Fishing

While we were at the cabin this summer, Jasper learned how to fish. Daddy and Auntie Brittany helped him perfect the technique, and his cousins were great supporters and fishing enthusiasts.

Auntie Brittany had the fortune to catch the raft on one cast. Somehow she managed to get the hook free, and as she was reeling in the line she caught a fish. How crazy is that?

Linnea and Karin are excellent fisherwomen and love to catch fish right off the end of papa's dock. Linnea is even willing to put the worm on the hook by herself.

For a little while Jasper practiced casting with a pole that didn't have a hook. Check out the video.

Check out Linnea's form!

This was the first time Jasper was so close to a fish.

As you can see, he's not that excited about it.

On the second night of fishing, Jasper was successful at reeling in a good fish.

Everyone is waiting with anticipation to see what he'll bring in.

"Go, Jasper, go!" is what Linnea was cheering.

This is Jasper's first fish. So excited!!!

Jasper really wanted to cast the line with the hook on it. He is trying to be as close to daddy as possible.

and as soon as he can, he takes over the line. Fishing off the dock was a great evening activity for the bigger kids. Benjamin was snoozing at this point.

Not long after this photo was taken, Jasper was walking around on the dock, going around that cut-out corner you see in the bottom of the photo. As he was walking, talking and generally being excited and distracted, he missed the dock with one step. One foot hit the decking and the other hit midair. I stood in momentary shock as I saw him miss the decking, twist over onto his back and splash into the water on his back. He submerged and came back up quickly. Just as he was coming up, Drew jumped into the water and grabbed him. Jasper was scared but not traumatized. Drew said he resisted the urge to jump in immediately to make sure he could see where Jasper was coming up (so he didn't jump on top of him). Sounds like excellent rescue training to me. Jasper, Drew and I (to some extent) were pretty wet after that unplanned dip in the lake. But after a warm bath, everyone was good as new. And, Jasper was back running on the dock the next morning.