Weekend fun

We had a great weekend! There's just something "magical" about summertime and living at the beach! It has been so, so hot here with high humidity and no rain. It's almost scary because we usually have really bad thunderstorms. We're hoping that doesn't mean a hurricane is in our future.

This summer has gone by so fast. I'll be going back to work in another month or so, but that's something I don't like to think about! Anyways, Tommy has a co-worker that goes shrimping and he invited us to come along with him, his wife, and son. We met them Friday evening and set off for the shrimp! When I was a kid, my Dad had a shrimp boat and he, my mom, and my sister would all go. All I remember is knocking the crabs back in the water with paint sticks. Tommy had never gone before so this was his first time.

With shrimping, you put your net out and you also put out these two small wooden "doors", that's what they look like, and then you just drag the net very slowly. The first "drag" we pulled was about 30 minutes. Tommy's co-worker B told him how to pull the door in and then what to do with the net. Here he is in action!
Then you have to shake the shrimp and fish and everything else in there, into the bottom part of the net. There's a rope that holds it closed. Then they bring the net to the "culling" table. Culling is where you separate the shrimp away from everything else. B's son, he's 7, went with us. He was so funny. He told me, "we keep 3 things: shrimp, crab, and squid; everything else goes back in, unless we catch a 14 inch flounder."

So they dumped the net and then my job began! It's always amazing to see all of those things that end up in the net. We caught shrimp, baby flounder, crabs-a small one pinched my finger, robin fish, puffer fish, butter fish, baby sharks, baby stingrays, croakers, and squid. Here was our first "drag."

We made three pulls total and ended up with about 55 pounds of shrimp. We would have stayed out there all night though :) However, here, on the weekends, you have to pull your nets in by 9pm on Friday night and you can't shrimp again until 5pm on Sunday.

Saturday we did some things around the house and went carpet shopping. We're trying to decide on a good carpet that Bailey won't pick with her nails. Saturday night we met my best friend for dinner and then went to see Despicable Me in 3d--yes because we are still kids at heart :) It was a cute movie though but I was disappointed in the 3d, it's not like it used to be.

Sunday we went to church and had a great time. We spent the afternoon at the beach house with some friends and did a little fishing. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. I think we both needed it!