture-taking. :)




Don't you wish you knew what they were talking about?


While everyone who cast a line caught a fish, the biggest catches were made by the girls. This gal (who is way too pretty to catch a fish this big) landed a H-U-G-E bass.

You'll notice that she doesn't want to actually touch the fish...a girl after my own heart!

And just look at the fish Phoebe caught! She even had to have some help reeling it in.


A big ole' catfish!


Even Brad caught a fish!


After a couple of hours (and 845 fish caught) we decided to head back to the house and get out of the sun for a few hours. We shared a great dinner and a cruise around the ranch to see the zebras, oryx, axis deer, fallow deer, and lots of other animals we'll never see at the Amarillo Zoo because they are too busy taking care of the horses, goats, and sheep they have in cages. Sheesh. I won't bore with all the pictures I took of the wildlife (because there were a ton!) since this post is already a little picture-heavy. However, there is one animal that was just too cute not to post its picture.


I guess the moral of this story is Brad doesn't always have bad ideas and sometimes fishing can be fun!

What have you done recently that you thought was going to be about as fun as a root canal, but actually turned out really fun?