Summer Plans

Zach and I have been talking about what we want to do this summer with our time and money. Last year, aside from getting married and honeymooning, we spent a lot of weekends settling in and hanging out with our friends. 

The summer before, however, I would sum up and say we learned how to fly fish! 

The first summer that we started dating, he heard that I liked to fish, he took us fishing once and it was magic. We spent quite a few evenings outside by a lake or pond that summer. I have always (okay since college) wanted to learn to fly fish. Zach loves the prospect of a new hobby to throw himself into and get excited about :) 

So we bought starter rods and reels and line and tippet and leaders and flies. And we asked our fishing friends a lot of questions. And it was.....awful.  

I totally expected to know how to cast that line into the water on the first evening. My impatience showed quite a bit while learning that summer.  

But! I did get better and better as I learned and felt how to bend the rod and how to listen to your line and bend your elbow at the right angle. And, Zach helped me emmensly. 

We fished ponds and lakes that year! Mostly bluegill and bass came out of it. 

Last year, I didn't focus on fishing near as much as Zach, but I did catch a couple of trout out of a pond south of Des Moines! It was terribly exciting :)  

So! We have decided this year to dedicate all of our free weekends to driving to northeast Iowa and fishing the streams! I am way looking forward to this.  

We get to celebrate a lot of friends getting married, so we decided to skip any big traveling and spend time outside! We invested in the remainder of stream gear that we needed. We spent one evening reorganizing our old flies and re lining our reels. 

And then my waders and new shirt came!!  

And I spent some time getting my new flies out and organizing for easy grabs and decisions out in the stream.  

I think I am most looking forward to the chance to be outside with Zach! Most of our little Saturday's fishing have unspokenly included dive bars on the way home or gas station doughnuts on the way there.  

I love getting to spend my summer weekends entirely outdoors and active if possible, balanced with working inside and running errands during the week!  

Anyway! Here's to the summer! And to tents, sleeping bags, campfire chili, and slipping on boots before getting in the stream!