Family Day....(and High Fashion).

Kaden has been begging....and I mean, begging to go ice fishing  All.  Winter.  Long.

So, Kevy and I decided to drag our feet no more, and we agreed that Saturday was the day to make all of Kaden's wildest dreams come true.  Or, to - at the very least -  rid ourselves of his incessant reminder that "We never even went ONE time LAST year...and this winter's almost over!!"

Poor little shiners.  Prepare to meet your watery grave...

Neither Kev or I are overly fond of ice fishing.
He's not a huge fan because he doesn't love the idea of walking on potentially thin ice.
And when you hear horror stories of seasoned veteran's falling through, it just doesn't overly thrill his soul.

And me?  Well, I just hate being cold.
And I can think of about a bajillion things I'd rather be doing on our Family Day.

Traipsing out to claim our spot on the lake.

However.  We have three small Hoolies who love any sort of adventure; and when we suggested ice fishing over breakfast, you would have thought we were telling them that we were going to Disney.  That's enough to make me put my (really) big girl pants on and decide to embrace the day in all of its goodness...and coldness....and ice-y..ness...

It's really the little things.
Four bucks for some bait and a thermos of hot chocolate.
It doesn't take much to make 'em happy...

First, Kaden is picking one out to be Ransom's "very own."

And the day was decently warm.  There were no whipping winds or freezing wind chill predictions.  This made me happy.  And there were tons of vehicles driving over the lake....which made Kevin happy, because that told us for sure that the ice was deep enough.

" I think the fithy wanths thom popcornths, Mama!"
I'm certain he does, Love.  

This is one of the many ice shacks that I was tempted to break into.

And a really low flying little airplane.  There were lots of those things out there playing around yesterday.

This is Kev modeling our....er...."Ice Shack"....of sorts.  And his rockin' rabbit hat.
I married a regular Daniel Boone.
That's Kaden in the background doing slave labor.

This is Kev sweating profusely.

So, for those of you who have never had the extreme joy or privilege of ice fishing....allow me to take you step by step through the process.  After you have your bait, your ice fishing traps, your snacks, your ice auger, and all of your little Hoolies rounded up...you then proceed to march out onto said lake and claim your territory for fishing.  Many people do this via snowmobile or vehicle.  We prefer the "use your children to pull your things down onto the lake with sleds" approach.

See second picture previously posted for the Kevin and Amy method.

Then, you decide where you are going to drill your holes.

And you also secretly swear under your breath at all of the other fishermen who are using electric ice augers...while you really wish you'd taken your friend up on his offer of borrowing his.

And you proceed to dig said hole.

Since we only have about ten weeks of pregnancy left to go...our Model today is sporting her Father's vintage 1950's snowmobile ski pants neatly buckled underneath her ever expanding girth, with a thick layering of her husbands' ginormous transfer station find of a ski-doo jacket over the top.  She also despises any hat of any sort of top of her head...but for the sake of foregoing any and all sense of pride and dignity she completes her outfit with a rockin' beanie of a hat...pompom excluded...and a pair of her husband's oversized and nonmatching gloves, to boot.

Try not to be jealous.

Remember:  "Comparison does indeed destroy contentment."
Just trying to be helpful...

Setting the first trap...

And depending upon how many ice traps you have...well, you proceed to dig that many more holes.
You will be happy to know that there was 12+ inches of ice to dig through.
We were sufficiently safe and secure on said ice.

Once the traps are set, the fun part begins.
You sit.  And you wait.

And if you're lucky, a fishy will bite - sending a little orange flag flying up into the air to let you know.
Then, you all will run as fast as you can on the slippery ice and see who can break their neck the fastest getting to the trap first.  It's a fun little game we like to play.

We also had a hole where we just let the boys jig a little fishing pole down into the water.
Ironically, this is where the boys hung out the most.
And, this is the place where we actually landed our one and only fish.

And it was a doozy.
Wait for it......wait for it.....
Brace yourselves.
It's going to be amazing.

 Aaaaand there you have it!
Our one and only catch of the day - caught by Sir Kaden, himself.
What?  You can't see it?

There you have it!
A wee yellow perchy.
Glorious.

And, Voila!
Ice fishing in a nutshell.
This is Jesse...doing...um...well....just "being Jesse."

And so, the fishing was somewhat unsuccessful, but the company was fun.
The snacks were delish, and the hot chocolate was cozy.
The weather wasn't too cold, and the heater worked nicely.
And the afternoon naps that were had by all were sufficiently lovely.
Along with the two Cribbage games wherein I successfully crushed my Love...
Yeah....all in all... I'd say it was a pretty great day, after all.

And now this?
Well THIS....is just a WHOLE lotta'....something.