#34 - The Big Kids in Us

When you are a big kid at heart, what do you do for fun? My husband and I have a long tradition of going on "treasure" hunts. We may go hiking and see what we can find. We may walk the beach and scour for interesting sea shells. Or, one of my favorite treasure hunts involves us going to the bay near our house and seeing what comes up in the cast net.

When we were still kids, David and I would go to Kemah, Texas and we'd spend the day throwing the cast-net and seeing what we could find. These days, I have just as much fun on these outings as I had when I was fifteen. Also, Deputy Dave catches his own bait for fishing, so this is double good fun. We love fish.

Here is a story with photos during one of our most recent cast-net treasure hunts at the bay.

Deputy Dave stands on the little pier at the local boat launch
area and throws his six foot cast-net into the bay (Gulf of Mexico).

As Deputy Dave begins to bring goodies up in his cast-net, the seagulls
start to hover and squawk and they get fed and I get pooped on.

It starts getting to be more fun when goodies like this start appearing.

Meanwhile, at the little pier next to us, a family gets ready to go boating and jet skiing.

Deputy Dave brings up more fun treasures from the depths.

Directly next to us, I see reminders of Hurricane Ike, which had also
destroyed our home. I decide to again focus on our treasures.

It won't let go!

We caught several crabs, but this cutie deserved the spotlight!

Two jet skiing kiddos show up. They can't stand watching from the
side-lines, they want to help put the caught fish back into
the water and they love taking a close look at the treasures.

The kids see things like this and start yelling and screaming.
They are enthusiastic. Deputy Dave barely has enough room to
throw his six-foot cast-net; he's nearly getting pushed off the pier
in the kids' excitement. But, he is sweet and patient.

All the excitement is too much for the other kids to ignore.

WOW. The small pier that had been our little private area to
enjoy our treasures is now crowded. Everyone wants to see treasure.

As more people crowd Deputy Dave, he can no longer throw his net.
Therefore, there are no more treasures to be found. We move on to a new spot.



Awww...alone at last...for now.



We love living by the ocean, except when hurricanes start hitting
the Gulf of Mexico. Once we've moved to our acreage this coming year,
we'll still be going on treasure hunts, but in different places. I'm excited!
Life is full of treasure that's waiting to be discovered!

When I come home from our treasure hunt, I still feel as if I get to be a big kid.
Having chickens has brought me incredible joy.
Pretty soon, I'll be searching for eggs daily. Oh eggs, dreamy backyard treasures.