A Very n"ICE" Day

Saturday was a day for some ice fun.

Every winter when the guys leave for winter camping or fishing, I wonder "why???"  But if it's fun for them...

Getting up at 5:00 a.m...

Driving hours to a lake...

Sitting on the ice for hours waiting for fish to bite...

So the girls decided on a different type of ice adventure.

We went ice skating!

Indoors

(Megan preferred to "chill" at home.)

Getting ready to skate.

Look at her go!

Joie is getting pretty good at skating.  It helps to have no fear.  

I don't think I ever get past my very cautious skating style.

...But then Joie is the one sleeping with a heating pad tonight, so if cautious skating keeps me off my rear end, I'm ok with my style.

Also a little cautious, but very, very cute.  She also got a lot more independent after this picture, and even dismissed me toward the end.  "You can quit following me, mom," she said.

I can take a hint.

Toward the end of the skating session the ice was really choppy.  Joie and Gabby figured out if they skated back and forth across the center of the ice they got mostly good ice.  

Smart kids.

(If only everyone else would get out of their way.)

And now...(Ewwww....I hate this part.)

We got home to a bucket of fish sitting in the driveway waiting to be cleaned.

I remember reading a Dave Berry column once where he said fishing was boring until you catch a fish, then it's just gross.  

I agree.

Check out the gloves.  That was Jeran's idea.

Sam had the quote of the afternoon:  "I think I need some air."

Getting some air.

Back at it with a little help.

Nate got home a little later than everyone else.  He's the die hard...stays until the last vehicle leaves.  He doesn't need a whole lot of help anymore to clean a fish.

And if you didn't like those pictures, and feel like you need some air, now would be a good time to leave, because it only gets worse from here...

From the first time I asked Gabby what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said "doctor."  

If this was an aptitude test, she's in.

All gloved up...

"Knife please"

(Those were her exact words.)

Ok...this is the really disgusting part.  As she and Jeran were busy identifying internal organs, they found a belly full of worms in this fish.  Yes, worms.

At that point all three fish were declared science experiments.  

I'm all about adventure, but I don't want the health department to have to open a case on our family, not this year anyway.

Gabby ended up taking over for Sam.

And after disinfecting the kitchen we had spaghetti for dinner instead of fish.

Dinner anyone?