The Fishing Derby

Every year MacArthur Park hosts an annual Fishing Derby where children under the age of 12 can come and fish with cane poles in their freshly stocked pond. They provide the cane poles and bait and certain fished are tagged so that the child who catches it wins a prize. The children get to keep all of the catfish they can catch!

Rodney has been talking about going fishing lately, so this year, I thought it would be a good idea for he and Max to get in some father/son time at the fishing derby. As an added bonus I asked Rodney if my nephew Kamron could tag along; his father would be working that morning. He agreed so I picked Kamron up the night before and the next morning Gigi (KWK) got him dressed for the excursion.

Unfortunately for Kamron, Gigi didn't remember the proper attire for a fisherman in the middle of an Arkansas July. Her intent was to protect him from sunburn, but instead she made him susceptible to heat exhaustion. In his words poor, "I'm hot, Taki," said the poor little sweaty child.

The festivities started at 9 am. Since I didn't have Max that morning I decided to take Maddy into the office with me. More like I missed my turn and just decided to keep going so that everyone could get a look at her. Around 8:45 am I got a call that there was no bait could I go to the local grocery store and get some chicken livers. During the second call I heard crying the background - Max was upset with putting the livers on the hook. After I dropped Maddy off at daycare, two more calls, and a trip to the store, I made it to the park. Where is Max I ask when I finally get to the far end of the pond they have chosen for their prize fishing spot with a cooler, hot dogs for bait, and snacks. Rodney started looking around. "What the hell," I couldn't help it. I found Max standing in the spot above looking mortified by the entire experience. That spot was behind and off to the left of where Kamron and Rodney were having the time of their lives below. I gave him some Cheetos and we walked around a little bit.
There were swarms of people out that day. Hooks were flying, fish were flapping around, and children were running everywhere. Before I left Kamron caught a fish!

Kamron was really excited about his fish. Max ran the opposite direction when they pulled the fish out of the water.
I think Rodney did more of the fishing than Kamron did. I decided to take Max to daycare before I had to get a divorce because my husband neglected to properly supervise the child because he was too busy having father/son time with someone else's child at the pond.
Later that day Max was going to Chuck E Cheese so I asked Gigi to keep him a little while longer so that he could go. When I got home I asked him if he had a good time, he said "Uncle Rodney took me fishin'!" They caught three fish.