Spring Break Day 3

On Day 3 we woke up to this:

37 degrees and the ground was covered in snow. 

So, fishing was out for the morning. We decided to head back in to Des Moines for museums. But...most of the museums are closed on Mondays. So we headed to one that was open. The Botanical Gardens. 

Touching the leaves. 

Weaving a reed into the display. 

Getting dripped on. (He is so hard to get good pictures of!)

Case in point. 

We hit the gift shop, where everyone found something. Three bird finger puppets, a gardening book, and a coffee plant. 

After the excursion and lunch at a local brewpub, we headed back to the cabin and Tom went fishing. It was cold but he caught 11 fish before taking Nate and Nile out to catch two more. Tom has pictures on his camera. 

At 2:15 am I woke up Nate and Nile and we headed outdoors to see the lunar eclipse. This was the first (and only) clear night we had here and the stars were amazing. The moon was pretty fantastic too. :)

Spring Break, Day 2

The second day of our trip started much like the first one ended. Thunder, lightning, and rain. Lots of rain. 

The trend continued all day long. Rain. Rain. Wind. Rain. 

(At least the hail we had overnight didn't continue...)

30+ mph winds and a steady downpour did not bode well for fishing. So there was lots of this:

And a mid-day trip to Des Moines. 

Tomorrow it's looking like 40 degrees will be the high, so it's likely we will again be looking for activities that don't involve being outdoors. 

Tom's a little bit (okay, a lot) bummed that we aren't able to continue to catch some of those big largemouth bass...this was not how he planned to spend this trip. 

Photo of the day

Do you see it?  

Let me expand it for you. 

Epic. 

Sweet sleep

I typed this post last night and it didn't publish...

The boys were watching a movie while I was working on packing for our weekend. 

After about 20 minutes, Nile came in to tell me Novak was asleep. 

I came out to find this sweet scene:

In bed at 6:20...wonder what time he'll be up in the morning?

Spring break day 1

Our spring break is much later than almost everyone else's this year due to a late Easter. 

We decided to take a few days and travel this year - so we rented a log cabin in southwestern Iowa.  Along with the cabin (which is over 100 years old), we also get access to two fishing "lakes."

We drove down today and after unpacking the car, headed straight to the lake to fish. 

The bass are unbelievably huge. 

After fishing we headed back to the cabin. The boys are snuggled up watching a movie while we wait for the thunderstorms to roll in. It was 85 degrees today and the high tomorrow is only 55, and the storms on the radar are pretty massive. Looks like we will get a good light show and perhaps some hail.