Christmas

Great week in Ft. Wayne with the family.

Mickey's Magical Christmas

Yes, we even needed winter coats! What a great night.

Back in the Saddle

Note to my boys....Dad's fish eat your fish for bait and after a long hot summer, we're back in action. Don't let those little trout and redfish go to your head! This 35# wahoo was dinner less than 4 hours after being pulled from the ocean. Great Columbus Day on the water with Brian and Greg.

Brayden's Catch

After using some strong coercion to get Brayden on the boat with us yesterday, he managed to reel in the catch of the day. The boys and I enjoyed a "Fall" day on the IRL. To us that means a slight chill in the air as we get up to speed on the boat at sunrise, a sun at midday that doesn't force you into the water for relief, enjoying the beauty of the first light on the river without getting up at 3am, and active fish that are eager to eat. To those that can't live without apple picking and colorful trees, we concede, your "Fall" has is moments, but we're very happy to borrow your sweaters and bushel baskets when we visit.....we know what's coming.

Visit to "Sam's Island"

We missed the island's namesake as the Cheek family headed out on the boat for our fall excursion to spend the day on the spoil islands in the IRL. Everyone enjoyed the day once we found a "bug-free" spot to enjoy lunch and swim. Maybe we'll get Samantha back next summer and we can visit with everyone again.

Coastal Charities Fishing Tournament

Great Year again! We increased participation in a year when most tournaments are down, we gave away thousands of dollars in prizes and food including two new kayaks from Hobie and Malibu. We netted over $7,000 for the charity and we're planning to run a week long paddle and fishing day camp in the summer of 2011 to introduce kids to kayaking and the Indian River Lagoon. Special thanks to all our followers that supported us again in 2010. Phew....now I can get back to work on planning for 2011.

Spinning

The weeks before the Coastal Charities Kayak tournament were fairly work intensive, leaving the boys to fend for themselves on many Saturday mornings....They discovered Dizziness....

Frog Log Dominance

Since the first week of school, Brayden has been talking about his "Frog Log" and how he gets to keep the Frog Log if he reads the most in his class. The boy sets his mind to something and it's game over.

Each little frog sticker is an hour of reading.....I imagine there are some choice words being shared at lunch over strawberry milk and fruit roll-ups about "that Brayden kid". The kid just loves books...thanks Aunt Lauren. Way to go Brayden! By the way...that's just 2 full weeks of Frog Logging if you're doing the math.

You should have seen the one that got away!

Yet again, Alex outfishes Dad. We missed a particularly large Snook in the early am that would have completed the slam today. I did account for a solid 18" in trout, but Alex took the prize as he hooked the Snook and the Red. He fought the Snook like a champ, but the fish won the day. By the size of that fish, it wasn't his first rodeo, unfortunately for Alex, it was his. This nice fat redfish will be blackened for the dinner table tonight.

Surf Fishing

The boys and I spent 7 hours a the beach yesterday! Perfect day with a nice sea breeze keeping everything cool. We started the day fishing and ended playing in the surf with some great friends. Alex caught his first Jack Crevalle, a tough fighting fish that can grow to well over 40lbs. Don't overlook this little one's size, JCs are some of the hardest fighting fish in the ocean. A larger one kept me on my kayak for well over an hour one day before I could bring him to the boat. This one took a live white bait (ocean minnow, so to speak). There's a little finesse in casting light tackle in the surf, and while Alex didn't cast this time, he did bait the hook, set the hook and fight the fish back to shore. Enjoy...

First Day of School

G&G Cheek's Visit to Melbourne

Visit to Cold Stone Creamery....


Sunrise over the Shuttle Assembly Building with Grandpa, Alex and Dad
Chuck-E-Cheese with Grandma
Pool Volleyball, "Grandparent-style"

Alex wins again.....

Great day on the water with Dad and Alex....of course Alex get's the winning fish. No help from me on this one. He's baiting the hook, casting the lure, setting the hook and bringing the fish to the boat. In this case, the last of those tasks was the most difficult as this particular gaff-top was not the least bit interested in the seeing the inside of the boat. The kid's got a knack for it!

Sea World

It seems like a lifetime ago....that may be because it was, and I've been delinquent in posting pictures. Maybe it's been tougher getting back to our typical lifestyle since Samantha left than we thought? None the less, here you go, avid fans of the Cheek Family Blog, a couple pics from Sea World....enjoy

Happy B-Day Alex

What a fun night we had in Orlando to celebrate Alex's 9th Birthday or as Dad likes to say, his "9 years until we pay for college day"
Seaworld Pictures coming soon.....

The Day You Dream About

We always have fun catching fish, but there comes a point when we try to hone our craft and go after some targeted fish. On the 5th, Alex and I headed out to the Indian River with a goal of trout and redfish. While we didn't catch our goal, it was for good reason. The trout bite was so good, we just fished until our arms fell off. Tally was well over 30 fish. Here's Alex with his biggest of the day. Needless to say, Alex is ready to go again. Fish On!

4th of July

Peace in The SouthEast

A calm fell over the Cheek house last night as a part of our summer that was missing has finally arrived. Most, if not all of our followers have met Samantha, Jennifer's niece (really, her cousin once removed) from Michigan. A flower girl in our wedding, we really got to know Samantha over last summer break when she agreed to live with us for 8 weeks and take care of the boys. It couldn't have worked out better. It went so well we invited her to vacation with us in Nags Head, NC last year and last night we picked her up from the airport for "Summer in Melbourne, Part II". We only have 4 short weeks with her this summer, but I'm sure we'll make the most of it. Thanks to Michigan for sharing Sam with us for the next four weeks. We'll send her back safe and sound.

Alex breaks Dad's Streak!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm certainly not trying to make a living on the water and I don't enter tournaments that often. Once or twice a year I'll test my skill and well, let's just say I've yet to make it on the leaderboard.

This weekend the boys and I fished in the "4 Kids" charitable event out of Treasure Coast Marina and Sponsored by our friends at the the Strike Zone. When you're fishing with a 7 and 8 year old, you hope for best, but expect only to have a fun day on the water. We did manage to start fishing by 7:30, not too bad considering we had to drive an hour to get to the ramp. On our first stop we got into some trout, but none big enough for the scales. Around 9:30 we shifted gears and headed to the channel, Ladyfish was a category and I was crossing my fingers that a few would be around. We struggled, but managed to get one in the boat for Alex before the boys became intrigued by a large shoal with many boats and kids wading near the inlet in 6-8" of water. We stopped and played there for about an hour before we made one last shot. We headed under the bridge, and it was catfish heaven. While we were there I learned that jumping in the water after a fishing pole with your self-inflating life vest on is not a bad way to test it's functionality. Let's just say those catfish pull a good bit harder than anything else the boys have caught, especially in a current!

So, we headed back to the marina with a catfish (ugliest fish contest) for Brayden and a Ladyfish for Alex. As it turns out, Ladyfish were a tougher target that day than we knew. Only 5 or 6 kids out the 50 competing brought one in and Alex's was in 2nd place at the end of the day! He brought home a new rod and reel along with a great trophy and broke my spell of tournaments without an award. Maybe Alex and Brayden are my good luck charms for future events? At the very least, it's a great excuse to test that theory!

Author's Note: Brayden's catfish was trumped by the ugliest glob of a want to be squid turned into mud-pie that I've ever seen. It was actually alive and breathing or I would have assumed the gulf oil spill had made it to the sebastian inlet. Even Brayden admitted "that thing is ugly Dad, I'm not going to win"