yeah...I took a break

Posting is harder work than you think. We already have limited time together in the evenings since the girls stay up later because of the sunlight...so when it comes down to making time to post, sometimes it gets pushed aside.

Regardless, here we are. We are still enjoying a phenomenal start to the summer. Today we hit 72 degrees, the warmest it's been at the house in 2 years!! I have to admit as I sit here sweating while I type this, it's a little on the hot side. Most of the time we have a nice breeze going through the house but on warm days like this there is no breeze and it makes it just a little on the uncomfortable side.

Oh well, we are doing great and getting out and enjoying the weather. The girls are going to one park or the other pretty much every day. Just today they came up to work to see me and we ran up the hill and back, then they went to the park for a while, and then when I got home I took them for a bike ride! It seems like every day is that exciting. Who knows what we're going to do when the weather gets ugly again and we have to stay inside.

On one of these gorgeous days, I took off for a half day of fishing with Sam and Nate. We went up to Willow Creek near the mouth of the mighty Susitna River. I'm going to try and include a map from Google. It's near the small community of Willow on the north side of the map.

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Now, how did we do? GREAT!! Well it wasn't all great. I'll give you the short-short version since I know all you want to hear about are the girls. ...nope never mind...you're getting the full version. The previous night we went out with a bunch of people to one of our favorite restaurants. Stupidly, I ordered an entree that had a little pepper next to it on the menu. That's because it was CALIENTE!! Needless to say, my stomach was a little on the upset side the next morning as we drove the hour and 40 minutes and then hiked up the stream. About an hour into fishing, I had the urge. I calmly made it back toward the trail head when I came across a stream that I couldn't cross. I decided it was time and dropped my drawers just off the trail. As I squatted there contemplating my next move, my cell phone rings. I was laughing out loud as I answered it and heard a very perplexed Lisa on the other end. She was quite amused (but not too surprised) to learn my predicament. I asked for her advice. You see, I needed to sacrifice an article of clothing. I had considered my sock or even my hat. Lisa had the brilliant idea..."why don't you use your undershirt?" YES!!!! So I excitedly hung up the phone and quickly stripped off my shirt. It was at this point I realized I was standing in the middle of the woods...buck naked! Only my waders were draped around my ankles, otherwise I didn't have one piece of clothing on my body. Wow...how did I end up in this position?

Well, the end of it was that Lisa's well timely phone call saved the day. What would I do without her?

Back to fishing...I caught up with Nate and Sam and shared my story and we all had a good laugh. BUT, nobody had caught a fish yet! Just as I was starting to wonder if I'd ever catch a rainbow trout, the line tightened and I whipped it back. A small but beautiful rainbow had grabbed my olive green wooly bugger and was fighting for his little life. I gently pulled him in as Sam and Nate rushed to meet me and see the first catch of the day. Sam was the only one smart enough to get the camera out and take a couple pictures. Otherwise, the story would have been something like..."it was the BIGGEST fish I've ever seen in my life!!"


Since nobody was having luck with the other flies, everybody quickly switched over to the same wooly bugger I was using. 2 casts later, Sam caught his first fish!

Then Nate gave us a glimpse into really trout fishing in Alaska. About 30 minutes late and a couple hundred yards upstream, Nate landed this beauty. It is by far the most beautiful fish I've seen with my own eyes. What was especially exciting was the fight the fish put up. If you have seen the movie "A River Runs Through It", think about the scene when Brad Pitt fights the fish and ends up going down the river as he tries to land his trophy. It was very similar except Nate stayed dry and SOMEHOW crossed the creek all at once...still don't know how he did that.



I wish the day could have ended right then. What we didn't know was things would go downhill after that. After releasing the fish and a few high fives, we all decided to cross the creek to go back up and fish the hole that Nate had found. We were joined at that point by another guy who was equally as excited for Nate as Sam and I were. We realized that none of us were willing to cross where we thought Nate had and worked our way downstream until we found a reasonable crossing. Nate went first and made it look easy. The other guy followed Nate through the stiff current, lost his footing and went under water!! Granted the creek isn't very deep but the water was COLD and his waders filled up fast. Sam and I very nervously continued to cross and somehow managed to stay upright. We all stuck around and waited for the guy to wring out his clothes and then finally headed upstream. I jumped in first to hit the same spot Nate had hooked his trophy...only to hook a branch instead. I fought and fought but couldn't get it off. Stupidly, I didn't want to lose that much line and pushed my rod too far and SNAP!! I broke my rod. :( I honestly wanted to cry. I couldn't believe it. Oh well, I'm going to send it in tomorrow and hopefully get it repaired or replaced. We'll see.

We headed home shortly after that...a day full of awesome memories. I definitely won't forget that day soon but I wanted to write it all down to make sure.

So here's your reward for still reading...or at least scrolling down.

Lisa and I have been doing this for a long time with the girls but just today they picked it up and started doing it too. We would grab their toes and ask if they had stinky toes, we would smell them and say "EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!" ...and they would LAUGH!