Paybacks can be nice

So I spent half of April and most of May watching our neighbor's 7-month-old and 3-year-old daughters. They had lost their au pair, and I had a case of diarhea of the mouth when I said "I'd be happy to help out" until the new au pair came. Oh, and then I said that I wouldn't accept any payment--they are good friends, and have money issues, and I also wanted to have the freedom to not be available on certain days without feeling any guilt about it.

Anyway, long story short. These neighbors have a boat, and we now get to use the boat on our own pretty much any time we want. And we get invited out on the boat a lot. And we've been taken out to dinner, and they've watched the kids for us to go out by our selves, and we've gotten to go to NASCAR races, etc., etc., etc. It's been a pretty good trade now that I look back on it--especially since I'm done with the babysitting, but they're still feeling indebted to us!

We took the boat out while the Zirkles were here last week and went fishing near the island where we usually go for cookouts. Turns out that it's quite the fishing hole! As soon as those lines hit the water, the kids were reeling in fish. It kept up for over an hour, and we all had a blast. And I got to blame my camera for not being able to help out with the baiting...