Spring Fishing

When March turns to April and the snow and ice start to melt, I start thinking about spring fishing! As the trees start to bud, I get out my tackle box and give it a spring cleaning.

 Make sure the kids rods are dialed in and ready to go, I clean mine up too...but that happens in the garage and not on the kitchen table!

 G is ready to catch some fish this year, one warm evening we practice casting in the driveway!

 Like riding a bike, remembering how to cast a fishing rod after winter come back pretty quickly

 His goal was to cast to the street...nailed it! Big thumbs up!

 The DNR and the City of Johnston released 1,000 trout into Terra Lake on April 6th. So, the kids and I headed down there to see if we could catch a few.

 We didn't catch any fish, but on the bright side, Hy-Vee brought hot dogs and chips for the event!

 On Tuesday's, the ladies have music class from 10:30 to 11:30. I take an early lunch and G and I get to hang out. We usually end up getting donuts and running errands, we call it "Donut Date with Dad" Now that the fish our biting, I toss our poles in the back of my Jeep and we head to the park. G caught a good blue gill!

 The boys and I tried our hand again at Terra Park, this time from the shore.

 I caught a trout!

 Using one of my favorite lure, the Mepps in-line spinner with a #2 size blade and a black skirt!

 Another Donut Date and another fish, this time a little large mouth bass.

 I had Good Friday off of work and it was a beautiful day. Trigg has late lunch for a 1st grade, at 1:00, so I surprised him and pulled him out of school for some afternoon fishing!

 We pulled a couple of little bass out of the pond at Jester Park!

 ....and then tragedy, I broke off my favorite lure. I would like to think it was a really big fish, but chances are it was a just a stump...Rest in peace in-line spinner!

Now it's back to the store to replace my favorite lure...or find a new favorite!
Our big Minnesota fishing trip is quickly approaching but for now we are getting a good warm up around Iowa!

Easter

Happy Easter! He has risen indeed! Easter is one of my favorite holiday's; Jesus resurrection, spring is in the air, dressing up for church, Easter egg hunts, it's all great!

These 3 looking good in their Easter outfits

 B loved her "twirly" dress for Easter and she was willing to pose for any picture!

 The boys on the other hand, were a little more particular when it came to posing for a picture.  The conditions had to be perfect...I guess we had too much sun in this spot...

 Take 2...

 Still bright...

 Even a group pic didn't help, although the ladies nailed it...the dudes have some work to do!

 They didn't have problems smiling with their Easter baskets!

 My side of the family came up to celebrate Easter with us. Cousin's Easter egg hunt!

 Finding eggs!

 The whole crew with Grandpa and Grandma

 The boys got some boxing gloves in their Easter basket's...inflatable boxing gloves! G is ready to rumble...

 Trigg is up for the challenge

 Boys, take your corner...

 and GO!!!

 They also got chalk bombs, these little bags with colored chalk that when you throw them on the ground, they leave a chalk circle...same thing happens when you hit yourself in the head!!!

 Or hit your sister on top of her head!

 They did a great job painting the driveway and for the most part kept the chalk on the sidewalk.

It was a great Easter, great weather and fun spending time with family! Happy Easter!

MONSTER JAM

MONSTER JAM was in town over Easter weekend, so for G's birthday back in January, we bought tickets.  At the time, I went for row S thinking that would be a good spot in the middle of the arena. Then we got to the arena and figured out that the first 18 rows were closed off with a big blue tarp, leaving up sitting in the front row!!! The boys didn't seem to mind.

 Pre-show entertainment, the drive for the Monster Energy Drink truck was being interviewed right behind us!

Then the lights dimmed and there was a loud rumble that shook our seats! Here come the trucks!!! There were 8 trucks for our show!

 4 of the trucks were parked right below us, the other 4 were on the other side!

 The show was a series of competitions, each event scored points. The first one was a race around the circle. Here is the crowd favorite, Grave Digger, racing Scooby Doo truck.

 Scooby took the corner too tight and ended up flipping over and on it's side...

 and yes, broke it's ears clean off. You can see the official in yellow on the left carrying the two ear off to the pits.

 I brought in-ear plugs as well as ear muffs to help with the sound, even with double protection, it was still loud...but we sure do look cool for the show!!!

 Another competition was the 2 wheel challenge, this brought trucks into the air!!!

 and up on their front wheels!

 It was crazy driving, balancing on the back to wheels...

 or the front two wheels!

 In between Monster Truck competitions, they brought out 4-wheelers and they raced. Each 4-wheeler had a matching paint job that paired with a Monster Truck! These guys seemed tiny compared to those big truck!

 The last competition was the free-style event. Each truck got 90 seconds to "wow" the crowd! The trucks were high flying across the track!

 Grave Digger impressed the crowd as he was flying through the air!

 Big jumps!

 He was clearly a crowd favorite!

Monster Jam was awesome, the boys loved it, but at 2 and a half hours, we were ready for the show to wrap up by the end. Big trucks, big tires, lots of dirt, it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon!