Perfect day - fishing and playin in the snow

Woke up at 4:45am this morning and got ready for the day. I got a few things together then woke Ryan up at 5:00am. We headed to Dad's house and got there just after 5:30am. I loaded all my stuff in his truck and we were off to Strawberry Reservoir to fish. We drove up Provo Canyon, which is under construction. They are building a new bridge up there which looks like it is going to bypass the dam. We got to Strawberry (Mud Creek) about 7am. The roads were extremely icy. Just before we made our turn off to Mud Creek we stopped to put the truck in 4 wheel Drive. I didn't have my shoes on yet, so my dad said he would do it. He opened the door, took a step out, then I didn't see him anymore. I leaned over to see him laying face down in the ice. He slowly got up and locked the hubs in so we could make it down the snow packed road to the parking lot. There were a few other cars there when we got there, but not too many.

Now that Dad has his little trailer that he made for ice fishing, we can get on the road pretty quickly. We pulled the snowmobiles off, got the trailer attached and we were off. Our ice fishing place is only 3-4 minutes by snowmobile.

We drilled a few holes and within about 15 minutes we had our first fish. Although it was not my pole, I was the closest to the pole when it fish hit the lure and the pole jumped. I picked up the pole, set the hook and began reeling it in. It was the biggest fish of the day. Around 20-21 inches. It was a nice fish.



We continued to have success for most of the morning. I ended up catching 4 total fish, one of which I let Ryan reel in. Dad also caught 3 fish. So our total was 7 fish for the day, but we had to let them all go. At Strawberry Reservoir, Cutthroat trout, which is all you catch at Strawberry, must be thrown back if they are between 15 to 22 inches. For some reason, even though we were catching fish, Ryan didn't want to be out fishing. To his defense, it was very cold. It snowed off and on very lightly today and with the wind, it was hard to keep everything warm. I had a great morning of fishing and enjoyed pulling in the big fish we caught.

On the way home it began snowing. By the time I got to my house in Spanish Fork, there was about an inch of snow on the ground. Deni's sister Kati and friend were at the house (they came up for New Year's). Shortly after I got home, Deni and Kati left to go shopping. Since it was snowing, I decided it would be fun to go to the park to let the kids play with their new slides that they got for Christmas. On the way to the park, I realized that the snow was perfect for making a snowman, so we stopped and made this snowman in our front lawn.



After making the snow man, we went to the park. I don't think Sydney has even made a snowman or ridden a slide. Sydney would come up to the top of the little incline at the park, sit down on her slide and I would push her down. She would giggle the whole way down till she stopped. Then stand up, carry her sled back up to me and do it again.

At the park, I also made a huge snowman. So big in fact that I had to get Deni and Kati's friend to help me lift the middle section and the head.

I sure had a fun time with the kids in the snow.