Welcome to the blog post about our best-craziest-most embarrassing-most negligent outing ever. Seriously. The short story: we went to a fishing pond and Logan fell in (FELL IN!) while neither John nor I were watching. #badparentingmoment
We read about Star Prairie Trout Farm a few times and while we had a day open this weekend, we knew we had to give it a try! We just grabbed what we could to be set for the day's outing and off we went. Usually John and I both pine over how to plan for such an outing, so we were proud of ourselves for just getting up and doing it. The kids were so excited for their fishing adventure! The drive to Star Prairie was longer than we expected so by the time we got there everyone was antsy.
We didn't bring our own poles because I had called to make sure they had all the equipment we would need. Many of their kids' poles were broken, so we ended up sharing a couple. Eden's didn't work, but she had a good time flinging it all around. (Miss Independent)
Dad and the boys getting all set!
The trout farm is a nice experience because you are guaranteed to catch some fish! Of course, there is no putting any back, so you have to pay for what you catch. Its easier for kids because there really isn't much waiting for a bite.
Bennett was pumped to use the Buzz Lightyear pole...
what a great day!!
Zillions of trout!!
Baiting the hook...
casting with Dad...
This little beauty was in the background...
doing all kinds of cute faces that I just had to photograph. :)
Then BAM! There is the first catch!
Benny caught a whopper!
It was big and heavy...
and super floppy!!
Bennett was thrilled and we were all so excited!!
Then Benny started to hold his arm and cry...somewhere in the wrestle with the fish a bee had stung Bennett good in the arm. Poor guy went from crazy excited to so upset in just one minute.
Meanwhile...Eden used her fishing pole like a lightsaber.
After the chaos and when Benny's was calmed down, Logan was up!
It didn't take long...
it was another big one and Logan was able to reel it in mostly on his own.
Happy dance!
And then he even wanted to HOLD it!!
And just like that, the kids were fishermen! :)
Poor Benny...still not quite recovered.
There was more fishing and more catching...
More happy dancing...
More fish holding.
Then we knew we had more than enough trout to leave with, so we called it and decided to get some fish food for the kids. This was probably only a total of 45 minutes after arriving at the trout farm. It didn't take long to leave with more trout than we really wanted.
We turned in our poles, asked them to clean and filet our trout, and got some fish food to throw in.
All the kids loved throwing in the food and watching the fish rush to it.
There was quite a bit of area to explore - with bridges and rocks so we walked around quite a bit.
Dad and his three.
You may think here that Logan is dangerously close to falling over the bridge...
no, you are premature in the story to think this is where is happens.
Mom and her three.
Hooray! Bennett was feeling better!
There are no more photos in this story because at this point, Logan ran from one end of the farm where I was keeping tabs on Eden (who ironically I was sure would be the one to fall in!) over to John and Bennett who were settling up with our fish. Logan tried to jump over a rock and fell straight into the pond. ALL THE WAY IN! The water is kept at about 40 degrees for the trout. In fact, neither John nor I even saw it happen...the girl at the desk said, "Isn't that your son? I think he just fell in!".
We were shocked and we ran to Logan who was freezing and soaked. Then John and I blamed each other for like 20 minutes while we got Logan changed into his birthday suit (because we didn't bring any changes of clothes!) and a blanket, sweatshirt and towel from the car. Poor Logan - it happened so fast he didn't even know what to think. And it wasn't his fault because we should have been watching him. Luckily he didn't get hurt at all.
We had planned to meet Baggie and Bopbop in Hudson for dinner, so we quickly loaded up our pond-smelling van and headed to Hudson where I ran in to Target for fresh under ware, shirt, pants and shoes.
By this time we were almost ready to laugh about it. Then when Bennett said, "Next time we go fishing I am going to fall in so I can get some Ninja Turtles under ware"...we just cracked up! (Needless to say, I bought those under ware for Bennett ASAP so we don't have to go falling in ponds all over Wisconsin).
We met B & B in Hudson in time for dinner and had a lovely evening outside enjoying dinner (and drinks, lots of drinks) after a crazy day. It was crazy and a little scary. Next time we'll be keeping an eye on the kids and bringing extra clothes for everyone.
Yay for spontaneous family outings!
