Last minute change of plans...

...and sometimes those are the best.

We didn't really have plans to do much of anything today. Well, I was going to clean and do laundry and stuff, but that was about it. Then a friend of mine texted me to let me know that she and her son and her girlfriend were going to be at the lake near our house and we should come out and say hi.

I mentioned it to The Dude, and he said that we should go fishing while we were there.

The mad scramble ensued.

I got a quick shower (yes, before I went fishing) and dug the fishing poles out of the garage and tossed them into the van along with the chairs. The boys and I went and got The Dude, we ran a couple of errands, dropped Alex off with The Dude's mother (he, uh, had some issues and lost the chance to go fishing) and took off for the lake.

We stopped at the bait shop first, where Daniel swindled The Dude out of a quarter...and we got our fishing licenses for the rest of the year. Now, we are free to go fishing whenever we want to go - and I fully intend to do exactly that.

Then we cruised around for a while until we found our friends. The joy of that lake in particular is that there is virtually zero cell phone reception - and that's a good thing when we just want to unplug and get away.

A few random shots...

Getting situated.

Trying to figure it all out.

Giving a few more pointers.

There was the threat of severe weather.

Across the lake.

Travis's first catch - and yes, photobombed by some punk who
wouldn't leave us alone, even when the park rangers sent
him back over to his parents.

Love this view. Even with the crocs and
ugly pants.

Raven's foster puppy. She was so tired.

He got bored with fishing and decided to dig holes.

And he caught one...

First catch - for him.

It was actually clear for a while.

My big - and only - catch of the day.
I even sacrificed a worm by throwing him straight into the water
in an attempt to appease the fishing gods and allow me to catch
just one fish - but it didn't work.

Budweiser can - a quick google search placed it from 1996.

His second one.

Christine and Travis, giving each other a hard time like only
mothers and sons can do.

Like a little old man...

Raven wasn't thrilled about being this close to it.
But she was a good sport about it!

And his third catch. The big showoff.

 And of course we had to do the goofy couples pictures, just for the heck of it.

Me and The Dude (obviously)

Raven and Christine

So anyway, we had a blast but had to scoot out of there fairly quickly as the weather started to roll into the area. We got back into town, picked Alex back up, grabbed some pizza, came home, ate, did baths..... and now I have to do all of the cleaning that I didn't do today while I was out drowning worms. I get to work bright and early in the morning (yay - extra hours!) so The Dude is going to be hanging out here with the kids while I go and do that, and then maybe I'll get to take a nap in the afternoon. Ha.