Ice Fishing Ain't For Sissies

Ice fishing.

I don't really like fishing. Kind of boring. But ice fishing is different. I don't really have to do any fishing. I can just play on the ice, take pictures, and eat treats. Now this is what I call fishing.

Here we are heading to the cabin. We look so innocent. 

We didn't know we were two minutes away from sinking into some pretty.deep.snow.

Uh-oh. 

It took a while to set up all the fishing tilts. So they got to play in the snow. And get their bottoms wet while I took pictures.

Good sports, these girls are. 

Geesh, I sound like Yoda.

Not a good moment. 

E had decided to check all the holes and make sure the minnows were still alive. That part went okay. Minnow was alive and kicking.

But then we ran into some trouble. E was doing something to the fishing line, I don't know what since I was busy taking pictures, and then I heard, "Oh, no, the hook went down the hole, Auntie!"

What? What do you mean, the hook went down the hole? Isn't it attached to the line that's attached to the fishing rod in your hand? The fishing rod that now has NO line attached to it?

That look on her face was the moment the hook went down the hole. And the next moment after that, she stuck her hand in the hole, glove and all, to retrieve her hook. I stopped her before she got up to her wrist. I had visions of her sliding in up to her shoulder. Thank heaven the holes aren't big enough for them to get swallowed up in. That girl was going to get her hook one way or another. 

After that, we had to head back to the cabin to warm our hands, and dry our mittens, and get someone to fix the fishing rod.

Because we're girls and we don't know how to do that.

Nor do we want to. 

J let me take a few pictures of him.  And he even smiled for one or two.

We were finding mittens all over the place.

You can't have too many on ice fishing day.

Things happen. 

Oh, look, more gloves hung to dry.

What a surprise. 

A really fun day. Until we left.

Remember that pretty.deep.snow. we had to get through to get to the lake and cabin?

Guess what we had to climb UP to get to the road? Yup, that really deep snow.

My first step in, my foot got stuck. I tried to lift it out and my foot came right out of my boot. I was in snow up above my knee, with one boot on and one stuck in the snowbank.

I got the boot unstuck, stuck my foot back in it, and took another step. 

Landed on my face, hands in snow up to my shoulders. Now I'm getting a bit irritated. I throw my camera case up to K and tell her to hang on to it until I get up to the road. She gets thrown off balance and starts to tumble backwards, down the snowbank hill. I take my one free hand and give her a good push on her tush to help her get her balance and push her forward. 

She lurches up the hill, barely keeping her face out of the snow, all the while protecting the camera. 

Good girl.

Because her mother CAN'T STAND UP. Every step I take, I sink in snow up to the top of my thigh.

I try to push myself up, and my hands sink in up to my shoulders. 

Ack.

I think I'm stuck. And sissy and K are laughing at me.

Somehow, and I don't know how, I managed to get a firm footing on a solid piece of white stuff and started crawling up the snowbank. I exited the top of the bank on my hands and knees and nearly tumbled onto the road. Sissy was bent over, laughing way too hard.

I hope her pants split.