Teach a Boy to Fish

Every time we take a trip to Idaho,

Jack requests one thing.

To go fishing with Grandpa.

Unfortunately, he doesn't exactly see the whole picture.

What he is really saying is that he wants to sit and break rocks with Bradley

while Grandpa gets a fish on the line.

At which time he will gladly run over and reel it in.

So this time, I told my Dad that I wanted Jack to have the full  start to finish experience.

I should be honest and say that I was secretly rubbing my hands together 

and laughing a little evil laugh.

Jack was going to get much more than he bargained for.

And I liked it.

First up:

Gather the bait.

What's wrong, Jack?

Don't you like pulling nasty, slimy worms out of the ground?

Your sister doesn't seem to mind.

What is it with my girls?

I have a picture of Brooklyn around this age loving on a little worm.

Weirdos.

Next:

hold the pole for awhile, get bored of waiting, and go break rocks with Bradley.

Ahem.

Finally - the big moment!

Reel that baby in!

He was quite pleased with "his" catch.

He kept telling me how amazing it was that he caught a rainbow trout.

Because as he says it, there aren't very many rainbow trout in the world - 

only the very best fishermen can catch them.

Riiight.

Whatever the case, I would happily give 100 bucks

 to know what is going through Bradley's mind in this picture.

He looks seriously concerned.

Right about here is when I start getting a little bit excited.

On the drive back to my parents house

I started talking to Jack about how we can't just kill Heavenly Father's creations.

If we are going to kill them, then we must use them for food.

Which actually made a lot of sense to the boy.

And he was totally up for the experience.

Until he saw exactly what had to be done to prepare the fish for eating.

Would anyone like a close up?

Ahhh...priceless.

I figured that it was best that he has this experience now 

rather than making this face in front of his friends at Scout camp.

I'm really quite thoughtful like that.

He struggled a bit to finish the gutting,

but we were able to get him to cut the head off.

Wow - don't mind the cat in the background.

She was enjoying a delightful lunch of fish guts.

Yum.

We cooked the fish and served it up for the boy.

For some reason, he really wasn't too interested in eating it.

It's not like he'd been traumatized or anything...

We made him try a bite - which he of course said was gross.

But he later confided in me and said that it was actually kind of good.

Maybe we should have let a little more time pass between the gutting and the eating...