Gone Fishing...

Today was a wonderful day. Determined not to let my son miss the adventures of the great outdoors, I took Cooper fishing. If you know anything about me, you know that I am not necessarily in love with fish. I don't like anything about them, really. But I put aside my feelings (and sometimes had to hold me nose) so Cooper and I could be fishermen. The Woodlands holds an annual Fishing Derby at the park a few blocks from our house. It's awesome - they provide the bait, music, food, and 600 farm raised catfish, hungry and ready to be caught! Cooper and I have been talking about going fishing for a few days now and he woke up excited to go!

Here he is with his new fishing pole:

These are my two new best friends - Bob and John - Woodlands Park Rangers! They came to the rescue when Mommy couldn't figure out how to tie the right kind of know to attach the hook. They also taught me more than I probably ever need to know about catfish, tangled fishing lines, and park ranger-ing. : )

Here's my happy fisherman, ready to stake out a spot and get catching!

My dad met us at the park to help with the fishing derby. He was hugely helpful and soon Cooper caught on to the fact that Pop was a better fisherman than Mommy... I was glad to let him teach Cooper about baiting a hook. No stink bait for me!

I just love this precious little face!!

Cooper loved to reel in the line... even with nothing on it! My dad soon changed from live bait to a "gummy fish" to let Cooper pull something in that wouldn't require re-hooking every time. Cooper was precious & thought that he caught a fish each time! Oh, the simple joys of being 2!

In the end, we didn't catch any catfish... but we had a blast! There's not much better in life than spending time outside with your family. Now Cooper is ready for our 1st Annual Bates Family Camp-out in a few weeks. We are pumped and we're ready to show the rest of the fam how to fish!