10/05/2012 through 10/07/2012:
October brings Boys’ Weekend again. Last year, we started a tradition to have an annual Boys’ Weekend. Grandpa D, Eric, and I spend the weekend camping in the motor home. This year, we invited Eric’s cousin Tyler to join us. We had a lot of fun! Eric has been talking for several months about going fishing, so when we planned this year’s trip of course we had to go fishing. Grandpa reserved a camp site at Summit Lake State Reservoir. When we began making plans, I told Eric about the trip. He remembered Boys’ Weekend from last year, so he was very excited! He talked frequently about the upcoming trip and going fishing with Grandpa. Eric could hardly wait to get in Grandpa’s boat to go fishing. This would be his first time fishing!
Grandpa drove to our house on Friday afternoon. We packed our stuff into the motor home, at least the stuff that was not already packed in our truck. When we were ready, we headed to Tyler’s house to pick him up after he got home from school. We loaded his stuff into the truck and away we went! Eric and Tyler rode with Grandpa in the motor home. I drove by myself in the truck…alone, unless you count Mickey 🙂 We needed the truck to put Grandpa’s boat in and out of the water at the campground. Eric was so proud to be sitting up front in the motor home with Grandpa. He was so high up and what a view through the expansive windshield!
Mickey rode behind me in the truck.
We set up the motor home Friday when we arrived at the campground. It was raining, so we sat inside all evening. Grandpa cooked some burgers on the grill under the canopy. We enjoyed just hanging out and relaxing. On Saturday morning, we got up and ate breakfast. Eric and Tyler played and ran around the campsite. Grandpa and I prepared the boat and fishing tackle. Eric and Tyler helped with this, too. We fixed some sandwiches for lunch, and we were ready for an afternoon of fishing. We decided to go in the afternoon, since it was cold and windy. We figured it would be more comfortable in the afternoon. Eric and Grandpa rode in the boat on the trailer, and Tyler and I rode in the truck to the boat ramp. Eric had so much fun fishing on the boat! He really enjoyed spending time with Grandpa. They sat next to each other, and Grandpa showed him how to hold onto his fishing pole, how to watch his bobber for fish, and how to reel it in when the fish is hooked. Eric’s attention span was remarkable. Grandpa and I had differing opinions beforehand about how long Eric would last on the boat before he got bored, but he exceeded both of our expectations significantly. We were out on the lake fishing for over three hours, and Eric was engaged the entire time. I caught the first fish…too small, throw it back. Grandpa caught a couple fish…also too small, throw them back. Finally, Eric caught a fish using Grandpa’s fishing pole. He was so excited. He reeled it in all by himself. It too was not large enough to keep but every bit as exciting to catch! Eric was only a little disapointed that he had not caught it with his own pole. To this day, if you ask him whether he caught any fish on that trip, he will explain that he caught one, “but it was on Grandpa pole, not mine.”
Eric making a silly face on the sofa in the motorhome.
Eric studied the park map, esecially the details of the lake.
Eric rode in the boat to the ramp with Grandpa.
It was a great weekend. We relaxed, had fun, bonded, and mostly just hung out. We are all looking forward to next year!
P.S. The mulitude of big fish that we caught were not mentioned above, as we ate them all and so did not bring back any evidence of their capture 🙂