We woke up Monday morning a little later than usual- but I wasn’t complaining I love to sleep. It was going to be in the mid 60s with low wind which is rare & cherished in April here in Colorado. I made JW & I a quick breakfast, packed our bags with lots of snacks, water & layers because it is still Colorado spring. I did a quick load of dishes, swept the kitchen, swapped the laundry, changed JW & we were out the door before noon. I knew Jake was going to be home from work before us & I wanted to make it look nice for when he got home because he wasn’t feeling the greatest.I make a quick stop to pick up my friend Bridget & we head to the creek. We were going to fish a Colorado State Wildlife area & it just happens to be one of my favorite fishy spots.
JW kept himself entertained ,with an extra reel, trying to climb the truck tires, & of course rocks, while we get our gear set up & on. He’s so happy to just be outside. I love to watch him find joy in all the little things in little, in this moment the reel was such a cool thing he felt compelled to show us.
We get our waders on, rig our lines up, put JW up in his face – sunscreen fully applied including those cute little toes & we’re ready to get to the water. We have to climb over the sketchy slick steps to access the SWA because it’s also used for cattle ranching! We saw so many fresh babies out in the field! I love seeing all the babies during spring time- seeing baby animals nursing since starting my own breastfeeding journey makes me feel an incredible sense of connection to those animals. It happened the first time I was watching an elk calf feed. I just felt everything else stop & I concentrated on their connection. The mom so selfless just stopping in her tracks to feed that fluffy little butt, I saw myself & JW in those elk that day. I’m a rambler & I get off topic a lot but I am very passionate about my breastfeeding journey with JW & I am so proud of myself for making it almost 11 months now!! Nursing by the river is absolutely of my favorite spots to do it! Just so relaxing. We had two nursing sessions creek side that day.
This moment of sharing this first with JW was so special. I’ve cried too many times rewatching it over & over. This was the first time he was really getting to see the fish up close & touch it! He was getting a little fussy but the MOMENT his little hand touched that fish. SILENCE. It makes sense that fish would calm him I am obsessed with them & so is his father.
That moment I will cherish & remember forever! I really never thought I could feel more joy after catching and releasing a beautiful fish but after getting to share it with my son. Wow. That joy grew more than I could have ever imagined. I felt elated. I felt proud of myself. Proud of myself for keeping my promises I made to myself & the little bean growing in my belly when I found out that I was pregnant. I promised to love myself enough to keep doing the things that bring me joy. I promised to love you enough to share those things with you. I promised to foster a great love for all things wild & free just like my parents did for me, I promised to show you my favorite fishing spots. I promised to give myself grace, time & patience as we grow together in our relationship of mother & child together. I promised to show you the world. This moment of sharing the release of a fish with you was a good reminder to myself that hell yeah I am keeping these promises!
When I found out I was pregnant & immediately started dreaming about all the days on the water I would get to share fly fishing with the baby in my belly. Is this normal- probably not but I knew it was EXACTLY what I was going to do. Here I am doing it. Is it hard? Oh yeah it’s hard, but so is being in the house all day with a mobile ten month old. We both rather be outside anyways. It takes a little extra effort to get out of the house but god it’s so worth it.
If you can’t tell from the smile on my face this is absolutely 100% my happy place. Thankful for good friends who capture moments like this for me.
The water we were fishing was running really well, normally this water is crystal clear in high summer days. Early spring means dirty muddy water from snow melt runoff. I couldn’t see the bottom of a lot of the creek so I mostly fished from the banks because I didn’t wanna accidentally walk into a deep hole with JW on my back. These are the kinda things you look at different when you become mom before if I took a step into a little bit too deep of a hole it was a calculated risk I could afford to take now the risk is to great. I’ll take the sacrifice of wading the shallows and casting from the banks to keep him safe anyway. I
I caught one more fish while fishing close to Bridget & then I decided to walk up the creek a ways with JW to let Bridget fish a nice stretch without having a hole jump each other the whole time. As I was walking JW fell asleep for a nice nap – at this point I had had the pack on for a few hours so I gently sat down with it & took it off. I saw right in front of the pack & took the opportunity to tie on some different flies to try because I had lost the one fly I had that was working. The ones I had replaced it with just we’re not working so time to switch it up. Fly fishing is absolutely not for anyone who has very little patience. The number of knots you can tie in a day from breaking off on fish, bushes, trees, sticks, even rocks. I get my flies on , slip my pack back on without waking JW & get back to fishing.
After 30 minutes or so I decided to walk back and meet up with Bridget so we could fish together the last hour or so. We get to fishing but were both getting so frustrated with ourself because we kept hooking bushes , hooking ourselves, & getting insanely tangled. We were both about ready to walk away & head home annoyed. I suggested we sit , have a snack just relax by the water for five minutes to release some of the tension we had been building up. We both seemed a little more relaxed for the rest of the day we didn’t catch anymore fish but I still had a great day.
AdventuresofJWandMountainMomma 