That's a Big Fish!

The first time I remember hearing about a Tiger Muskie was on "Outdoors with Doug Miller" when I was around 16 or 17 years old. Ever since, I've had dreams of catching one of these monster fish and this past Saturday proved to be the day! At a get-together on Thursday some of us were swapping fishing stories when somebody whips out a cell phone to show us all some pictures of a Muskie he'd recently caught over at Newton Reservoir. After seeing the pictures, my friend Nelson and I made plans to head over and try our luck. These fish are notoriously hard to find and catch (their nickname is the "fish of 1,000 casts") so we honestly weren't expecting much, but wanted to at least give it a try.

Saturday came and it was time to see what we could catch. We tried a few spots without luck and eventually ended up on the opposite end of the lake. I was fishing with a large spoon Sarah's grandpa had given me in Minnesota for catching Northern Pike and after about an hour of chucking this huge piece of metal out and reeling it back in, I was starting to have doubts...when suddenly, "WHAM!" something hit my lure and I had a fish on. It didn't fight hard in the beginning and I thought maybe I'd caught a medium sized bass. I brought it in close to the boat and as the fish came up out of the murky water, we got our first glimpse of what was actually on the other end of the line. At about the same time the fish saw us and took off...now the fight was on!

It tried going under the boat and then took off for the other end of the lake, ripping line off my reel as it swam away. I only had 8 lbs. test line on and I was horrified at the prospect of this monster snapping it as it fought. After what seemed like forever, we finally got it into the net and onto the boat. It was as long as the bottom of the boat was wide! After a series of high fives and a few lines that might make a sailor blush we figured we'd better calm ourselves down before we fell out of the boat!

We were both in shock at the site of what we'd caught, in fact my hands were shaking. We weighed it, measured it, snapped a few pictures and then put him back in the water to fight another day. I immediately sent off some pictures with my phone to a few people and then called my father-in-law and long time fishing buddy to tell him the good news. 35 inches long, 8.5 pounds. By far the biggest fish i'd ever caught and now we can't wait to go try again!

We {heart} Destin, FL



Travis and I had SO much fun (despite missing our little guy) with our friends Alex and Tabitha down in Destin, FL.  We have known these guys for forever (some of us longer than others since Trav and Alex went to school together since they were both about 12 years old) and we just had a blast!  Alex found us a great place to stay in Destin Harbor that was close to everything!  We spent lots of time on the beautiful beaches, went kayaking, saw movies in the afternoon hours when it was too hot to be outside (yes even at the beach!), ate good food, saw the sites, and just enjoyed having so much "adult only" time.  It really was perfect.  Here are a few photos...

Waiting to see Transformers 3 in 3D...aren't we tough looking?!

The biggest plate of nachos I had ever seen...this picture doesn't do it justice!

The biggest and tastiest strawberry shortcake dessert I've ever eaten

The biggest beach chair I've ever sat in...is there a pattern here?!

The white sand beach

The crystal blue water

I've always wondered what I will look like in 15 years...now I know. We saw this lady while we were eating lunch one day and we were wearing the same shirt and everything.  The best part was that she noticed me about the same time that I noticed her and thought we looked alike as well...creepy right?!



BFF's

Thanks so much for such a great trip!  We can't wait to come back down again!

We {heart} Iowa

Vacations are the best! For those of you who aren't aware of what we did and where we went for our latest getaway, we took a 10 day trip and split it between Iowa and Florida. Jackson got to stay with Grandpa and Grandma in Iowa while we went to Destin for a few days to meet up with some old friends of ours that moved from Utah to Tallahassee a couple of years ago. It was definitely hard for us to leave him for a few days for the first time, but we survived and he (more then) survived! ;)

My parents were so excited to have Jackson all to themselves for a few days that I am 99% sure they didn't even realize that we weren't around...and when they did, they didn't really mind much ;) They made certain that Jackson would have everything that he needed to feel right at home and I know that he got plenty of love and attention.

Once we got back to Iowa from Florida we had a nice relaxing week catching up with family and friends that we don't get to see near often enough. We went boating, to the petting zoo, ate ice cream at my favorite local ice cream shop, had a campfire (and of course s'mores) and went to a REAL Iowa farm! We played outside almost every waking moment because the weather was unseasonably cool (mid-upper 70's) and not humid (relatively speaking) for August in Iowa.

I really did try, but simply couldn't choose a handful of pictures from that 350 that I previously mentioned. So here is a slide show of my favorite moments... (Hint: If you would like to view the slideshow slower or larger just click on it and a new screen will pop up)



Thanks again to everyone that made our trip so wonderful. We love you all!

P.S. I will post on the Destin portion of our trip within the next few days...it's past my bedtime!

Bad Timing

We are home and well from our FABULOUS vacation! However, a couple of days before we left for vacation my computer crashed (with pictures on it that I planned to blog about) Then, I accidentally dropped our camera while on vacation and now the lenses won't go in/out. Needless to say, we need to address those technical difficulties before I get to really update our blog with our latest happenings!    :(   LUCKILY....my mom is more than good about taking pictures and she was our photographer while in Iowa. As soon as I have time to cypher through all those pictures (350 taken in 10 days!!) I will put some more up....in the meantime, here is a sneak peak...