"Super Fast" and Drum Fish

On Monday we had the great chance to go fishing with a man named Perry who is with a great organization called United Special Sportsman Allinace. USSA is an organiaztion that takes children with life threatening illnesses on outdoor adventures. The people there have a passion and love that they freely share. Meeting people who are so amazing and do so much to help brighten the lives of children going through hard times has been truly special. It is one of the parts of the cancer experience that I cherish. Even though Natalie has been off chemo for a while now, an experience like this is still very special and has a way of lifting her up. Anything that brings smiles is cherished by David and I. There can never be too many smiles--even now they continue to help heal our hearts and give us great hope and joy.

Natalie has loved fish since she was itty bitty. In fact, during all of her eating troubles; salmon, king crab, and steak were some of the only foods that she would eat much of. Salmon was one of her favorite foods well before she was 18 months old. And little two year old Natalie had HUGE steroid cravings for king crab when she was in the hospital for her induction chemo--with no satisfaction, king crab was hard to come by in a hospital in the middle of Tucson!! After we moved to Texas two years ago, catfish became a favorite of hers. I guess it replaced king crab, she tells us she is allergic to it now. I'm not sure if she is right or if she just threw it up so often that she has an aversion to it now. Because of her love of fish, she is always wanting to go fishing. We have taken her several times, but since we don't know what we are doing, we have never caught anything.

Going fishing with Perry and getting to ride in his beautiful red sparkly boat was an amazing experience for Natalie and our entire family. We loved every minute of it. Natalie was ALL smiles and she caught her first fish ever!!


He was NOT liking the wind in his face and asked us to stop going fast.
Of course Natalie was LOVING going "SUPER FAST!!!"
Stephen was soon converted and they were both BEGGING to go "SUPER FAST!!!"






David caught this fish and Perry helped Natalie reel it in. He was a small drum fish and not good to eat so the kids let it go. Perry told us the odds of catching a drum fish is about a million to one, it's mouth should've been too small for the large bait and hook--but boy it sure was hooked good.

Sadly there was a lot of wind on Monday that made it difficult to catch a fish, so we weren't able to catch anything for Natalie to take home and cook. But she wasn't too disappointed, it was still VERY cool to catch her first fish. Both kids ended up loving going "SUPER FAST" on the boat with the wind rushing in their faces and the big bumps from the choppy water. Natalie told us it was better than Six Flags--quite a compliment from her. I agree. I think all of us fell in love with the water and boat that day, not to mention a very sweet man with a big heart.

For a girly girl who HATES bugs, I was surprised that she had zero issues with holding a slippery, smelly fish!!
They thought it was pretty cool to toss the fish back into the water.
This is a picture of Natalie and Stephen entertaining themselves by playing Princess and the Frog with the bait frogs. These frogs were actually pretty cute--Natalie picked out a glittery blue one to play with--very fitting. I had fun watching them play; there was a LOT of KISSING going on:)
Stephen has been SO excited about his cool new fishing pool, he can't wait to go fishing again to try it out--literally--I can't get him to stop playing with his new fishing pole. Natalie is just as excited to go fishing again and really hopes to catch something she can eat.

Maybe her longtime love of eating fish has a little something to do with what she told me last week. She told me she might want to be a mermaid when she grows up and she also told me that dolphins are her favorite animal.