Magnolia Mamas : Montana Trip

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Montana Trip - Part 2

Happy Wednesday! I hope all of you are having a great week. I'm fighting off the never ending stomach bug, and hoping to finally kick it here soon. I'm dreaming of my days back in Montana for sure. :-) If you missed it, click HERE to read about the first part of our trip.

On our second full day there we had some fun stuff planned. We did an archery class/lesson that was really fun. After a little instruction and practice I was channelling my inner Katniss Everdeen! It was so much fun and I surprised myself with how well I did. There were all sorts of different targets (some bulls eyes and some fake animal ones) set up throughout a course we went through next so we got to put our practice into play.

After our archery we had a quick lunch and then were off to try our hand at ice fishing! I had fished as a little girl off my grandparents dock on the waterway, but that was about the extent of my knowledge and this was totally different.

First of all, just walking out onto a frozen lake was an experience. They gave us these spike things that fit over our boots so we wouldn't slip when walking around. We were assured there was a full 9-10 inches thick of ice on top of the water, but hearing little creaks and cracks can be a little nerve racking. Apparently those noises are actually a good thing because it means the ice is expanding and getting thicker. Still, I just pictured it splitting like it does on cartoons.

We sat on buckets, got all set up with our poles and bait and waited. We were shown little movements to make with our poles to bounce the bait off the bottom off the lake so I just kept doing that over and over and guess what?!?! I was the first one to catch a fish!!!

If it look like I was scared, that's because I kind of was. Getting these fish up through the hole on the ice without them knocking themselves off the hook was the tricky part, but once my guy was up he was WAY bigger than I had expected. The fishing guy took it off the hook and tried to hand it to me. As he did that, the fish turned with it's big mouth right at my face and nearly knocked me off my bucket. Ha! I was laughing so hard, but it was really a lot of fun. That big ole' fish was tossed back in and they knew others would be biting soon because they travel in schools.

Sure enough, my honey was the next one to reel one in.

Only he wasn't one bit scared of the thing and grabbed right ahold of him.

After all that fishing excitement we were off to get ready for the Super Bowl party that was planned for the evening. Everything at this ranch is over the top, and this party was no exception. Greeting us as we walked in were giant ice sculptures that looked like the Super Bowl trophy.