A Lovely Evening

Saturday afternoon we had a little outdoor picnic at our friend's the Paces. They have a lovely backyard, complete with shade trees, picnic table, fire pit, a big pond, and a rowboat. Three families, eight kids, some fishing tackle, and plenty of food made for a lovely evening.

Kip, Cody, and their boys out on the boat, teaching them how to fish.


Michael caught Princess Elizabeth daydreaming in the boat.


Brandy offered to teach me how to pond fish (I don't know that I'd ever fished from a boat before... my only memories are my hilarious fly fishing lessons with Dad that usually involved lots of fake flies stuck in bushes and me falling in the creek...)
I lumbered my big body out onto the boat, much to the horror of Kip who kept politely mentioning the importance of "weight distribution." Well, frankly, it don't matter WHERE I sit when the "distribution" at the other end are two tiny little Sims girls weighing a grand total of forty pounds. We headed out nonetheless, my end of the boat two inches out of the water, the girls' end poking up ridiculously into the air. Brandy could barely row us (haha, poor girl!) I felt like I was in a comic book, and it turns out row boats aren't all that comfortable, but all was made well when just a few minutes out I CAUGHT A CATFISH!



The other fish the boys caught were only a few inches long. And look, mine is HUGE! 16 inches! I am still disgustingly proud of myself. No one ever dreamed a fish that big could be caught in that bitty pond. Me Amazon Woman!


Handsome devil, isn't he. Tasted good, too.


Fish cooked over a campfire followed toasted marshmallows and chasing fireflies. A truly lovely evening!