Lucky Fishing Pole

Yesterday evening, we went fishing at USAA.

Jonathan had been before, but this was Erik's first time.

Soon after we started, Landon caught a fish.

As I was taking a picture of Landon, Erik announced that he caught a fish.  I help him reel it in.

He was nervous about getting too close to the fish.  In the first picture I took (which for some reason came up as an unreadable file), he was two feet away from the fish.  We couldn't get him to come any closer.  The picture above is actually a picture of the second fish he caught.  We finally convinced him to stand closer.  Landon encouraged him to touch the fish.  He tentatively stuck out his index finger and quickly touched it.  Suddenly his confidence soared and he wanted to throw the fish back into the water himself.  By that time, the fish had already wriggled out of Landon's hands back into the pond.

This is Jonathan's "catch."  After Erik caught two fish, he lost interest in holding the pole.  I was holding it since Jonathan had become more interested in running around as well.  When the fish took the bait, I encouraged Jonathan to come reel him in. All in all, that little fishing pole caught three fish that night.  It's the same pole that Jonathan used during previous fishing trips, and he has always caught a fish. 

 Must be a lucky fishing pole.

USAA Christmas Party

A couple of weeks before Christmas, we attended the USAA Christmas party.  Where do you host a party for a company that employs 14,000 people?  At the Alamodome, of course!  I don't know exactly how many people showed up, but I heard someone throw out the figure of 6,000.  There were a lot of people, that's for sure.

I was really impressed with the organization of such a large event.  They had shuttles running from USAA to the Alamodome, they also had 2,000 free parking spaces reserved downtown.  There was all kinds of entertainment from ballroom dancers, a mentalist, and bands to The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory samples and gambling.  The food was great and there weren't any long lines since there were so many food tables set up. They even had a snow maker, can you see the "snow" in the picture below?

       

The main event was a concert.  This year's band was REO Speedwagon.  I didn't know that they were still playing gigs!  After all, they would have to be in their late 50s or early 60s by now.  Before this party, I was only familiar with their slow love songs like, I Want to Keep On Lovin' You, and Heard It From A Friend Who Heard It From A Friend Who Heard It From A Friend...you know which one I'm talking about, you're probably singing it right now.  Anyway, they had a lot of other rock songs, and I thought they still sounded pretty good.

I tried to get some pictures and videos, but none of them turned out really great.  I did get a picture of all their guitars.  I didn't know they changed guitars so often.  It makes sense though--that way they don't have to stop and tune them in the middle of a performance.

I think the lead singer was surprised by the size of the whole event.   He told about getting the call to perform for "a private company Christmas party."  I think they thought the gathering would be small.  He was also told that he had his work cut out for him because there was a large space between the stage and the tables.  Well, people started to fill up that space as soon as it was apparent that they were going to play.  Needless to say, they liked that.

We had a lot of fun and can't wait to see what USAA comes up with next year!