Ice Fishing Day Date

My family left for the long drive back to Nebraska early Sunday morning, so Andi and I had the rare opportunity to spend a weekend day in the Twin Cities. Sundays are usually spent packing up our lake cabin, driving back home, catching up on laundry and readying for the week ahead. With an entirely free day in the Twin Cities, it almost felt like we were visitors in our hometown.

Andi decided to plan a date day, just the two of us. He rented an ice house on Lake Minnetonka, arranged for his sister and cousin to babysit Tory, packed snacks and beer for our day's adventure and away we went!

This is my first winter ice fishing and up until now, all my experiences have been at our lake cabin where Andi drills a few holes in the ice, puts out some tip ups and we play outside in the snow or sit by the campfire waiting for the fish to bite. Ice fishing in a fish house is a different experience entirely. There are many variations of fish houses, but the one Andi rented for us was a small trailer on the ice with eight holes in the floor to fish. The trailer includes a stove (which we didn't use), bunk beds / couch, a table, radio and HEAT. The heat is obviously the main selling point.

Honestly, I never fish when we're at the cabin because I'm usually chasing after Little Miss Tory Bean, preparing meals or perfectly content drinking beer while everyone else casts a line. Therefore, I had to buy a one-day fishing license for our date day fishing adventure and take a quick lesson from Andi on how to operate a fishing pole. Soon enough, I was on a role and out-fishing my very skilled and experienced husband.

We caught 19 fish in just two short hours. It was really fun to catch and release the fish, especially because Andi did all the dirty work of baiting and un-hooking the slimy fish.

Once when Andi was removing the hook from a fish's mouth, it sprayed urine across the room nearly landing on our snacks of cheese and crackers. Ack! Andi laughed for a solid three minutes after I screamed and jumped straight off my seat.

After we grew bored of fishing, we relaxed in the trailer and watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother. I even took a 20-minute power nap which was glorious after entertaining family all weekend. We packed up our stuff and grabbed a late lunch at Spasso. It was really fun day together. It felt strangely reminiscent of our life pre-kiddo when we leisurely spent an afternoon bumming around town and making decisions on a whim.

Back at home, we decided to bundle Tory up in her winter gear and take a brisk stroll around the neighborhood in her new Radio Flyer wagon which Santa brought her this past Christmas. Tory thought she was pretty fancy riding around in her big girl wagon. I'm looking forward to warmer temperatures and more snow melt so we can take many more trips around the neighborhood.