Uncle T's Visit and Ice Fishing

Once we got back from our trip to TN for Christmas, we got our 1st visitor.....Uncle T (Travis, Lance's brother) came up to visit and experience a 'Northern Winter'. The only bad thing about his visit was that he didn't get to experience too much of a Northern winter. This winter has been a very strange one for Minnesota. Last January they had about 45+ inches of snow and this winter the biggest snowfall we have had so far is about 6 inches.

After seeing all the sites in Owatonna (mainly Cabela's)  we headed up further North in search of some outdoor winter snow fun! We ended up in the Norther part of Central MN around Nisswa and Brainerd. We stayed at a really nice lodge (http://www.grandviewlodge.com/index.php) that offered outdoor fun along with your stay. Lance had everything arranged, even a babysitter, for all of us to go snowmobiling. The only problem, at the time, was that there wasn't any snow! So instead of snowmobiling, the boys went ice fishing!

some pics inside the lodge

i know this pic is dark, but this is the back of the lodge and it reminded me of Dirty Dancing

Back to the ice fishing...

I'm not even going to act like I know a lot about ice fishing so bear with me :)

Anywhere there is a frozen lake you can look out and see a bunch of ice fishing houses or 'shanties'

this is the boys shanty

Travis riding out to the shanty with the fishing guide

(at this point in the trip, Lance was back in our room sick with the stomach bug.

So Travis got to learn all about ice fishing and fish for a little bit by himself)

the shanty....the boys rented it for 24 hours (i think, it may have been longer)

bunk beds on one end. There is a bathroom behind that door, or I mean a bucket

the other side, and yes it was heated

there are 6 holes in the floor, not very child friendly, so me and Ansley just visited for a little

Rattle reels

one of the fish Travis caught

fishing is hard work!

Travis and Lance

After having fun fishing we explored downtown Nisswa, MN

We found a Marble Slab Creamery and enjoyed some ice cream

We also went snowtubing at Ski Gull (http://www.skigull.com/index.html)

Ansley didn't have as much fun as the rest of us

Travis

It was so nice to have Travis come up and hang out with us. The best part is that Ansley got to see Uncle T catch a fish. Randomly she will talk about the fish Uncle T caught and she tells it like a true fisherman cause the fish gets bigger every time she talks about it,

so now Uncle T caught a BIG fish! :)

We also got to welcome 2012 in while we were there

Happy New Year!