Weekend with Tracy-

This past weekend Tracy and I were able to go fishing with a few good friends of ours. I love Tracy. You can't top a wife that fishes with her husband! Here is a picture of Tracy's very first fish caught on the Flats- Mr. Catfish

Our good friends Rachel and Sterling.

Great times were had by all-

Python Hunt in the Everglades

What a trip! This past weekend I had the privilege of going on a Python/Anaconda 48 hour hunt in the Everglades with my cousin Josh, my Uncle Matt, and my brother-in-law John. Any trip with the 3 of them is awesomeness waiting happen.

This was the first ever "Reptiles of Concern" (Reticulated Pythons, Green Anacondas, Burmese Pythons, African Rock Pythons, Scrub Pythons, Nile Monitor Lizards) hunting season that Florida has done. The Florida Wildlife Commission hopes to stop the movement of these invasive species from moving north by opening up the hunting season. Here are a few photo's of the different snakes I listed above-

Josh and I may very well have been the first two people in the world to purchase the license for this. We were so on board. An opportunity to hunt down the worlds largest reptiles with a machete doesn't come along every day and we weren't about to miss out! It wasn't long before Uncle Matt and John were in as well.

The Everglades are like another country. Almost 50 percent of the animals down there are invasive, meaning that this is not the country they are supposed to be living out in the wild. Even the fish down there in the locks are invasive. Check out this bird- I don't actually know if it's invasive but I do know it's crazy.

We packed up my truck with all sorts of gear and weaponry and took off from Orlando at 2am Thursday morning. Why so early you ask? Our goal was to arrive in the Everglades right as the sun was coming up with the assumption that would be the perfect time to spot a giant snake trying to get into the morning sunlight to get warm. Had the sun come up that morning I'm sure we would have slayed them... Unfortunately, we did not kill any snakes. Nor did we catch any fish... We believe it was the ridiculous weather that foiled us and not a lack preparation, skill or determination on our part. It was cloudy with off and on rain showers the whole time and a steady 15-20 mph breeze. Not ideal snake hunting weather. Regardless, it was fantastic trip and company alone made it worth while. We are already looking forward to next year when the new season arrives.

Though we didn't ever find or see any pythons we did come across a bazillion gators. They were everywhere. I think if I was ever to hunt gators(which is definitely on my to do list) in a place where you are currently not allowed to hunt gators it would be here... on Levee 67 in the everglades.

While we were hiking down one of the canals looking for snakes and gators we found this- A dead gator. I think it's safe to say this gator was taken out by an enormous python.

So of course we proceeded to pull it out and take pictures of it. Two things to note about the following video: John almost tossing his cookies from the stench after pulling it out and Uncle Matt posing with it towards the end. Both of which made me laugh really hard.

Such a rad trip! I highly recommend the experience to anyone that likes a good ol' fashion adventure-

Colorado Trip

This past week Tracy and I were fortunate enough to take a ski trip with her family out in Breckenridge Colorado. It was fantastic! We went skiing and snowboarding for 4 days straight and then took a snowmobiling tour up a mountain to the Continental Divide on our last day. Here are a few pics of our trip-

Flying into Denver

Tracy and Carly on our flight

Carly and Aaron

Carly on the Slopes

Aaron and Tracy on the slopes

If you ever have a chance to take a snowmobiling trip in Breckenridge up the continental divide I suggest you take it. It was nonstop fun and the views were insane!

If you can see the snow capped mountain way off in the distance directly above Tracy and her Dad, just over the crest of the mountain behind us.... that is Pike's Peak and is 90 miles away from us.

Mom and Pop Frost

Tracy

Tracy and her Mom

Tracy making snow angels on the Continental Divide

Aaron pondering something...

The last two months

I wish we had a better excuse for our sheer lack of blog updating. We really don't have an excuse at all. There was a period of time (from about October 18th until now....) when I just felt so guilty about not updating that I avoided it (I am sure there are some serious theological and psychological underpinnings there that refer to our relationship with God but I'll leave it at that).

So here we are, you and I, as you read our blog. Here's the update from the last two months:

Halloween with our Summit Connect Group!

Happy 6 months of marriage!

Putt-Putt with our Summit Connect Group!

above: Hunting (clay pigeons) with the Beeson Family

below: Aaron and little Ruby!

Good Times, Strange Fish...

This morning, some of my best friends and I went out to mosquito lagoon to do some flats fishing. Despite the angry seas and 15mph winds we had an excellent day on the water. For the past decade I have made it a point to consider very carefully who I spend my time with. The guys in the picture below are at the top of my list. They lift me up and make me laugh. They encourage and challenge me to be a better man. And if all of that wasn't enough, they also go fishing with me. I can only hope to return to them the same.

The only thing better than all of that is having a wife that genuinely encourages you to get out with the guys and go fishing every now and then. Just one of the many reasons I sure do love my wife.

It was downright chilly when we started out this morning. I mean, really cold. When I left the house, I thought for sure my umbros and t-shirt would be sufficient. I was wrong.

This is a photo of the guys around 7am on our way out to the honey hole:

Around 11:30-12:00 the sun started peeking out and stuff started moving. I took a picture of the following fish because I have never before caught, seen, or heard of anyone catching a fish like this until today. Does anyone know what this is? We declared it to be some sort of devilish lizard fish. To give you some perspective, the lure stuck in its filthy mouth is 5 inches long...

FINALLY!

Oh glories of home ownership! For the past 4 months Tracy and I have been in a epic battle with our city in an effort to get a huge tree removed from our backyard that was leaning on the house. We knew when we bought the house that getting the tree removed was something we would have to do and fully intended to. Shortly after we closed we got a letter from our Insurance stating that we would be dropped if we didn't take care of the tree. "No Sweat" we thought. We'll just pull a permit and hire a guy to take it out. Unfortunately we live in hatersville and the city has all sorts of absurd rules enforced by local boards and small town government. I could share a list as long as my arm about all of the insane things they wanted from us but I'll just paraphrase. We battled with the "Tree Conservation Board" for the past 4 months to try and get the fee waved (Which was a donation to their board for $6000.00 not including the money it was cost to actually hire some guys to take the tree out and buy new ones.) After agreeing to replant 2 very specific trees they allowed us to remove our tree and not pay the donation. All in all, I'd say it was the worst display of small town-local government-authority mongering I have ever seen.

If you are ever in need of having one of your own trees cut down you should look into hiring Todd's Tree Service. They were fantastic-

Anyway, here she is, coming down in all her glory.

Before (Front View)

Before (back yard... Tree against Roof)

40% Done

Lumberjacks in action!

Down to the main trunk

Almost there

And now, after we close up the deck around the remaining trunk and we get a good table top we'll be good to go : )