So, we’ve got us a teenager under our roof as our oldest, Helena, officially meets the criteria today.

Helena meets bass (kept it small, less intimidating)                                     Helena meets fungus

 

Easter Sunday Fulton Co. fishing                    Color coordinated panfishing and love the barefeet in all the goose crap

 

The destruction of camping air mattresses begins

As kid number one in the chronological order there were many firsts as Julie and I took on the role of parents, still remember it being a little intimidating leaving the hospital and shortly thereafter walking into the house with a kid.  No real clue on actually being a Dad although I had a good role model.  Pretty much just hit the ground running, realized that the world didn’t revolve around me anymore and thanked my lucky stars that I married a wonderful lady who I have since addressed as “Mama.”

Found this write-up from the early outdoor writing days to share 13 year later:

“Julie and I welcomed Helena (second “e” pronounced as a long “a”) Grace Jackson to the world at 6:22 pm on July 1st.  She weighed in at 7-4 and was 20 inches long.  Here’s some statistics from the family record book for comparison:

Largemouth Bass Record        8-4   (only bass larger than our kid)
Channel Catfish Record          13-8  (three catfish larger than including 7-14 and 7-12)
Carp Record                          19-4  (Helena would be 24th on the list)
Muskellunge Record               7-14  (two muskies tied at this weight are larger)
In addition, all of these top fish would be longer than our little girl.”

Note: that muskie record stated above is bigger now…and so is that little girl.

Love you kiddo.  Talk to you later.  Dad