A Fish Tale

Saturday, Mike and his two fishing buddies (John and Randy--our bro.-in-law) decided to head out for an ice fishing adventure. Mike was planning on taking our three oldest and leaving Jessica and me behind (we are not fans of the cold.) Friday night Jessi announced that she too wanted to go ice fishing with Dad. I couldn't send him with all four kids--it's a lot of work just to get them bundled up--so I decided to come along. Mike went shopping to get us hand and feet warmers and some new gloves and socks. He wanted it to be as pleasant an experience as possible (for me.)

We set out bright and early. We ate a breakfast of champions--McDonald's. Why do I not remember how awful I feel after eating that junk so early in the morning?

We watched a little Paul Blart Mall Cop on the road.

Of course, Christian was the first one with a line in the water. He stayed the longest of any of the kids manning his pole.

Here's the fish story. Randy caught a pretty big rainbow trout. No one else caught anything. The kids left their poles sitting on buckets while they played on the ice. Mike was checking something on his IPhone (I have a love/hate relationship with that IPhone--love it for the internet and Bejeweled--hate it because he is on it a lot--another story for another day.) So, he is on his IPhone when Bev's pole jerks and then flys down the hole--the whole pole just flys out of the bucket and is pulled into the water. Mike jumps up and sticks his hand down the hole to try and get the pole. All he came up with was a really cold hand. A few minutes later, Randy gets another bite. We are all like, "seriously--you get two--no fair." He reels it in and pulls out not a fish, but Bev's pole. The line was broken and the fish got away with the bait and the hook, but he pulled out her pole. It was the darned craziest thing I have seen. It was even better than catching a fish, because, I mean, he caught the pole. That is the only thing having to do with fish that happened on the trip.

Jessi and I kept pretty warm. I will not lie--this is not my favorite thing to do. I did not like hearing the ice cracking. I do not like being cold (although we had reasonably good weather.) I found myself asking Mike how he determined just how long they stayed out there. He said it all depended on the kids.

I did love being together.

Christian lost his boot a few times. Thankfully, this time no one stepped in a hole.

I got pulled around the ice a bit.

We had eight kids in the company. They had a blast on the ice. They used the ice skimmers as hockey sticks. They pulled each other in the sleds. They shoveled snow and ice into the buckets. I forget how much fun they can have just being outside.

Mike brought some hot chocolate.

A great time was had by all.

On our way home we completed a few firsts. We went to Cabela's--don't get me wrong. It was really cool, but like I told Mike, I felt in there like he probably feels in a fabric or craft store. Seriously, I never imagined there existed that much stuff for lovers of the outdoors.

We then waited for 20 minutes for some In-N-Out Burgers. I was the only one that really enjoyed them.

We were exhausted. We came home and I slept on my bed with Jessi, Bev and Kiki for THREE hours. We took a THREE hour nap! That never happens, and I loved it. It was a great end to a great day.