Weekend at the Cabin (and a bit about this crazy thing called ice fishing)

It was another relaxing, slow-paced weekend at the cabin. I continue to be moved by how wonderful this little-big place in the woods is for our family. It's become such a natural part of our life now, I'm not sure how we functioned before it.

Nothing unusual about this weekend; just quality time for the four of us, mostly spent ice fishing. I'm as surprised as anyone by how fondly our family's taken to ice fishing this winter. I like it for a few reasons:

1) It's something we can all do together. We're isolated from distraction (literally, we're sitting in the middle of a frozen lake!) spending time playing cards or Candy Land, listening to podcasts, talking, relaxing, and fishing within our ice house. In the blink of an eye, an entire day has passed and we've spent all that time together. I'll admit it was a lot less fun when I spent the time constantly deterring Aden from the minnow bucket, but now that we've set up the pack-n-play inside the ice house to contain him, it's fun.

2) It's something different to do. I've learned more about fishing this winter than I ever cared to know. It's interesting, actually! There's a science to catching fish; various species, types of bait to use, different lakes to visit. Way better than the Plants & Animals class I had to take in college. Andi and I took the ice house to White Ash Lake about 10 minutes from our cabin on Saturday morning and when the fish weren't biting there, we pulled up and moved to Scott Lake where our cabin neighbors Joe and Lisa were fishing. I've never paid any attention to the neighboring lakes around our cabin, so it's a bit of an adventure to explore new places. 

3) It's warm. Would I be caught dead standing on the ice in 10 degree weather with whipping winds around us? Oh, heck no! Our fish house is basically like an RV on ice. It has forced heat (and keeps a toasty temperature of 75 degrees inside) and there's room to spread out, catch fish, play cards, etc. Typically, Andi will set up a few tip-ups outside the shack and bop between holes both indoors and outdoors while I stay inside with the kids. It's nice to have an "outdoor" winter activity we can all do together. On days when the weather forecast doesn't read single digits, we bring the kids' snow suits and alternate between playing outside in the snow and warming up in the ice house.

4) A few times we've caught enough fish during the day to host /or attend a fish fry for dinner. We gather 'round the table with neighbors and enjoy delicious breaded fish caught hours beforehand. Aden is particularly smitten with fresh fish -- he literally eats twice as much as Tory and I do put together -- and I don't know, it's just fun. It's part of the seasonality of the cabin and why we enjoy our time there so much. Quality time. Community. Appreciation of the outdoors. Perfect.

So, ice fishing ... who knew it'd be such a hit?

When we weren't ice fishing this weekend, we played it low-key inside the cabin. Andi cooked us breakfast both Saturday and Sunday mornings, as is his unofficial duty on the weekends. Meanwhile, I sat on the living room floor with the kids, drank coffee and played around with Andi's big camera. Slow and easy; the best way to spend a weekend.

How many more days until the weekend? I'm counting down the hours until we're back at the lake again.