Fishing Trip

We went out on our fishing trip Saturday. Me, my dad and my boy went out. We got there about 8:30ish or so and we fished till almost 4.

The only 2 fish we landed (both by my dad) are below. Only one was keepable. Normally, we would have thrown him back when we were done, but my wife told my boy to catch us dinner. So he was insistent that we brought home some fish.

I told my wife, it was her dinner. We'd have to eat something else :)

Probably about a 5 inch bass. He was tiny.

Good sized crappie. A few more, and we would be eating well!

Relaxation

Work has been so crazy lately. Long hours, high stress. You know, that kind of stuff. It's Saturday, and I've got plans for some hopefully relaxing time and (if I'm lucky) some good eats!

I'm headed to Skiatook lake today for some fishing! I know my son and my dad are going, and there is a possibility that my grandfather may go as well.

I'm really looking forward to this, now if I can only manage to come home with a bunch of fish, I'll be doing great!

Labor Day Picnic/Hike

My parents called today, and asked what plans we had. Since we didn't have any, they asked if we wanted to come out for a picnic and a hike.

Sounded good to me!

We got to my parents around noon or so, and we headed out to Osage Hills State Park. I didn't even know about this park. It is about 15 minutes west of Bartlesville on Highway 60.

They have camping (tents and RV), hiking, a pool, tennis court, a ball field. There is a lake that is suppose to have good bass, crappie, catfish and perch fishing (no gasoline powered boats).

After cooking and eating some delicious hamburgers, we went out for a hike. It was beautiful.


There is also a lot of wild life. Today, we saw buzzards, hawks, lizards, grey and brown squirrels, armadillo's (alive can you believe it), turtles, and deer. My parents have seen bobcats out there. I'm know I didn't see one, but I think I might have heard one, but I'm not positive.

I have never seen so many armadillo's alive in one place. I'm use to seeing them dead on the roads all the time. At one point, I heard a noise, so I got everyone to be mostly quiet. (You'd have to know my family to really understand that). I tracked the noise to something that was under some leaves. Turned out to be an armadillo. As I got a bit closer to it, it turned into a ball (self defense).


That was too cool! I tried to get closer to get a really good picture. As I did, I guess it decided I had gotten close enough. It jumped up, and took off running. When it did that, I about jumped out of my skin, and jumped back myself. I know what happens when you corner wild animals. They tend to turn and fight and I didn't want to get whooped by an armadillo. What I didn't know about them is how fast they can run. Which is very, VERY fast. hehe My wife laughed so hard!

We hiked for about 2 hours or so. Maybe 2 and a half. My boy did great! I was a bit concerned taking him on such a long hike. But he couldn't have done better.

I plan on going back when foliage starts changing. It should be beautiful!

If you want to see some more pictures, I have posted some as a set on Flickr.

Family Lake Trip

My wife had the day off from work today, so we went out to the lake today for some fun. My daughter had to work, so she couldn't join us, but we had a lot of fun.

Swimming, tubing, and just the normal putting around on the water. It was a lot of fun.

On the way back, we ran across a guy paddling his boat. So, we took him into tow and got him close to the shore. We offered to take him to the dock, but he didn't want that.

I got a sun burn today too. Not bad, but since it was on top of yesterdays slight sun burn, I'm putting off a bit of heat.

I had a nice time getting to spend it with my wife and son. The only way the trip could have been better was if my daughter could have made it.

Lake Trip

BeautifulMorning1
Originally uploaded by jarrard@swbell.net.

Today, we had a Team Building exercise at work. When you hear it like that, it doesn't sound too much fun. But when you take it a bit further and add that the exercise was at the lake, on 2 pontoon boats, then the trip sounds great!

Especially, if you like the people you work with, which I do.

We had a lot of fun. This picture I took on the way to the lake this morning. I just had to stop and take it.

I was asked not to blog any of the other pix of the group. heheh I did put a couple of more scenery pix on my flickr account though

Update

I know, it's been a while. 8 days in fact since I've last updated. I think this is the longest I have gone without updating.

Where to start...

Soccer
Well, I didn't get to see any soccer games from Wednesday till yesterday (Monday). The USA is still in the mix, but they will have to win their game Thursday and Italy has to win theirs. If Italy doesn't win their game, then the US will need a lot of points to make it to the next round.

VBS
Vacation Bible School started last night. I do believe this is the smallest VBS start I've ever seen. We only had 9 kids last night. The point isn't really the number of kids that come, but what they get out of it, but more kids would have been nice.

Camping Trip
Last week, we went on a camping trip. We camped at Twin Points at Skiatook Lake from Wednesday through Saturday. It was a very nice trip. It was hot, but we had a good strong south wind the whole time. That was good for the heat, but it made getting out on the lake impossible. We tried Friday night, but I was afraid I was going to capsize the boat, so we headed back to the dock.

On Thursday night, my boy was riding his bike that he got for Christmas. He hasn't ridden it much. So this was a good time for him to practice. He was doing pretty good. I took him up a hill to have him come down so I could take some pictures. Well, it started off real good, but he got going too fast, and had problems stopping. Needless to say, he crashed. And he crashed good! Scratched up his bike and his knees. One was bleeding pretty good, but once we got the mud cleaned off his knee, it wasn't bad. I was proud that he handled it as well as he did, or he might have really gotten hurt. It also made me happy when he got back on the bike Friday morning. I was a bit afraid he wouldn't get back on it.

There was a chance of rain Friday night and into Saturday. We knew this, and almost came home. But this is Oklahoma, and so until it actually rains, who knows if it really will. I asked my boy if he wanted to go home or stay one more night even though it might rain. He said he wanted to stay. So we put the rain tarps on the tents. The neighbors Friday night sat up late into Saturday morning partying. I really wouldn't have cared, except they were noisy as could be. So, I didn't really get any sleep till they went to bed which was around 2. Then their dogs started barking at a raccoon after all had gotten quite and I finally got to sleep. Well, the 'coon finally moved on and the dog was quite and I got more sleep. Then the rain moved in. Lots of lighting and thunder. And the tent started leaking. So did the rain flap. It was dripping on my wife. We talked for a bit about going in or staying through the night. We decided that we would go home if our boy woke up. If not, we would stick it out.

Well, the next morning (around 7ish or so), we got up (the rainflap finally quite leaking sometime during the night. I had put a towel where it was dripping on the bed so we could try to sleep). We started packing up camp to go home. Got most everything put up, and woke up my boy. He asked why everything was wet. He had slept all through the storms in his own tent. My wife and I just laughed about that.

We finished packing up and went into town for breakfast (between the raccoons and the rain, or planned breakfast was wet). After that, we headed home to unpack, reset up the tents and wash and dry them out.

Misc
Saturday morning as we were headed home, my daughters ex-boyfriend decided to try to choke her and then hit her (at her work), so he was arrested for assault. My wife went up to check on her, and I stayed home with our boy and unpacked. Yesterday, my wife and daughter filed a protective order against him.

Through all of this, I missed going to a birthday party of a guy I work with. He turned the big 30! (sucka). Anyway, gratz again.

Well, I guess this novel is long enough.

later

Lake Trip

This past weekend, my wife and son and I took my grandfathers boat back out. We cruised around and I think they both had a good time. About 3, my son was ready to head home. But we had other plans.

We got a chance to check out the new marina at Skiatook. It was very nice. They had guys out to help pull your boat in and if they can reach it (and in our boat, they couldn't). The marina was well lit and clearly marked which is very nice. Of course, it is much more expensive than Crystal Bay Marina. Though Crystal Bay has a much better store. At least for the moment.

One of the ladies my wife works with was having a birthday party for her son at Tall Chief Cove there at Skiatook lake, so we headed over for the party. My boy was glad we stayed.

Around 9 or so, we ordered some pizza. Sometime after 11, we left the campsite to go home. I got all the lights plugged in, and we headed out. We pulled out of the cove, and I turned on the spot light, and I couldn't see anything. Too much mostiure in the air, so it was just like turning on the high beams in the fog. After a very long ride back to the Marina, my back was all in knots. I had boating after dark. I love fishing after dark, but not boating. We ended up getting home around 1:00 a.m. or there abouts.

Day at the Lake!

We had a great day today!

We went out to Skiatook Lake today, after my daughter finally got back from picking up her boyfriend and having a flat tire. We got there about 12:30. After some prep work on the boat that needed to be done (like scrubbing the intakes on the motor and putting the new decals on the boat) we topped off the tank, and were off for a day in the sun!

We went south of Tall chief cove, and stopped off for some swimming and some tubing.

We were able to get my boy to get in the tube with his sister, and he had a blast. He decided he wanted to try again by him self, but that would come later.

My daughter tried swimming with Gizmo today too. He didn't dig it as you can hopefully see here.

After some swimming and tubing, we went to the cliffs as my daughter calls them, and they jumped from them some, and swung from the rope swing.

We dropped my daughter and her boyfriend off at the dock around 5 p.m. and topped off the tank again.

My wife, my boy and I went back out for some more tubing. They headed out first. After bouncing them around, she got off for a rest, and my boy stayed out solo. It was great. Course, it was like pulling an empty tube since he didn't weigh much, but he loved it. He even showed off by going without hands once. hehehe

Look mom, no hands!

Afterward, we stopped and picked up about $5 of fireworks and stopped at a friends house to pop them before coming back home.