MN Fishing Trip

With summer comes our annual "Dudes Fishing Trip"! They boys and I pack up the Jeep and head north for about 7 hours to Camp Liberty just outside of Nevis, MN! Todd and Kristin run the resort and they do a great job! I have been going on this annual fishing trip since I was 4 or 5 years old...and now my boys are enjoying the lake as well! My parent and my grandpa make the trip and this year my sister and her family came too! 4 generations enjoying the lake and each other!

Here's the whole crew!

 When we left Iowa, temperatures were in the upper 90's, so we were pleasantly surprised to find temperature cooler, in the mid 70's all week! Nothing beats eating on the front deck with the lake 20 feet away! Thumbs up from these dudes!

 Grandpa got a new fishing boat this year, so we were eager to test it out on the water...it seemed to find the fish!

 G got a new fishing pole this year, it worked too!

 Heather send present's for the boys to open each day...nothing big, but something fun for them to look forward to each day. On Monday, they opened Jet Launchers! Those were a big hit...and may have flown on the roof of the cabin. Luckily the roof line is low that I could lift Trigg up on the roof to retrieve the jets...

 Trigg is a big fan of the wax worms we use as bait, in between casts, he sets up races to see which worm is the fastest!

 Meanwhile, G was catching more fish!

 Camp Liberty has a great playground to swing, slide and dangle!

 Two captains of the boat...I think they approve of the new boat and the comfortable seats!

 Garrett brought a bug box to try and catch bugs in...I surprised him one morning with one of the fish I caught!

 We also hit the beach (small sand area really, but for a lake it is a nice beach)! Trigg caught on pretty quickly to paddling the kayak!

 And my sister and her family got to MN on Monday, so they joined us for some water fun, Piper enjoyed paddling as well!

 Lunch is more fun when cousins are around!

 Uncle Wade and Trigg are ready to catch some fish!

 G and I are ready to roll...

 We rented a pontoon boat from the resort as well, so everyone could go out fishing together! It was a blast and we learned how to cast with lots of people around!

 We even caught some fish. I think the kids had more fun watching the fish in the live well than they did catching those fish...

 All smiles!

 It's fun to fish together!

 Or just go for a ride on the boat!

 More fun in the water, this blue floating mat was a ton of fun to jump on!

 Playing in sand and digging holes

 Thumbs up from these 3 guys!

 Trigg gave G a tour of the lake in the kayak!

 Two dudes with matching shirts!

Trigg got pretty confident in his skills and made it out pretty far on the lake!

 The pontoon filled up quickly, in an effort to catch fish and not each other, the boys and I took out Grandpa's boat!

 And then we would flip flop and the three dudes would take the pontoon out!

 G got pretty good at driving the pontoon boat!

 We made a stop in Akeley, MN to see Paul Bunyan. Akeley has been celebrating "Paul Bunyan Days" since 1955 and the town hosts a 25-foot tall stature of Paul Bunyan.

 Of course we need to dab when standing on Paul's hand!

 We capped the week off with a few more trips out in the boat, G is getting pretty good at driving a boat...

 and Trigg got pretty good at being the captain and taking us to the fish!

Trigg and I took the canoe out for a spin on the lake. 

 We are on the 8th Crow Wing, it is in a chain of lakes connected by the Crow Wing River, so we paddled down the river to the next lake and then back!

 All in all, it was a great week at the lake, we had a ton of fun, caught some fish, enjoyed each other's company, played some card, road bikes, canoed, swam, and built sand castles. We got home on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon, G was asking when the next fishing trip is to MN...he was almost in tears when I told him "next year"..."That's too far away!!!"