Sam and his daughter invited us to go ice fishing with them this weekend. We debated on it and decided that it might be best to leave the baby at home for this one, so I stayed with Henry while Matt and Thomas got to go have some serious Alaskan fun. In the end, it ended up being warm enough they didn't even use the fishing tent, so it was a really pleasant day for the fishers!

Sam took some photos for me with his cell phone so I felt included via being tagged in photos on Facebook. The first few looked like Thomas was more interested in watching his dad fish than actually fishing... The scenery is pretty awesome too, I might add!

But then Matt caught this huge "monster" of a trout - he's mimicking a pose of Brittney when she actually did catch a monster salmon this year. Somehow it is not quite as impressive with a 9" fish. (Or whatever the actual size was - it was legal, that much I know!)

Then Thomas started to get into the fishing once he realized what was going on. I've caught a impressive total of one fish since we moved here, Thomas has now bested my record by several fish. Oh well, if I am going to lose to someone at least it's one I completely adore. ;)

Look how proud he is of his fish! He was even reeling in his own fish. I think Matt helped him at the very end, but he did most of the work himself. What an accomplishment! :)

Thomas and Abby with their haul! They both had fun, stayed warm and had fun snacks. Sounds like a pretty awesome day in the life of a little kid!

And the best part - dinner! Matt gutted and cleaned the fish like a true pro (thanks youtube!), then panfried them with a recipe that was really, really good. Turns out that the larger trout don't actually taste as good as the size they were catching. Nothing to make you feel like a true Alaskan that catching and cooking your own food. Well, I would assume so, the only one I caught we released... But I can claim my son's fish by proxy, right? ;)