Fish Tale

These pictures are going back a few weeks. They already look strange to me since both kids have had hair cuts between then and now! But an encounter with a dead fish turned this run of the mill trip to Buntzen Lake into a tender memory I'll tuck away for a long time!
I'll go back to the beginning....
By this point in the winter it's been raining for months and we've been going stir-crazy indoors. We're ready for spring and all the picnics and playground time that come along with it! So even though it was chilly on this particular day, we gathered up the beach toys and headed out to the lake. Liam insisted we pack a picnic lunch. No problem.
Plastic buckets, shovels and trowels had been tucked away in the garage since much warmer beach days, so the kids reveled in the freshness of these playthings and their sandy medium. They got to work.

She almost always yanks those pigtails out, but on this particular day she requested them and left them alone. They melt me.

Little Sarah, Big Tree...

“Scheduled Flooding” has been the norm the past couple of years at Buntzen Lake as BC Hydro does some maintenance. Although the beach is clear at the moment, this little fish was likely a casualty of the receding waters….

I pointed him out to the kids, and they observed him up close, popped him into a bucket full of fresh water, and went on with their play. Sarah nearly dumped him out a few times, but Liam protested and so the fish stayed in the bucket.

Fast forward to our picnic. Over lighthearted conversation and crackers and cheese, Liam became positively grief-stricken about the little fish. He was sure that we could bring him home and then he wouldn’t die. It was very difficult to explain to him that we couldn’t bring the fish back to life….he was inconsolable. Sarah tried to cheer him up with hugs, kisses, pats on the back….even with a spontaneous outburst of a favorite catch phrase from Prep & Landing: “Jingle BAM!”

At first I thought he was putting on a show…after all, he ignored the fish in the bucket for an hour! But when it was clear that he was really mourning the fish, I put the camera away and we headed to the shore of the lake. I said some words about the fish (“We wish we could have known you better…”), and Liam repeated them all through heavy sobs. (He got the "ugly cry" gene from me, and it was out in full force!) Then we tipped the bucket into the stream and the little fish (whom Liam named after himself) was carried away into the lake.

Rest In Peace, Fish. We wish we could have known you better….