One of the reasons I love living in the DFW area is because there is something to do EVERY weekend, if not every day. You have to actually choose which activity you'll do ... not just go for which ever one is happening.
Today we choose to first go to the Borders bookstore down the road to listen to some fire fighters from the local station read some fire safety books; then the kids were allowed to climb all over the fire engine, try on their uniforms and ask the fire fighters all sorts of silly questions.
Next we headed up to Cabela's in Fort Worth for their annual Kids Fest. There was SO much to do! The kids climbed in and out of RV's/tents/boats, up a climbing wall, watched sporting dogs try to break records, went on a "virtual safari", touched exotic (dead and stuffed) animals, fished in a derby (more on that later), dug for dinosaur bones, sampled numerous foods (including "wild game" sausage), threw balls at a dunk tank ... It was a VERY full afternoon.
Now, about that derby. As soon as Ms. R and B-Man saw other kids gearing up to do some fishing they would not be pried away. I was a wee bit queasy at the idea, as I saw in the groups before us that the parents of the kids had to disengage the fish from the hooks, toss them back and re-bait the hooks. I am opposed to touch fish in general, forget about it when it's on a hook wiggling around. However, as the only adult there with my kids ... I was kind of stuck. The deal was fishing was acutally free, however, if you wanted a trophy it was $5, or a shirt for $10. Ms. R was dying for a trophy - as she knows from seeing her babysitters trophies for volleyball that is means that you are good at whatever you happen to be involved with. I, of course, broke and told her as long as I NEVER had to touch the trophy while we were there this afternoon and she let her brother share it with her if he wanted, I'd let her get one. She was surprisingly responsible with it. As promised, she never asked me to carry it (I think she may be getting smarter) and she always remembered to pick it up after they had done all following activities. She got the trophy at the beginning of the 4 hours we were at Cabela's - so I was pretty darn impressed.
B-Man was a crack fisher man. Seriously, I don't know if his bait looked different, or if he wiggled his hook differently, or if he was just in a plentiful area but within 30 seconds of tossing his line in every time (much to my chagrin) he had another fish hooked. I lost count of how many he caught. When I'd pull them out, he's cringe away from the thrashing tad pole like it was a shark. Every time though, I would (1) curse inwardly (2) take a fortifying breath (3) gingerly pull out the little fish (4) take a firm hold of the fish (5) vomit a little in my mouth - seriously (5) proceed to disengage the poor fish (6) toss it back (7) try not to think about the fact that my hands STUNK like fish. ... oh yeah, in there some where I also congratulated him on his catch ... while cursing in my head.
Ms. R was the proud reeler of 1 *mighty* fish.
Today we choose to first go to the Borders bookstore down the road to listen to some fire fighters from the local station read some fire safety books; then the kids were allowed to climb all over the fire engine, try on their uniforms and ask the fire fighters all sorts of silly questions.
Next we headed up to Cabela's in Fort Worth for their annual Kids Fest. There was SO much to do! The kids climbed in and out of RV's/tents/boats, up a climbing wall, watched sporting dogs try to break records, went on a "virtual safari", touched exotic (dead and stuffed) animals, fished in a derby (more on that later), dug for dinosaur bones, sampled numerous foods (including "wild game" sausage), threw balls at a dunk tank ... It was a VERY full afternoon.
Now, about that derby. As soon as Ms. R and B-Man saw other kids gearing up to do some fishing they would not be pried away. I was a wee bit queasy at the idea, as I saw in the groups before us that the parents of the kids had to disengage the fish from the hooks, toss them back and re-bait the hooks. I am opposed to touch fish in general, forget about it when it's on a hook wiggling around. However, as the only adult there with my kids ... I was kind of stuck. The deal was fishing was acutally free, however, if you wanted a trophy it was $5, or a shirt for $10. Ms. R was dying for a trophy - as she knows from seeing her babysitters trophies for volleyball that is means that you are good at whatever you happen to be involved with. I, of course, broke and told her as long as I NEVER had to touch the trophy while we were there this afternoon and she let her brother share it with her if he wanted, I'd let her get one. She was surprisingly responsible with it. As promised, she never asked me to carry it (I think she may be getting smarter) and she always remembered to pick it up after they had done all following activities. She got the trophy at the beginning of the 4 hours we were at Cabela's - so I was pretty darn impressed.
B-Man was a crack fisher man. Seriously, I don't know if his bait looked different, or if he wiggled his hook differently, or if he was just in a plentiful area but within 30 seconds of tossing his line in every time (much to my chagrin) he had another fish hooked. I lost count of how many he caught. When I'd pull them out, he's cringe away from the thrashing tad pole like it was a shark. Every time though, I would (1) curse inwardly (2) take a fortifying breath (3) gingerly pull out the little fish (4) take a firm hold of the fish (5) vomit a little in my mouth - seriously (5) proceed to disengage the poor fish (6) toss it back (7) try not to think about the fact that my hands STUNK like fish. ... oh yeah, in there some where I also congratulated him on his catch ... while cursing in my head.
Ms. R was the proud reeler of 1 *mighty* fish.
3 comments:
that is absolutely fantastic, what a SUPER day I wish SOOO much that I was there!!!
Looks like so much fun. I was killing myself laughing at you taking those fish off the hooks.
Thanks Jenie. Thanks a lot ;)
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