The Ice Castle (part 3)

There are many ways to enjoy ice fishing.

The miserable way.

The slightly less miserable way.

(this guy must enjoy ice skating when no one is looking)

OR

the way we went ice fishing --

in Uncle Doug's brand spankin' new

Ice Castle!

(Doesn't she look warm & comfy?)

First we stopped to pick up a little fresh bait

Then we pulled out onto "Fish Lake" (catchy name, huh?)

I'm not gonna lie -- it was kind of unsettling to Abbie & I 

that we were standing (much less driving cars!) on a lake 

and could fall right through into the icy water, like this:

(and get trapped under the solid layer of ice) 

(I'm freaking myself out just writing this)

But, we trusted Uncle Doug and tried not to think about it so we could have fun :-)

First, Doug & Mike drilled a hole to check the depth of the water
and use his sonar to see if there were plenty of fish in the area.
 (I was hoping it wouldn't take too long, cuz I was freezing to death).

It made me a bit nervous to see Porter getting so close to the hole.
And I had good reason to be, as you'll learn later in this post :-/

Then we cranked her down onto the ice & drilled 5 holes from inside the Castle to fish through. 

And last, but not least, we CRANKED up the heater inside,

...and settled in to wait for our first bite.

Porter fished barefoot, because - -

Well, this video explains that:

Mike did most of the dirty work (i.e. baiting the hooks)

He also did most of the catching of the fish :-)

While we fished, we enjoyed Porter & Abbie's singing, Uncle Doug made us hot chocolate & a yummy hot dog lunch, we switched back and forth between watching TV, and watching what the underwater camera was showing of the fish activity below. 

If you're up for seeing us in action - here's your reward for reading this far!

Life in the Ice Castle --

The crew -- after catching our haul of about 6 baby fish -- ready for a (tiny) fish fry!

(I must note, that this lake wasn't where Doug had planned to take us; 

but his favorite lake didn't have thick enough ice on it yet.  

I appreciate his caution & we were perfectly happy with our catch :-) 

This is how Dave says he enjoyed ice fishing as a child - -

(yikes)
I wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes.

White Christmas (part 2)

It's amazing how much fun you can have

right in Grandma Irene's front yard!

She (and Uncle Doug, who plows her snow)

made sure there was a 

veritable mountain of snow

all ready for our enjoyment when we arrived!

 Your may notice that Kenzie isn't in any of these photos . . .

She had arrived directly from Idaho, 

where there was plenty of snow,

so she opted for the warm comfort of Gramma's house!

I took pictures 'til I couldn't feel my feet

and then retreated to join her :-)

Abbie collected icicles to 'take home' as souvenirs from our trip.

Here she is, harvesting the grandaddy of all icicles, 

only to find that it had formed around the Christmas lights & was stuck!

She opted for a slightly smaller one

and brought it home in a ziplock.

(now that I think about it, there's probably a few baggies of snow-related souvenirs

still in gramma's freezer)

Merry White Christmas (Part 1)

Sometimes I overwhelm myself by taking too many pictures

(imagine that)

and then no matter how hard I try, I just can't blog it

(but I really want to)

This is the case with our Christmas with the Coe's in Minnesota --

It was so much fun that I reeeeally want it in my family journal (blog)

but it's sooo hard

(whine whine whine)

Almost as hard as it was for us to GET to Minneapolis.

On the first leg of our journey (Los Angeles to Denver), 

a little girl a few rows in front of us fell asleep, and then aspirated her gum.  

By the time her mom realized what had happened, it had been a while.

They had a very hard time reviving her, and her lung had collapsed, 

so the plane turned around and flew back to Las Vegas to get her to a hospital.  

It was so sad, and kinda frightening, but luckily there were several very calm nurses on board

who did a great job with her.

(and a not-so-calm steward with fancy frosted hairdo - who said some really weird things)

Me? - I just stayed in my seat and prayed hard that she would

just. start. breathing.

(I sure hope she's ok now)

They held our connecting flight in Denver for us,

and we were exceedingly grateful for reason explained below.

OK, Back to the Fun Stuff!

Two cute little vikings welcomed us :-)

Then they ran out the first door they could find 

to dance in the snow

while Dave rented a car
(Kenzie flew straight from Idaho after her finals were done a day later)

It was 15 degrees BELOW zero 

Mike

 (wonderful nephew and director/planner of all things fun)

had reserved a whole hockey rink for some fun the night we arrived

(if we had missed our connection,

or if our bags full of skates & hockey gear had missed their connection,

we would have missed an awesome night of skating)

From 9 'til after midnight, we skated!

& manned the announcers booth

and the naughtier ones ended up in the penalty box

and yes, i skated a little too (thanks, laurie,  for the skates!) 

but I didn't take any pics of myself

but I did get this one of Abbie in the stinkiest locker room I have ever visited

Snow removal was high on the list of fun activities for Porter

(and there was no shortage of snow to remove)

(I'm not gonna mention about the part where he ran over some snow-buried gravel 

and sent it flying dangerously close the gramma's front window . . . )

Dave could even remember how to shovel the driveway :-)

Porter does a thorough job on grandma's car...

Abbie & Kenzie

It was snowing lots at Uncle Doug & Aunt Laurie's house, 

but Mike and the kids were undaunted 

and gave each other rides on the sled

(but not until Mike had frozen his fingers off getting everything set up) 

Then, when you thought it couldn't get any better,

Mike got out some more stuff to play with at Uncle Doug's house!

oh - there's so much more

to be continued ;-)