Part of our camping trip this weekend involved going fishing with the kids. They all get so excited over the idea of catching our dinner! So we gathered all of our gear and our worms and made the trek down to the lake. We fianlly found a little nook that Chris thought would be a "good" spot....whatever that might be! And worms were hooked (much to Clara's disgust) and lines were cast out. While Chris was overseeing the fishing and watching and waiting for those little red and white bobbers to take the plunge, I wandered around looking for anything interesting to snap a few pictures of. Believe me...there wasn't much! I did find some really cool looking, totally pricklyfied little bloom thingies....but that was about it! Anyway....all of a sudden I hear Chris shouting for Clara to "reel it in, reel it in....you've got one!" There was a flurry of excitement as Clara reeled in what truly was a catch! A nice little brook trout. Well....let me tell you...the wild excitement on the banks of that lake...over that little fish could nearly be heard back to Tucson. There were all sorts of high fives and "woo hoos" and victory dances! Not to mention that it really raised the stakes of competition for her two older brothers who had caught nothing at the time. So...the fishing set out in earnest! In the meantime...I am trying to get a picture of Clara with her fish...who is SO FREAKED out by it's flapping and flopping that she won't come anywhere near it! It was hysterical to watch her expressions and reaction. Her moment of glory turned to pure fear and hysteria when we tried to get her close to her catch! All the while, she is saying that this is the best day of her life...ever...at every moment though, keeping a wary eye on that catch of hers! After that...there was much effort...but no other successful catches. And then a storm was coming up and the winds were picking up and we decided we had better had back to camp, since it was a good little walk away! Once we got back to camp, Clara got to help her daddy clean her fish. At this point, the fish is dead...and now she is fine with it. She jumped right in there with knife in hand (also in Daddy's hand for help) and gutted that fish like a pro. She reached right in and pulled out all the guts. I found that to be rather interesting since she was so grossed out by the whole worm thing down by the lake! But she really dug in there and cleaned him all out...she was really in to the whole experience. On another note....Max was sitting off to the side watching the whole thing and was so NOT into the whole fish gut thing! His face said it all....we need not worry about Max growing up to be a professional fish cleaner! I'm thinking that our boy might be a bit delicate for that type of dirty work! Anyway....fishy got all cleaned and gutted...rinsed and wrapped. We brought him home with us and Clara excitedly spiced him up and got him ready for grilling last night. She was SO excited about her fish dinner....until it was ready to eat...at which point she turned up her nose and just said "No, thank you". Oh well...Chris and Ben seemed to enjoy her trout just fine as she watched warily from the end of the table. It was a lovely ending to the "best day of Clara's life....ever!"
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