Vacation/Birthday with friends, family, and fish.

Received news from my best friend that his wife had a mole turn up as malignant melanoma. This is the deadliest form of skin cancer you can contract. The door can swing one of two ways for her.

Step 1: deeper tissue extraction to determine likeliness of spread.

The results of what they did under this nasty incision will determine those two ways: either the mole removal will be enough and she's good, or not.

Ruth, my eldest, has been praying for Aunt Jenny to feel better. We all are.

Josh and Jenny and their kids are our best friends. We enjoyed two nights with them at Branched Oak SRA  over the weekend. It was a good time, with plenty of bug bites and funny conversation, jokes, fishing (including a massive catfish on a tiny fly), and swimming. I definitely consider this time as a cherished part of a wonderful birthday celebration.

We returned home PM Sunday. Found a box from LL Bean on the porch. I asked Meredith what it was since she had her name on it. She told me to open it. I may or  may not have squealed like I was wearing pig tails.

These, my friends, are a pair of Men's Flyweight II stocking-foot waders and a pair of West Branch Aqua Stealth wading boots. My beautiful, wonderful wife - coordinating with wonderful family - added to my fly-fishing repertoire. I was thrilled.

No, nothing died near my left foot. Well, I guess the dog killed a marker.

Thus began the preparations for a wonderful few days at Platte River State Park for my birthday. We packed up the car with more camping supplies - sans tents, etc., since we rented a cabin - and I put the wading gear in a bag in the trunk.

The cabin wasn't available until four, so we had a few hours to spare on Monday. We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo Wildlife Safari just up the road. Here are a few pics:

A warm day in elk.

Bison!

Ruthie and her antlers.

Sporting some whitetail.

Eva Diva, as we like to call her.

I HIGHLY recommend the Safari. For the money we spent, we took two hours to get through it, got plenty of foot time and ended at a playground. Great fit for our family. That and we got to watch the penned bobcat hunt our dog. Gave me goosebumps. Not going to lie.

We still had time to burn, so we went over to the Mahoney observation tower. Meredith took the girls up to the top while I stayed down with the dog and ran barefoot through the trails. Wonderfully cool and packed earth felt good.

Eventually, though, I took the dog all the way up.

Lo and behold, we STILL had some time to burn, so we went to the amazing Mahoney playground. We broke out Ruth's new bomb-bird kite. My wife and I played with it after Ruth became bored and returned to her kingdom of sand and woodchips.

The cabin was great. I found bedbug sign on the full-size box spring, but it was inactive. Probable old infestation from a previous state park from whence they had rotated. Monday night we had hot dogs, watermelon and dutch-oven peach cobbler. Then it was bedtime. Meredith and I played Pictureka until the girls were asleep and chatted. I love that woman.

Got up early and headed over to Louisville SRA to try out the waders. Beautiful, mossy but clear two ponds with great weather. Saw and caught several fish.

Biggest bluegill caught.

I love the waders, but a review will be separate.

The rest of the day continued. We got a lot of activities in. After a morning activity in, we decided to take a trip to Ashland to explore. Saw Salt Creek on the way in. Looked for fish. Found lots of them. Local pointed me toward access to the creek at water level. Marked it for a later visit. Explored Ashland, then made it home for nap. Wife encouraged me to go back to creek after lunch.

Before lunch was over, my beatiful Ruth melted my heart and said, "I love doing things with just me and you! Maybe you and I can go to the lake? Just me an you this evening? For a date?" She would have asked me to dance ballet and I would have fashioned a tutu from the brown cabin-curtains from the 60's and done plies right there.

Went back to the creek when they laid down.

Make a left.

Then a right.

Ominous below-the-tracks entrance to creek access.

Waded. Sank in silt. Spooked like 30 carp all at once (what a sight). Hooked into one only to lose it as it started running. It was glorious.

Came back to sleeping children. Chatted with wife, then she decided to take dog for a walk. I napped.

We went to dinner then, sampling Breaddeaux, a pizza place in Ashland. It was yummy!

We decided to go to the Mahoney water park after we all got done, but we were early for the 6 PM opening, so we went to the park.

Sadly, a storm rolled in so we decided to go see Despicable Me 2. Loved it!

Finished up, went home, went to bed. Got up early and hit Centurylink Lake at Mahoney. It was wonderful. Fished soft-hackles for bluegill, then upped the size to Chugger with a Bugger dropper for wipers. Caught some LMB. Then waded in to unsnag someone. It was a good Wednesday.

Fishing with daughter at the family lake at Platte River SP was next. That little girl is growing up.

She opened the bail, held the line, cast the bobber/soft-hackle combo, hooked the fish and reeled it in, then held it for a picture by herself. Only thing she didn't do was unhook it.

She loved it. I was very impressed.

We played and played for a while longer, then headed home.

It was a great trip, and a welcome respite from routine. I love my wife dearly for making it all possible. I love my friends and my baby girls. I also love the land we live in and what we can experience.

Too bad I'm going to be deported. I failed the citizenship test. I'll have to get the link from my wife, but I guess Thomas Jefferson wrote the Constitution, and there are 456 voting members in the House of Representatives.  60% is a fail, people.

Now, be amused.

Dead week ends with a little warmup.

My family is in town for my graduation. My dad, his wife, Diane, and my brother, Michael, all drove in from near Provo, UT to spend the weekend.

My bro and I have already planned some time on my favorite pond.

Turns out we had a chance to hit the water a little early. We took my daughters up to scout the fishing.

There was a big Asian family harvesting massive amounts of Green Sunfish. One other mother and son shared in the awesomeness of this pond, and we mutually swore secrecy against telling anyone about it.

My bro introduced me to the Muddler Minnow and a couple new little bass and bluegill bugs, which we promptly lost. We didn't manage the hook-sets and the fights right, since he had his trout leader on. Got some pictures of the fun ones, though!

Mike hooked into some big green sunfish first. I had to explain the difference between those and the common bream, or bluegill. 

Then, my 4 year old explained that she needed to go potty. I held her just right off in some privacy, only to feel my right leg getting warm. No sweat, though! I'll take one, as a Dad.

After that, we got down into my favorite bass waters. (Yes, pee on pants and all.)

They are definitely much more active as the water hits just the right temperature and the fare explodes for them.  Mike and I traded off on the pole after I hit the first one. Dropping those chuggers in the water amongst some weeds and watching the bass smash them made that adrenaline kick in for the both of us. It was wonderful to share that with him again.

We had a blast! That's my 1.5 year old on my back.

Last bass of the day took the last bright green foam chugger of the day. Darn that blasted trout leader.

On the way back up to the car, we walked past a gentleman with a tripod headed to take pictures. He is from Colorado, and we chatted for a little bit about hitting 6 lb. rainbows at midnight in some of those lakes out there.

All in all, a great time, and we're just warming up.

A short visit and a short fuse.

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to lose my temper. It is with great shame that I admit that I took it.

My twelve and 8 year old nieces (twin 8 year-olds) came to visit from Friday to Saturday. They stayed the night, and we all hung out at our house. It was great fun, and we had a good time playing instruments and chatting.

Saturday morning saw the opportunity to go fishing. My nieces talked about it a lot during their stay. They were very avid about getting out on the water. I was really excited to show them a fun time fishing as well, thinking that it would be as simple as getting a hook on their pole, showing them where to cast, then letting them go. You know, self-sufficient. Independent. Powerful.

Then the tangles happened. And the stuck reels. And the lures wrapped around poles because of failed casts, and the inexperienced logic of, "Well, maybe if I keep flailing it frantically, the lure will magically fly away from me and light upon the water."

I remember those days as a kid, but I seemed to have forgotten them as an adult.

My wonderful 12 year-old niece loves to fly fish. Who could have asked for a more wonderful opportunity? All personal temper tantrums associated with that particular day aside, I am amazingly blessed to be part of a family of people that dig it. We practiced on our front lawn for a little while.

 She flexed her skills on the water and landed the first green sunfish of the day.

The other two started kicking butt after a couple mishaps with reels and lures. 

Below is a chunky green sunfish.

A beautiful purple bream.

An even bigger, beautiful purple bream.

All three girls caught more fish than these pictures depict. I caught a fingerling large-mouth on a red-head Black Ghost.

It was a great day on the lake. The only whitecaps were the ones on my infantile patience. But, they were forgiving. I'll do better next time. The most wonderful nugget of the day, though?

My wife standing near me and saying, "Oh, this makes me want to go fishing so bad."