Spring Fever!

As the seasons change, so do our outdoor activities.  Throughout the spring we enjoy fishing off the banks of the Missouri, taking hikes where we look for treasures and maybe shoot a rabbit, or go look for horns.  

Last weekend, the weather started to warm up and get pretty nice.  As you saw from the last post we started the weekend with a drive out to Benton Lake.  (After a 5K that we did with my friend Jill).

Then on Sunday we headed out to see if we couldn't catch some trout.  As you can see, Dane enjoyed reeling this one in!

Then he helped me land this brown trout!

After switching spots a couple times, Clint caught this nice rainbow and then we called it a day.  It was one of those warm/cool, perfect spring days that made us want to stay outside all day and enjoy! 

On Monday, I worked for a few hours, then we picked up the kids and headed out for a hike.  We took our little 17 HMR in case we got the opportunity to shoot.

Low and behold, we found some rockchucks.  This one happened to be a trophy rockchuck that Clint shot! :)

Dane and Daddy spotting the wily critter in the rocks!  

Dinner!  

Spring Migration

Spring is always a fun time to go out to Benton Lake and look at the birds!  They were pretty thick in places and they kept getting up off the water.  It was pretty impressive.

 These guys were the cause of all the commotion!  

 Big flock of pintails

 The kids with their nets...  there really wasn't anything to catch, but they had a great time!

 This little guy was crouched by the boardwalk.  Even after the kids went thundering by he stayed there!  He was just laying low!

 These geese thought they were being pretty sneaky!

 There are also a lot of swans right now!  

Dane's birthday celebration at Tiber!

Dane is now five years old!  Hard to believe, isn't it?  I think that we may have mentioned it before, but this kid likes to fish.  So, he wasn't bummed out at all when we told him that we were going ice fishing on Tiber for his birthday.  In fact he was even more thrilled when we told him that it would be for 3 days and 2 nights!  When we arrived on Friday, it was a beautiful cold clear day.  There was a layer of freezing fog over the Reservoir as you can see in this picture.  Dane is following his Daddy out to set some tip-ups.

Once we got out on the ice you couldn't really see the trailer or the shore.

On Friday, the fishing was kind of slow until right at dark.  But, I had already gone back to the trailer with Kimber so I missed out and didn't get any pictures of the really nice pike that they caught.  

Overnight it was pretty cold with the freezing fog, so the next morning we had to break out the holes.  Using a chisel and hammer is really the best way.  

You can see that there was a fair amount of ice overnight.

But, there were some nice walleye waiting for us out there!  Here is Clint and Kimber with a nice one!

Dane pulled up a nice one as well!

Then the Scott's came out and joined us for the day.

They even brought some yummy cupcakes for Dane's birthday!  Kimber enjoyed hers thoroughly, as you can see!

One little pike decided to be a stubborn and wouldn't let go of Dane's glove.  

I guess sometimes you are the fish and sometimes you are the bait!

Although she doesn't normally icefish much, Amy even came along and who knows, we could have a convert!  She even posed with a walleye!

and then we built a fire so the fun continued!  Who doesn't love a campfire?

Sunrise the next morning was beautiful!  It was a great trip and we were so thrilled that Amy, Noah and the kids came out and spent the day with us!

A little of this and that!

Kimber chillin' with her Hollywood glasses!

 The good thing about crappy weather is that we get to build forts!

 and we get to bake birthday treats!  These were the fun brownie pops that we made for Dane's birthday!  

Horn Hunting

Last Thursday, I took a vacation day and although Clint originally thought he would have court, that got cancelled.  So, we took a look at the fact that it was supposed to be windy and we decided to go hike around and look for shed antlers (horns).  It didn't look too promising when we pulled up to the South Fork of No Talkin' Creek and spotted a large herd of mule deer.  Why isn't that promising?  Because there were bucks in the herd, and they still had their antlers!  

Well, nobody ever said we were smart, so we piled out of the truck, bundled up the kids, and started hiking.  It was a windy day so it was kind of cold...  but it was beautiful!  

 These hikes are a grand adventure for Dane and everything is a treasure.  He promptly found a deer leg that he wanted to pack around.  Bones thought it was pretty cool too and thought he might get to carry it for a while!  But, the kid just wouldn't let go!

Bones finally found his chance when Dane got distracted by something!  

 Bones is an incredible family dog!  It's hard to imagine that almost exactly 6 years ago we were horn hunting with him like this...  This picture was taken when we were out horn hunting on exactly the same piece of land  in 2007.  He got tired of walking, so we put him in the daypack and he was sound asleep in no time at all.  

 Fast forward to 2013 and things look very similar.  Guess the pup was just practice for life ahead!  

Here is Kimber catching a snooze in the Kelty.  Riding all day was truly exhausting for her! :)

When we stopped for our first break, Kimber was cold.  Since she isn't moving she tends to get chilled, even when the rest of us are ok.  We have gotten smart and I realized that if she wasn't happy, pretty soon she would start crying, then I would feel stressed, and the fun times would be over.  So, I gave her my coat.  We put her legs through the arms of my coat and then stuck her in the back-pack.  As you can see it worked perfectly and she was happy and warm the rest of the day.  (I was pretty chilly...  but I learned another important lesson about being prepared!)

 We hiked several hours and didn't find any horns so we stopped for our lunch and some silliness!

Dane is posing next to a deer rub.

 Just when I was pretty convinced that there weren't any horns to be found, Clint and Dane pull through and find this beauty!  Woo hoo!  Success!

 They were definitely considered the "A" team!  All I had found was this old horn that was several years old and had been chewed on. That's okay.  I'm honestly never very good at horn hunting anyway.  I tend to get distracted and then realize that I haven't been paying enough attention.  

Clint suspected that a particular spot would be good, so he let Kimber and I check.  Holy cow, we found 3 additional horns in that area, including one pretty big 3 point.  

This one was so fresh that was still red on the base!  It was quite a beautiful horn!  It's good to see those big boys make it to pass on their genes!

 Here's our little stud packing out the big one!