Summer '06 destination #2

After returning home from Chicago, we took a few days to get ready and pack up to enjoy some time at a cabin about 4 hours from here. The cabin is located on a small (in Minnesota terms) lake called Lake Irene. This was the first time that we had stayed here, so we really didn't know what to expect. We knew the kids could swim right of the dock and that the fishing was pretty good.

We arrived Sunday night, got all unpacked and settled. Kaden was just itching to go fishing, so at 5:30 a.m. he was up. He went down to the dock and I thought I should be a good mom and join him. I really hadn't fished at that point, but grabbed an extra poll and went to spend time with my son. We were both just casting off the dock, not really having any bites. I was just trying to figure out how to cast. So I cast my line out, thinking it went one way, when it went totally a different way. I started reeling in, but it wouldn't really come so I yanked on it a few times. . . well it was about then that I realized that I had something on the end of my line. Now this would be about the first time in my memory that I had caught a fish. Kaden and I were both pretty excited, but when we got him reeled up to the dock, I realized I didn't know what to do with the thing. So I told Kaden to run get Grandpa quick! Here Gene comes running out, bed head and all, to help me. We were all stunned that I had caught such a big fish right there off the dock. So Gene being the competitive fisherman that he is, decided that he needed to catch one bigger than mine. So for the rest of the trip, we kept trying to out do each other. I decided that fishing was actually fun and Gene and Phil taught me how to really cast and we all ended up catching quite a few fish. Those Northern Pike are sure feisty things. Since we didn't really measure the fish, who knows who actually won, but Gene and I were the leaders of that trip. So if anyone ever wonders when I started to like fishing, I know exactly when, the summer of 06!

Everyone had a chance to catch fish, the younger kids enjoyed swimming and we all relaxed and enjoyed the time together. Phil's brother Brad happened to be traveling near where we were so he and his two boys stopped by for a night. That was a great surprise.