I took Levi, my 5 year old, on a little camping trip this weekend. I've been trying to be more intentional about spending one-on-one time with my boys. After our trip, I'm even more convinced that this is an important thing. There is something about getting away and being totally focused on just one.

OK, now to the fishing story: We were next to a small lake (or is that a big pond) and we wanted to fish a bit before we lit our campfire. I put a minnow and bobber on Levi's "Batman" kids fishing pole. We sat down on the deck as darkness settled in.

We were about ready to quit when the bobber disappeared. I hung onto the pole with Levi as it doubled-over. We spent 7 or 8 minutes trying to reel in the submerged monster. I was trying to let Levi do some of the work, but was also trying to keep the pole from breaking. I also pressed the string against the pole with my thumb some because the fish was more than the reel could handle. But we finally wore the fish out & pulled it up to see how big it was. I thought I would see a catfish, but it was a bass, about 18 inches long (with it's tail on the ground, it's mouth was at the bottom of my kneecap). Our friend John figured it was 3-4 pounds. I'm pretty sure it was bigger than anything that I've ever pulled out of fresh water. We tossed it back so that John could catch it later, and because Levi thought it was cute & didn't want to hurt it. He's so sweet.

We laughed a lot and talked about it all night. I think I almost enjoyed it as much as Levi, because I'm not, as I've mentioned before, a knowledgeable fisherman. (Which was proved when I decided that our bucket of minnows would be fine staying outside all night since there was a lid on it - we woke-up to discover that the lid was off & all the minnows were gone.)

If you are asking if we have pictures, the answer is "No. Darn." I didn't have our camera with me. But you can ask Levi, and there is no way he would be that excited about a story that we made-up. And you should definitely ask him. It's a story better told by him.