Gone Fishin'

On our way home from camping Tyler swung us by a fish hatchery. It was a pretty fun stop where the kids could feed the big trout and learn how the people raise them from an egg into a fish that's ready to head down stream. After stopping there we drove a few miles down stream to, ironically, a Fishing Hole, where we paid $1 for a pole and caught ourselves three trout within 5 minutes. I thought that was funny. But $23 dollars later we'd had ourselves quite an experience.

The kids were excited about the prospect of catching something so quickly! Luke loved grabbing the caught fish with his net. Jake stared in amazement at everything Tyler did to remove the hook from the fishes' mouths and drop them into the bucket. And Ashley reminded us over and over whenever we asked her to help with something that she was a GIRL! I was okay with the feild trip until I started feeling bad for the fish as they lay dying in the bucket. And then when the lady whacked them on the top of the head with her scizzors, chopped their heads off and sliced their guts out - all infront of the kids - I couldn't help but shutter (we had to take home everything we caught). The only cool part of that process was when she set one of their tiny little hearts on the countertop and we watched it beat about six more times before it stopped. That sounds so morbid as I write it. But when else can a child watch a beating heart come to a stop? Ah well.

We came home and fired up the Barbie. Tyler and I, again, shuttered at the prospect of eating the fish we'd caught but the kids sure didn't. They loved it! And begged us for more! Definitely a surprise. So that was this year's lesson in the food chain I guess. All in the name of teaching children, right?