Well needed break - probably not deserved though :)

My job usually requires me to travel quite a bit from August thru mid-November. Usually around mid to late Sept I am ready for a little break to recharge the brain. For the past 7 yrs I have taken a long weekend to go fishing near Brainerd, MN with a couple of friends. This is definitely one of the more relaxing weekends for me during the year. The agenda usually involves lots of eating, fishing, sleeping, drinking - with no email or phone.

A typical agenda:

Thursday
Depart Ankeny at about 8am.
Stop at Cabelas around 10:30am
Arrive at Gull Lake at around 4pm.
The rest of the evening involves getting beer and food, cooking a huge chicago style pizza and then watching college football.
We usually cap the night off with a trip to the pool and hot tub.

Friday
Sleep until at least 10am, then shower and eat a good brunch.
Take a walk and then sit around and read until 3pm.
Fish from 3pm to 7pm.
Then we clean the fish and eat lots of fish and fried potatoes.

Here are a couple of nice sunsets from Friday Night.




Saturday
Fish from about 7am to 6pm.
Catch lots of fish, then clean them and package to take home so the wife and kids can enjoy some good walleye.
Then we cook a huge 3-4lb beef loin, baked potatoes, fresh iowa sweet corn, and again pig out.
The rest of the night usually just involves digesting food and watching college football games.

Here are a couple more nice sunsets from Saturday Night.




Sunday
Fish from about 7am to 5pm
Then we clean the fish again and usually just eat leftovers for dinner.
The rest of the night is then spent cleaning, packing, visiting the pool/hot tub, and then watching NFL football games.

Here are 3 nice fish - 23-24" walleyes from Sunday morning.


Monday
Leave for home aroun 6am.
Arrive in Ankeny around 1pm and if I feel like it I will work for a few hours :(

The Squids are Both in School

Well it is hard to believe that both girls are finally in school. Madison started 2nd grade on August 14th - I can't hardly believe that she has been in school for 3 weeks already. Kiersten started preschool today (September 3rd) and it is equally hard to believe that she is starting school already. It is great watching them grow up, but difficult at the same time. Madison is growing into this mature little girl, while Kiersten always makes us smile with her spunk, spirit, and determination.



Here is Madison getting ready to go to the first day of 2nd grade. I think that they are going to miss each other a lot. Kiersten really looks up to her big sister and was very proud of her starting 2nd grade.








Here is Kiersten getting ready for preschool today. She was very excited for preschool. She has been talking about it for weeks and last night she couldn't sleep and kept saying she was too excited for preschool to sleep. She did great today, she didn't act nervous or emotional. She was pretty excited to see the balance beam and the indoor slide that they have.