TAKING THE GRANDCHILDREN FISHING....

Max and Willow got fishing rods for Christmas and have already used them a couple of times during their holidays... Willow managed to catch a fish on her line but as of yet, Max had caught anything... He was quick to point out though that he had plenty of nibbles on his line..

Steve has bought the boat down, so we decided that we would take the children out in the boat to go fishing for the morning this morning.  

We needed to be up early and take off around 8am to catch the tide.  By leaving at this time, it would allow us to get down to Caloundra where we wanted to put the boat in so we could pump a few yabbies first.  

Willow helped to hold the boat whilst Poppy went up and parked the car and trailer..

Both the children needed to wear life jackets so the next job was making sure they had their life jackets on and they were secure.  Max loved the whistle on his jacket and of course had to blow it.   Steve reminded him that the whistle was for emergencies in case he needed help when he had fallen into the water...

Once the kids had their life jackets on, it was time to take off.  We were only motoring across the creek to find some yabbie banks.  Unfortunately the tide was in a little too much so we were pumping in shallow water.   Not the ideal....

Initially it was Willow that hopped out of the boat to help Steve but in the end she couldn't do it.  She seems terrified of any bug like creature and those nippy claws terrified her, so in the end Max got out and helped his Poppy...

Max was really good trying to sieve the mud out of the pan and then he would bring it sieve over to me for me to pick out the yabbies and put them in the basket...

We only pumped enough yabbies to fill the bottom of the basket and then we took off across the creek to drift with the tide whilst we fished....

The kids love the ride in the boat and loved seeing the wake of water the boat made and we traveled along..

We enjoyed morning tea on the boat and whilst we were eating our morning tea we had our lines out waiting for a bite.  Max was the only one to get a bite on his line...

He was so super excited to catch his very first fish, although he did rely on Poppy to help wind it in.  His first fish was a brim... Just on legal length but to make sure we ended up throwing it back as now of us particularly like brim as a fish..

By  now it was mid day so time to head back as we wanted to head back up to my friend Barb's for a swim with her grandchildren this afternoon..

By the time we got back to the boat ramp, loaded the boat and headed home it was close to 1pm.  We unhitched the boat and the kids helped us to move it into the shed before we came inside to have a quite bite to eat for lunch...

Once we had our lunch it was time to get into our swimming gear and then head on down the motorway to go to John and Barbs.  John and Barb had invited us for dinner tonight... Pizzas....

I had packed the kids PJs so that I could bath them and get them ready for bed so that I only had to put them to bed once we got home...

The children are loving their new friends.  It is so exciting for Barb and I to watch the kids playing together like this..  Our own children were great friends, so it is a little like re watching the lives of our own children again...  They have enjoyed catching up each day, and it has been special for us to watch them at play...