Deschutes River

Last weekend (Thursday through Saturday) we went fishing at the Deschutes River in Oregon.  We stayed in Maupin in a little "cabin" with a small fridge and microwave and fished a lot.

We got everything ready to go on Wednesday night and were out the door by about 7:30 on Thursday morning.  We drove about 2 1/2 hours to the river and stopped to fish.  I had the first turn and caught a small rainbow pretty quick.  Cade got to net it, which he loves to do. 

 

Kirk played with Cade and Cami on a sandy beach for a while and got them some food while I fished.  He put cream cheese on a bagel piece for Cami and she immediately started digging in the dirt with it.  Cade got upset because there were a few specks of dirt on his bagel.  That's the difference between them right now.  :) I only caught the one, but at least it was something!  Kirk took a turn fishing and caught 2 small bull trout.  I took the kids back to the car and sat there for a while.  I was hoping Cami would fall asleep and we wanted to get out of the sprinkles/rain.  We drove from that spot to our cabin and I stayed there with Cade and Cami.  She slept for a couple of hours and Cade and I wandered around playing on the grass and blowing dandelions.  When Cami woke up we walked next door to the fly shop and asked the guy there where to fish.  Kirk came back around 5:30 and had caught a bunch of fish further up the river than were we were before.  He was pretty excited and told me how he was such a good husband because he left after catching a fish on his last cast. 

I took Cade to the small grocery store in town.  I had planned on bringing dinner that we could heat up, but I forgot to put it on my cooler list to get from the freezer and totally forgot it.  Cade and I found some frozen pizza we could eat one night and got hot dogs for the other night.  We got the kids to sleep pretty quickly--especially for being in a new place and got to hang out a bit before we went to bed ourselves. 

Friday morning I started fishing again.  I caught 2 fish--one rainbow and one white fish. 

We were by some sand again and Cade had a blast digging in the dirt with some tractors.  Cami was right there with him!  They both got super dirty and loved it.

Kirk left me alone for a couple of hours to see if I could catch some more.  He took the kids back for lunch and went to the fly shop himself.  I did not have any luck fishing, but I tried!  The water was pretty slow and deep where I was and it was really windy.  I did enjoy being alone and not having to answer "why mommy" every 10 seconds.  We traded again that afternoon.  Cami fell asleep as I was driving back to our cabin and slept an hour and a half in her carseat.  Cade and I played and ate until it was time to go meet Kirk again.  He had caught a bunch (again) and let me fish when we arrived.  As we were all walking to the river for whatever reason Cade and Cami were both crying and I was wondering why we do these things.  Kirk gave them some more food on the banks and they ended up really happy. We saw a couple of trains driving on the tracks just across the river.  They were really loud.  After one really long one went by Cade said "Did you see that train Daddy?"  I caught 1 more and had several on that I didn't get in.  It was a nice evening.  We went home together around 6.  Kirk gobbled down 2 hot dogs and headed back out.  He never gets enough.  I put the kids to bed--again, it was relatively easy.  Then I got to enjoy an hour of relaxing and reading articles on my phone (no internet though). 

Saturday I didn't have a fishing license.  We dropped Kirk off pretty early and watched him fish for a bit.  Then I took the kids back and Cami took a long morning nap.  Cade and I packed up the car and spent a lot of time mowing.  His favorite thing right now is mowers, trimmers and blowers.  So, he turned our stroller into a mower and I had a pretend one.  We mowed and mowed the grass.  Then we had to find sticks to be our trimmers and we did all the edges.  Last, we got some stick-blowers and cleaned up our mess.  Then we loaded all of our stuff on to a bench (which was our lawn mower truck) and drove to the next house and did it all again.  I think we mowed for about an hour.  That kid is creative and has a great imagination. 

Finally Cami woke up and we all had lunch and went and picked up Kirk.  He would have loved to stay all afternoon, but I didn't know what to do with 2 tired kids on the edge of the river for 6 hours and so he agreed to go home.  Cade slept over 2 hours on the way home and Cami was almost as long.  It was a pretty easy drive!  We made it home around 4 and got some pizza for dinner.  All together it was a fun trip and nice to get out.  I always wish we could find a place where we could fish and not have to drive away from where we are sleeping, but it hasn't happened yet.  Maybe next time.  We all enjoyed spending time together and being outside, even with the rain!