Way back in May Tim and I were trying to come up with the perfect birthday gift for Scooter. We tossed a few ideas around and came THIS close to buying him a basketball goal. Problem with that, is we don't really have a place to put it.
We held off and then the idea came to us, why not take him on a weekend fishing trip just Dad, mom and Scooter. So that is what we did.
Weather and other life happenings kept us from going until nearly the end of July but God is so good and we ended up going with weather in the 60's (!!! in JULY!!!).
The forecast was a bit crazy and we weren't sure that we would have a clear weekend to fish. We originally planned to go to Nashville but the closer we got to the weekend the more the weather forecast held LOTS of rain.
So we made up our minds to go to Arkansas and instead of staying in cabins, like we originally planned, we stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool. That was just in case it rained all weekend.
We left on a dreary rainy Friday morning and stopped at a new Bass Pro Shop before checking into our hotel.
The fish tank is always a favorite when we visit most Bass Pro Shops
Before checking into our hotel Scooter begged us to go fishing a little.
So we headed to the lake and checked out the docks, marina and boat rental info and then found a nice quiet pier to fish from for a little bit. It was cool, like in the 50's and I was in a spaghetti strap maxi dress... but it was so peaceful and I loved watching the two of them sit on the pier and fish.
Since this was Scooter's weekend we let him make all the decisions. That meant whatever dinner he wanted too. I should have know he would pick a Japanese buffet. That is his absolute favorite and my absolute least favorite. I managed to find some fried shrimp, rice, and veggies and Scooter loaded up on crawfish, and truthfully I don't even know what the rest of the food was. He was in heaven... .me not so much. I sucked it up and didn't let him on to the fact that I really didn't like it. In fact when he saw that I ate something from the buffet and didn't complain once, he took that as I liked Japanese buffets now. I don't!
We headed to Starbucks after dinner (my suggestion) and then we went back to the hotel to swim for a while.
We got up bright and early Saturday morning and had breakfast at the hotel.
Then we headed off to rent a boat, buy bait and fish for the day.
The weather to some may have seemed not ideal but to us it was PERFECT! It was cool but not too cool, no bugs were out, the sun wasn't beating down on us, the rain held off and we didn't even break a sweat.
There was a fog rising off the mountains and the lake was empty. It was so incredibly peaceful!
We found us a quiet cove and wouldn't you know the first place we anchored at was a great little honey hole. In fact we stayed there pretty much the rest of the time.
I could sit and watch them catch fish the entire day.......
.....and that is exactly what we did. The guys caught fish and I chilled out on the back of the boat, just soaking up the quiet peaceful time and not being needed by 3 children needing snacks, drinks, fights refereed etc...
I thought about taking a magazine to read but honestly, I enjoyed to relaxing on the boat and watching the guys fish. I took a "selfie" just so you know that I was in fact on the trip too :-)
We got out on the water around 8:00 and by 12:30 our bait was getting really low, the lake was beginning to get more crowded, it was lunch time and it had been over 4 hours of straight fishing. However we couldn't drag this boy off the water. I truly believe he would stay on the water fishing his entire life if he could. That is how much he loves it. We finally talked him into leaving by telling him we would go hike. He wasn't really excited about it but he was open to it so we that is just what we did.
I had researched this trail a little and knew that it was a fairly easy 2 mile hike and there was a waterfall somewhere on the trail. I didn't know what to expect by the waterfall. I wasn't sure if it was just a little trickle of a fall or if it was a huge fall. I knew nothing but we decided to give it a try anyways. After all it was a cool day with no bugs and we had half a day to do something.
We got on the trail and found out that "easy" didn't mean effortless. It was definitely a hike and not a leisurely walk. Less than 1/4 of the way into the trail I could tell just how out of shape I was.
However the views made it all so worth it. You have to look hard but the picture above is both Tim and Scooter on top of a cliff.
This is Scooter standing on top of that same cliff
There were lots of little creeks along the entire trail and they had several little waterfalls too.
Again not knowing what waterfall we were hiking too, we stopped and took in every little scenic stop. We didn't want to miss the grand fall we were hiking too.
We walked about a mile and a half and then we started to hear the rumble of the fall.
We knew then that this wasn't just a tiny trickle.
We turned a corner and came up on this:
We didn't even think about the fact that you could swim in the waterfall.
We took a few pictures and Scooter was just in awe.
Needless to say he was so happy he quit fishing to hike to the fall.
Well wait, that may be pushing it a bit, he really really loves to fish.
After standing there watching all the other people swim in the fall, I turned to Scooter and told him he could swim too. He was shocked and excited too. I knew I had a change of clothes in the car and I also knew there was only around 1/2 mile left to hike before getting to the car.
Tim even said if he would have had on shorts he would have swam too.
Scooter said it was SO cold but totally worth it.
He had never even seen a waterfall before let alone gotten to swim in one.
It was such a fun afternoon and I am SO glad we decided to hike!
For dinner that night Scooter picked Red Lobster and I was much happier with that selection.
We all had lobster pizza for an appetizer, salads, grilled salmon and shrimp. The kid has great taste in food (sometimes). It was so good and after dinner we headed back to the hotel to let Scooter swim for a little bit.
Saturday night we had made out our plans for Sunday. We were going to eat breakfast at the hotel, head to Star City to fish at the lake I grew up fishing on, visit my grandfather's grave and then we would head on home after lunch. Well Scooter woke up Saturday night with a fever so we decided it was probably best to head on home and not swing by Star City. Scooter was really really bummed but we made the decision that time and headed on home. A few hours on the road passed and Scooter was feeling really good and still begging us to go fishing. It was too late to head to Star City but Tim made a detour to another state park and let Scooter fish some more.
He was so happy! It gave a whole new meaning to fishing fever!
The whole weekend was just an absolute blast. We had perfect weather, perfect fishing, perfect time together with our oldest boy and we all made some great lasting memories.
I am so glad we were able to take him away for some one on one time together.
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