ice fishing

We went to Raymond for the long weekend. Got back yesterday. It was a pretty lowkey trip this time. Just hangin out with family and friends. Derek painted at mom's house. He painted the back bathroom over Christmas, and I guess he did a good job so my mom hired him to do some more. He painted the family room and the back entrance and hallway. Quite a large job. It's a dark golden yellow and it looks soooo good. We should have done before and after pictures.

Alli was awake every morning before 8am which is early for her. She is a almost always a post 8 o'clock waker if not 9 on occasion. (yes I know I'm lucky) I think she was up every day early because it's a lot more fun at Grandmas than here. And I still came out on top and slept in because my mom would take her.

Speaking of Alli, here's her latest. She has doing lots of new dance moves. She twirls all the time and moves her arms like a mad woman along with the head bobbing and bouncing her knees. I went out about a week and half ago first thing in the morning and Derek was with her. I came home to an empty bowl of oatmeal. She has been eating it almost every day since. Maybe she finally hit 21 times of trying it and likes it. Weird. But she eats it and thats all I care about. And my final, she learned a new work a couple weeks ago. The word....NO! Sometimes she just says it and doesn't know what she is saying and it's kinda cute. But most of the time she knows what it is and she gets a little or a lot of attitude when she says it. I just can't wait till she learns "mine" won't that be a fun one!

Ok back to the weekend. Every year on Family Day Dereks cousins go out ice fishing on Payne Lake. It's usually pretty fun, cold, but fun. It was pretty nice in Raymond. When we left, we were getting extra socks and boots because we thought it would be kind of wet and slushy. WELL, it was soooo not. The wind was so so so so cold. I'm not even joking, I thought when I was walking on the ice it would push me over. I couldn't believe Alli. She kept wanting to get down and walk around. So I would let her, but then she would trip over the little snow drifts or slip on the ice. I don't know what is with that kid. She does't feel cold. She was so sad to leave. I was the whimp who wanted to leave after 2 hours, I couldn't even blame it on her.

Here we are all wearing our Grampa Hicken gloves. Derek's Grampa is 87 I think and still makes these warmest mittens ever with deer hide. We found this old pair of Austin's for Alli, a little big, but every grandchild has to have a pair! When me and Derek were dating, Derek gave me a pair for Christmas. His grampa told me he knew it must be serious if thats what he was giving me, because you don't just give these signature mittens to anyone. My favorite part is there is a little stamp on every mitten. "Made for you by Grandpa Hicken" So you know it's authentic. And yes, grampa was at the lake from start to finish. Making hot chocolate, keeping the fire going, and doing all the fishing stuff.




I know I was so not a tropper that day, even though I tried. But what really put me to shame is Grandma Hicken stayed at the lake longer than me. If anyone knows her you know thats pretty good, and of course she was smiling the whole time. She didn't bring a touque because she thought her hair would be enough. Once again if you know her, thats sounds about right! Luckly Grampa brought an extra coat with this for a hood.


I'm looking at these pictures and it doesn't look cold, but let me remind you that is was. If it wasn't, I might have taken a few more. But it was only worth taking off my mitts to eat the really good food, not to take pictures.