An Icy Weekend :)

This past Saturday, the temperature in Rapid City reached a record-breaking 73 degrees, and so what did we do? Went ICE FISHING! :) The boys had been asking to go all winter, and Grandpa and Uncle Josh had a free Saturday, so we took advantage of the opportunity and headed up into the hills outside of Spearfish on an ice-fishing adventure. Here we are (above right) trekking out onto the lake - it was GORGEOUS, actually a perfect day for this. It was 55 degrees where we were, not too bad for ice fishing! The boys quickly discovered that ice fishing takes a little more patience than the regular fishing they do in the summer - frequently asking Josh if he was sure there were fish in this lake - ?!? He kept reassuring them, and sure enough, both Jack and Noah each caught a rainbow trout. Even though they only had 1 catch each, we had a great time, just enjoying being outside and together!
Here's Noah carefully watching his hole:
And Jack at his:Mom and Dad enjoying the scenery:

Noah with his fishy (check out how it's jumping!):

Jack with his catch (it's on the line, down by his ankles):

And here's Jack getting bored . . . . We made it back to Rapid on Saturday afternoon in time for the boys' basketball game, had some friends over on Saturday evening, went to church on Sunday, and then took to the ice AGAIN, only this time at the ice skating rink! The kids had been asking to go since October, their first venture into ice skating, so we finally got it done! We are really amazed at their determination to get this down - within the first 10-15 minutes, Jack had SEVERAL really nasty falls, and Noah had a few of his own, but they wouldn't give up, they pushed on for an hour and a half, refusing any offers for a break. By the end of the afternoon they were doing really well, so progress was made!

Now we're having a normal week, the usual activities and meetings (I'm starting to get anxious for summer!!) We are also still WAITING PATIENTLY on the arrival of our new nephew, my sister's baby - her due date was today, but she's feeling like she's 2 weeks overdue. He's an estimated 9 pounds or so right now, and Betsy's terrifically uncomfortable, so we're hoping for ANY DAY/MINUTE NOW! :)