Big Goings on!

     So here I sit, the father of three.  Brooke and I are proud to announce the newest member of our family, our daughter Shea.  She's all of five days old right now, and is upstairs sleeping while Mom also gets some rest.  Now with two little boys and a baby girl, Brooke and I have a complete set (collect all three!).  My spidey-sense tells me that she is going to enjoy the outdoors just as much as her brothers.  Hunter and Max are over the moon excited to have a baby sister, and I literally just checked to see if REI has cute little pink hiking outfits.  No such luck, but she'll still manage to be the cutest kid on the trails in the coming years.  In other, not so exciting news:

• I recently discovered (after foolishly being mistaken) that my Redington Surge fly reel does not have a sealed drag.  With that being almost a necessity for fishing in saltwater, it certainly more than justifies shopping for a new reel.  The made-in-the-USA (with a sealed drag!) Lamson Konic II is the early front-runner to go on my trust TFO 9-weight.
• We sold our camper this past fall and will be scouring Craigslist for a new one this spring.  We had many great memories in our old one, but it's time to move on and get something with a little more room, heat, more storage, and frankly, in better condition.
• I regret to inform anyone who will ever read this that I enter 2015 completely geared-up for hiking season.  I know, I know, I could always buy something (JetBoil?), but I finally have a collection of gear I like and that works, so what's the need?  Paging Mark T....
• Hunting season wrapped up in disappointing fashion.  See the season wrap-up for complete details.
• Lastly, I'll be heading to Florida in March to do some fishing with Phil.  Brooke and the kids will be down at their condo vacationing, so Phil recommended I fly down later in the week so him and I could venture off to the Keys or Everglades City to go after some Bonefish and Snook.