Camping in the Living Room and Fishing

Jared has been wanting to go camping/fishing for over a year. We have such a busy summer that we picked the first weekend we had free to go. We invited our good friends to go with us. They have been before and could show us the ropes.

Unfortunately, they had to cancel to go to a family baptism. And honestly, I was a little worried how to keep the kids warm since the nights are still pretty chilly. We thought about going ourselves, but decided to stay home and "camp" in the living room and go fishing at our local reservoir. We invited Grandma since she loves fishing.

Daddy bought a fishing pole special for Ryan. It is a Cars one and Ryan loves it! He practiced for a few days before. Here is a video of him practicing at home the day before. 

We started out our night by having Tin Foil dinners. YUM! We made ours with potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, hamburger meat, and bratwurst with Cream of Mushroom. It was delicious! I am definitely adding it to my monthly menu.

It doesn't look that great, but it was amazing! Especially the Bratwurst!

When Ryan isn't eating, eating Daddy's food off his fork always works. :)

We blew up the air mattress for Grandma and Ryan to sleep on. I was sleeping on the couch. Jared played the "bad back" card and slept in the bed. :) Although, after I watched my movie I joined him. :) My mom said that when Ryan woke up, the first thing he did was look on the couch and say, "Where's Mom?" Aw. I should have stayed on the couch. :)

It was too loud! :)

Ryan giving me a "tongue kiss," a kiss with his tongue. He thinks it is so funny.

Here are two videos of Ryan jumping on the air mattress. He is so fun and is so active. It is so funny to watch him doing this and know that he is scared to death to go up in the McDonald's play place by himself. :)

Next we roasted marshmallows and made Smores. I ended up putting my marshmallow in the microwave and melting the chocolate that way. So yummy! Ryan didn't like it that much and gave his to Grandma. He just wanted to eat the chocolate. :)

Grandma took a bunch of fun pictures of the boys in the morning. 

Then we headed out to Spanish Oaks Reservoir to do some fishing. It was kind of hard having Brady with us when all he wanted to do was crawl around. Eventually, after walking around the reservoir twice, he fell asleep and that helped, but this might not be a family activity in the future. :)

I love this baby!

Here is a video of Ryan fishing for the first time.

This kept Brady busy for about 5 minutes, unpacking the diaper bag, a favorite past time.

Jared looked like this for a lot of the time. :)

From across the reservoir.

Happy boy on our walk.

He fell asleep with his feet up. Does it get any better?

Cute Grandma. :)

We were fishing for about two hours without having caught anything. We saw neighbors on both sides catching fish and definitely didn't want to go home without some! Finally, Jared got one! It was so exciting! Here is a video of it. :)

 

Here is a video of Ryan with the fish. He was both excited and scared. 

 

Ryan was very enamored with the fish and hardly left it's side.

 

Here is a video of Brady having fun splashing in the water. I wanted him to have some fun. :)

And this is the last picture we have before Ryan slipped into the water. We knew it was slippery and warned him, but couldn't keep him out of the water. 

Ryan slipped into the water since it was so mossy and couldn't get back up. He just kept slipping deeper and deeper. Jared threw his pole and jumped into get him. He couldn't get his footing either and they both went deeper and deeper. Finally Jared caught his foot in a spot and was stuck there. He had a hold of his line and we tried pulling him in with that and it hurt his hand pretty badly. Finally we grabbed a rope and with the help of a young man, pulled them both in. It was so scary. I jumped in to get Jared's fishing pole since he threw it in the water. Ryan was screaming so hard, it was so scary. After we got out, he didn't seem too traumatized. I had thought about putting Ryan in a life jacket, but knew he was scared of the water and wouldn't go too far in. I had no idea that the edge was slippery and pretty much deadly for a little child. Next time he will have a life vest. Also Jared's phone and wallet got soaked. His phone is working after a day in rice, but it isn't 100%. We're hoping it recovers, but from now on Jared will leave his phone and wallet somewhere safe while they are fishing. 

We are so grateful things didn't end up as badly as they could have. It turned out okay, but just the thought of losing Ryan was terrible. I hear his screams when I think about it. But the great thing about kids is they forgive and forget. When we got home he said, "That was a GREAT trip!" He knows he was too close to the edge. Next time we will take huge precautions, like Jared will only use Ryan's fishing pole with him, not two separate ones. Hopefully we learned how to stay safe and if you have suggestions, let us know. And if you've learned something, I'm glad we can share. 

We ended up going home right after this. The stress of the whole thing was so exhausting. We all took naps after lunch. 

We took off Ryan's shirt and Jared is completely soaked. He is drying off his phone with Ryan's spare underwear. :)

Drying everything out of Jared's wallet.

At least we caught one fish! Jared calls it the $400 fish since his phone almost died from this trip.

Despite the slipping into the reservoir incident, it was a nice weekend. Spending time as a family is so important. I know that the traditions we set now will create a wonderful home where our kids will feel loved and supported and cared for. And camping and fishing is a great way to spend family time. We look forward to next time (with a few changes...) and hopefully we'll catch more fish. :)

Here is the view from the reservoir. It is such a beautiful place. We are so lucky to have it 5 minutes from our house.

If you look closely, you can see the sandy beach on the edge, much more child friendly.

We feel so blessed things turned out the way they did. We loved fishing so until next time Reservoir.