The Fish Whisperer

So over the weekend Sam caught 5 fish in about an hour and half and was upset that he got such a low number. The last time he went fishing he caught 8 in an hour.

Camping 2010

When I told the kids to gather fire wood, I never thought I needed to explain the necessity of gathering DRY firewood. Consider it a lesson learned and pretty much emblematic of how the experience went.

Abby, Sammy, and I left Saturday morning for the serenity of Pike Lake. Part of me wanted to go to Dillon State Park, close to Zanesville since it's relatively close to our house, but the kids really liked Pike so we opted to go there. The drive down was relatively uneventful until I realized that I left our camp chairs back in the garage. In packing up the van in the morning I had taken the chairs out to make moving things in a bit easier but had neglected to put them back in. Oooopppsssss.....

Chairless but undeterred we proceeded onward to Bainbridge where we unloaded our stuff, set up the tent, and check-in, and by we I mean I. While I worked the kids played in the creek behind our campsite which in hindsight was both a blessing and curse. After getting everything up and ready, I left the kids briefly to go pay for our site. Upon returning I found two somewhat water logged children. For reasons that still remain unclear they both managed to fall into the creek. Hooo boy......

And thus I took two already water logged children to the beach where they could get even more waterlogged. Somewhat to my surprise they both wanted to walk to the beach rather than drive, and at the time that seemed like a good idea. We got to the bathhouse at the beach and Sam and I went into the Men's side to change while Abby went into the Women's side. When Sam and I came out Abby announced that the top to bathing suit was missing. She went on a brief excursion to look for it, while Sam and I remained at the beach. Unfortunately for Abby she wasn't successful in finding the top, so she wore the shirt she wore to the beach as her top. Luckily, she brought a dress along with her to change into after we were finished.

The beach experience was interesting to say the least. There was a gentleman at the beach named "Turbo". I know his name is Turbo because that's what his wife(?) called him and that's how he introduced himself. Were that the only significant thing about him, that itself would be memorable. But it's not. Turbo likes tattoos. Which in and of itself isn't all that remarkable, even though he had a lot of them. Again that doesn't entirely distinguish him, and indeed didn't distinguish from others at the beach, including a good number of the men. Turbo though had a couple tattoos that did distinguish him--on the back of each shoulder he prominently displayed a Swastika. And even that wasn't the most distinguishing attribute of Turbo. No, that would be Turbo's son. Sigh.....

I think I might have mentioned here a few times that Abby and Sam go through some sort of metamorphosis around water, and this day was no different. They rollicked and played and had a marvellous time for about 2-3 hours until it became time to make dinner. I reluctantly pulled out of the water in order to change and make our way back to the campsite. As fate would have it on the walk back to the campsite we found the top to Abby's bathing suit lying in the middle of a path in the campground. And as fate would have it shortly after arriving at the campsite Abby discovered that she did not have the top she wore while swimming--so back to the bathhouse we went.

Luckily Abby found her top in the bathouse, and we were able to return back to the campsite after buying some firewood and 2 "Kozy Kampin' " cards at the park store. The latter is a great deal. For $5.00 each the card entitles the kids to one scoop of ice cream, 2 cookies, a Slushee, and a toy from the Toy Chest--more on that in a bit.

After dinner--hot dogs and chips for Abby and me, cereal for Sam (I failed to get him to eat the chicken nuggets I made for him, sometimes that boy ain't right)--we went back to the camp store so Abby and Sam could pick toys from the Toy Chest. As I peered into the selection of toys in the Toy Chest, I couldn't help but wonder what the Chinese think of us. Sam picked a "Sun Ball" and a plastic and utterly useless fork, while Abby picked 2 animals made from cheap plastic--the workers at the store let them pick an extra toy if they promised to be good.

We left the store and went to look at the animals at the Nature Center. The Naturalist for Pike Lake, who had been doing programs at other parks, returned to the center to feed the animals and talked to us a bit about them and even gave the kids literature on identifying fish in Ohio.

Back at the campsite I tried to get the fire going again while the kids played at the playground across the way. As always Abby made new friends, but unlike most times, these friends I didn't like. 2 of the girls were throwing sand at one another, and caught Abby in their crossfire right in the eye. Grrrrr.....

I called the kids back from the playground pretty much for their own protection but also to roast marshmallows. Sam is a bit worrisome roasting the sugary concoctions. He likes to burn them. Abby is a bit obsessive about roasting the "perfect marshmallow" but nonetheless a good time was had by all. The only downside is that somehow Abby lost her new toys at the playground. I suppose if she was going lose something a $.05 toy wasn't the worst choice.

The next morning I rekindled the fire and started to cook breakfast. I sent the kids out to get firewood. Why they, and in particular Abby, thought that getting a big piece of wood literally out of the creek was a good idea is simply beyond me. Sam got the worst end of the deal, as he emerged a muddy mess from the ordeal.

After breakfast we packed up the campsite and went canoeing. Canoeing wasn't quite as much fun as last year. Sam was really upset that he couldn't sit up front and let his feelings on the matter be known. Abby for her part seemed to lose interest pretty quickly which actually worked in my favor. After a bit I took the canoe in and let Abby off and moved Sam up to the front which made him much happier.

After lunch, we headed back to the beach where for reasons unknown the kids wanted me to throw them in the water. Sam at 30 pounds isn't much of a challenge, but Abby at double that weight is a whole other challenge.

After the beach, we had some ice cream and went home. Sometime after we passed through Chilicothe Sam fell asleep.

Overall it wasn't a bad camping trip, but forgetting the chairs turned out to be a harbinger of things to come.

Really?

So last night a neighbor went GranTorino (without the gangs, guns, violence, and language) on me because my 6 lb dog happened to venture forth on the easement in front of his house. Since Sam was with me I had to censor myself, but I was seething, especially because this particular neighbor frequently soaks the sidewalk in front of his house while watering his front lawn. I can't help but wonder how much damage the guy thinks a REALLY small dog could do relative to the REALLY BIG dogs in the neighborhood that no doubt frequently do their business in his yard, along with the couple of cats that roam the neighborhood, the dozens of rabbits around, and most likely a large number of other animals. I'm guessing that in reality the least of his yard concerns is a six-pound Shih-Poo. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

Maybe we should get out on the water

Came across this article about a college that is awarding scholarships for fishing.

Contrasts

Abby is such a contrast. She escehews things deemed too "boyey" and lectures me constantly on not understanding girls--which is true as some of you can attest. Yet today when we were in Dick's she pointed out the fishing pole she wants to get when she's older, insisted on looking at kayaks and canoes, and camping equipment and even stated that she wants to go on a backpacking trip some day.

Flash Mob

Puppy Story

As you can see in the post below, we finally have a dog! Abby has wanted one for a while and truth be told so have I. Angel is a Shih Poo a cross between a Shih Tzu and a poodle, though from what we understand she's mostly Shih Tzu. She's now 2 1/2 months and weighs just a bit over 3 pounds, and will eventually be between 10-12 pounds.

Grandma and Grandpa Peck got Angel for us, after Uncle Ray found her at a breeder in Brownsburg, IN (the hometown of Mark The Shark Titus of Club Trillion). We were a little apprehensive at first but after checking Google, it would appear that a Shih Poo is pretty much a perfect dog for us. They are supposed to be very intelligent, very good with kids, and hypoallergenic which is important since Sam has issues with allergies as do I. Over Easter weekend Grandma and Grandpa picked her up from the breeder and trained her for a week. Last Friday Cindy drove over to Indy to pick her up and brought her back on Saturday and she was an instant hit. I somewhat expected her to be fairly skittish given than in the span of a week she's had 3 homes (the dog, not Cindy) but she's remarkably calm. She's been very good with the kids, rarely barks, and has only had a couple accidents. So far, so good. But then again, it's only been 2 days.....

We chose name Angel after much debate. My original idea was to name the dog Indiana to pay homage to her home state, as well as serve as a reference to Indiana Jones. My other choice was Scarlett for obvious reasons (GO BUCKS!). The name Pupcakes was also introduced as a possibility but I quickly spoke out in defense of the dog's dignity and squelched that notion. Eventually we settled upon Abby's suggestion of Angel.

Puppy

A few pictures of our newest family member:

Angel playing in the grass.

Abby is quite happy to finally have a dog, as is Sam. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a good picture of Sam with the dog.

Sledding and Other Adventures

One would think that given how much the kids like fishing, hiking, swimming, and just generally being outdoors in warm weather, that Abby and Sammy would be somewhat depressed at the colder temperatures and falling snow of winter. One would be wrong.

The bacchanalia of Christmas passed with much fanfare and shortly thereafter the gray and snowy skies of Winter descended upon us. And in this case descended is a literal since we got about 2-3 inches of snow just before New Years. Being basically a (too) large kid I promised Sam and Abby that we could go sledding on New Years day. Unfortunately, what I hadn't counted on was that the sledding hills at the closest golf course were closed; evidently 2-3 inches wasn't enough snow to open them. Undeterred we ventured to a hill close by our house where we had seen kids sledding before, but what we found was simply a huge patch of sheer ice on a very steep slope. And while that would certainly be fun to go down, Cindy and I weren't so sure about Sam and Abby making the climb back-up. Thus we opted to return home and have a monumental snow-ball fight, during which I somehow ended up on the wrong-end of a slush ball. After hot chocolate and a resounding and glorious Rose Bowl win for the Buckeyes (incidentally, I 'm not sure OSU has ever faced a more arrogant team recently than the Ducks) salved some of the disappointment, but nonetheless I felt obliged to take the kids sledding, if for no other reason than so I, er they, could use the sled I used as a boy.

Thus on Sunday after a couple phone calls we found a golf course that was open. After another couple hours of getting people to go potty, put on long-johns, and whatever else (Why is it that ventures out of the house seem to require more planning and execution than the Normandy invasion?), we, along with our kids' friend Katie, were finally able to make our way over to the Gahanna Golf Course where a glorious time was had by all, as can be seen in the pictures below:

Abby making her way back up the hill.

Katie and Sammy get ready to go

Aren't you a little old for this?

We were a bit worried that Sam especially may have difficulty with steering and such, but the little guy proved to be quite adept at it. At one point he took off in the vintage sled and looked to be heading for a tree. However, with skill that certainly would impress Danica Patrick he steered the sled away from the tree and almost certain calamity.

About the only downside to the day was the lack of manners or common sense among some of the folks there. The hills were fairly crowded and unfortunately it was far too common for kids to walk back up the middle of hill which resulted in long delays at the top as we waited for kids to get out of the way. We also had issues with kids jumping in front of Sam and Abby in the queue at the top and then taking off before we could say something, which delayed us even further. But perhaps the biggest annoyance were the number of folks with little to no control over their sleds. Poor Sammy got whacked about 5 times by kids who had no clue how to steer their sled.

Still it was a good day, and I'm glad to report that the latest in 1950's sledding technology is pretty much faster than anything else out there.

In other activity Abby's soccer team is playing indoor soccer this winter, which for her is probably good in that she'll get some exercise and develop her skills further. However, her team is playing an age group up because they've been asked by their outdoor league to move up an age group in the Spring. The upshot is that they're playing against bigger/faster girls which should help them prepare for the outdoor season. The downside is that they're playing against bigger/faster girls and drubbings like the one they took on Saturday (6-0) are likely to occur. The game itself might have been more tolerable had it not been for an overly enthusiastic father on the other team yelling encouragement at his daughter Maddie every 10 seconds or so. By the end of the game Cindy really wanted to punch him. As for Abby, she took the loss pretty hard and was pretty depressed about it all weekend. Sadly, I think she gets that trait from me.

Sammy is again taking ice-skating lessons and seemingly having a good time. He was very excited when we went skating Saturday to wear a pair of hockey skates for the first time. They were a bit beat-up but seemed to fit him better and are a bit more comfortable than figure skates. He was very excited to wear them again for his skating lesson on Sunday and had a good lesson until he fell down and hurt his knee toward the end. Unfortunately, that sort of ruined the whole experience for him. But still he's doing well and manages to stay up pretty well and more importantly gets up immediately after falling.