Last week we needed a break.
I am currently the only infusion nurse in my hospital doing chemo. After the one nurse died and the other quit... it just leaves me. I think this will be temporary. Most infusions are only 2 hours max. But I have to be available all the time.
Luckily, we had planned a get away to renew and recharge. So we left last Tuesday after lunch. While Kris worked in the morning I cleaned and baked 6 dozen pumpkin cookies to give to adult kids.
We headed off and arrived at our camping spot where Kerry had the motorhome ready and the lawn chairs set out. It was hot, 85 degrees and we promptly set out to fish. We all donned our waders and boots and then got our lines. Basically I spent the next hour casting. River fishing is hard. I rely on Kris to set up my line and choose my fly. Kerry and Kris have long discussions about which fly to use. Kris uses some fancy, schmancy rig with two or three things on it like a weight, plastic worm and fly. I'm here to tell you that the more crap you have on your line the harder the casting becomes. I only had some knot in my line and my casting was getting all tangled. This was a bit frustrating because I have finally perfected somewhat of a fly fishing cast. Luckily Kris has most of our nail clippers in his tackle box and so he was able to trim my knot and then I commenced to cast like a boss for awhile. I didn't catch anything, but neither did the men.
Then we all trotted back to camp to analyze the fishing. This is where the men propose various theories for the lack of success. It's hilarious. I've heard it all. Like the depth of the water, the heat, the choice of flies... The brothers decided that it was because it's not the exact right time of year for optimal fishing. That would be the 3rd week of October. Their discussions were peppered with the family laugh, which is a very distinctive laugh that belongs only to this family of men. When I hear them laugh I miss Kris's dad. He probably was laughing with us though.
Then the sun went down and we barbecued some steaks and then we ate in the trailer and watched a movie. Kerry gave us the big bed and he slept on the couch. A lot of snoring then commenced.
Kris told me he was letting me sleep in. This was so nice of him... but really, he just wanted to go fish in the early morning with his brother. They went out for a few hours and then they came back and woke me up to go with them. We got in the car this time and drove up and down the river where they would look at the various fishing holes and watch for bubbling or fish jumping, or just empty holes that weren't taken by other fisher people. They've fished this river so many times that they have nicknames for the holes. One is rattlesnake hole, the other is the powerline hole. Personally, I'm not too anxious to visit the rattlesnake hole.
We hit a few holes and casted again. About this time, Kerry fell into the river. He lost his footing on some slick rocks. He went down on his back and didn't scratch anything up. He just got a little chilly. Nothing stops a dedicated fisherman though, and he hardly missed a beat.
We decided to give the powerline hole a try and by some miracle, Kris landed and reeled in a beautiful fish. We all started smiling and enjoying the morning more. Kris was ecstatic. Then we moved around a bit and he hooked another and let me reel it in. This fish was a fighter. He went up the bank to locate his net and left me wrestling the thing. I worked with it for about 10 minutes. When it relaxed I would pull the line so the tension increased and the fish drew nearer.. but as it started to fight... I had to let out line and let it swim away. We played that game off and on, off and on until Kris returned with his net and helped me get the fish. Then we took obligatory pictures.
By now it was almost 2pm. We hurriedly returned to camp, packed and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then drove for Boise.
We went to Stef and Glen's new apartment where we did what all parents do when their kids finally have their own place... try to unload some of their junk on them.
I had a few boxes of treasures of Stef's that hadn't been opened in many moons. Oh boy. What treasures were to be found. We opened them up in the tiny apartment and had a good laugh. When Stef went to college (I think you can find the post in the blog archives) we packed her room up and there it sat in boxes and rubbermaids. What we packed up, was remnants of high school, posters, t-shirts, awards, pictures and the like. We found in one box a pillow pet, a glee poster and a pillow case decorated in old barbie hair that said "Stef in Boots". Stef threw a bunch of things out, and I took some stuff home. But I think she is secretly enjoying the T-shirt she made at girls camp. I feel like mother of the year for helping her enrich her life with this memorabilia. But seriously, I do think she can use her sewing machine and some of her photo albums when she wants to remember exactly how 1998 felt.
We cleaned up a bit after the fishing and visited the kids and then met Kerry and Karen at the arena for the Def Leppard concert.
I saw this band in 1988. I went with my cousin Kim. We were 18 and 19 and had big hair. We wore a lot of hairspray and spandex at that concert. The lead singer and band members were probably 25 when we watched them then.
Now they are in their 50's. It was still a good show, but I couldn't help feeling the contrast.
We have seen a few great bands with our family. Kris and his brother have a wonderful time together and I am so glad our families are close.
Brooke has told me that she wants to be close to Amanda like Kerry was close to her dad. She knows what an effort he made to be a good brother.
We stayed til the encore which was one of my favorites, Photograph.
Then we lugged our 40 something selves out to our car and drove 3 hours to get home.
That put us home at 1:30 am.
And we went to work about 5 hours later..........
And all week I have had Def Leppard songs in my head... which probably isn't the best.. but sometimes you just need to feel 18 again. And sing songs like, "Rock of Ages" and "Love Bites" and "Poor Some Sugar On Me".
The End
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