Not About Fishing ;)

Every once in a while I have to take a break from talking about fishing and talk about other things in my life. Although I really really really like to fish. Fishing is not the most important thing in my life.  These two and half people are…..

My family is absolutely everything to me. Amelia is the most amazing wife and mother that has ever existed. She makes sure that benj and I have everything we could ever need or want and she gives wholly of herself with no regard to her own wants or needs. She spends her entire day essentially hanging on Benjamin’s every word and deed and making sure that he is the happiest kid on earth.

They play playdough, they go on walks, they play on the slide outside, they cuddle and watch shows, they go to the library and get books, they play at the park, Benjamin dances while Amelia plays the 

piano, they are seriously the best!!!

We have had a lot of really fun times together and I could never describe them all. Benjamin continues to grow every day. He is getting so big!! He can carry on a conversation, and he is not afraid to give you his opinion. He grabs a hold of some of the best things and he just won’t let them drop. Amelia and I went to the temple a few weeks ago, and we told benj that he couldn’t come but that we would take him soon. From that day forwarded he hasn’t let a day pass without asking to go to the temple. Unfortunately, the nearest temple is an hour away, so we can’t just run up there, but we have promised him we will go soon.  He loves nursery so much!! We had stake conference a couple weeks ago and he couldn’t go to nursery, and you’d have thought it was a national crisis. He loves to play hungry hungry hippos with Amelia and Me, and he would play for hours if we would play with him for that long.  He will not let me out the door for work or anything else without a plethora of hugs and “tisses”, and the same with his mom. I love this little guy more than I could ever explain! I cannot wait to see how he interacts when Dani gets here.

Fishing in South Central Utah

Well, one of my favorite parts of living down here in Sevier County has been getting to fish a whole bunch of places I never fished before. Since moving here, I have fished Upper Box Creek and Manning Meadow Reservoir on Monroe Mountain, Clear Creek in Clear Creek Canyon, Fish Lake, Monroe Community pond, and of course Donkey Reservoir on the Boulder (not new, but so much closer). My two favorite new places are Clear Creek and Manning Meadow Reservoir.

Clear Creek is a small (west fork-ish) stream that flows down Clear Creek Canyon parallel to the I-70 between the I-15 and Sevier Valley. It has small cutthroats that are a blast. The best part of Clear Creek is that I can have my waders on and be in the water in 20 min from my doorstep. I have even started waking up at about 5:30am and running up the canyon before work.  So far, it has been fun figuring out what the cutties are hitting each morning. A classic “hopper dropper” rig always produces fairly well with about a 50/50 split between fish hitting the hopper and fish hitting that day’s favorite nymph. 

Bradley Came Fishing With Me

He is a goober... and I love my Bro!!

Manning Meadow Reservoir is an amazing high mountain lake that sits at about 9,500 ft above the Sevier Valley. This lake is used by the DWR as a natural fish hatchery for Bonneville cutthroat. I have done two late summer trips up to Manning and they were both spectacular.  On both trips, I just ran up the mountain after work and got to the lake around 6 ish.  The fishing was slow while the sun was still hitting the water and I was only able to catch two. One was kind of a reactionary bite on a grasshopper (the hopper had only hit the water for about a nanosecond before the fish hit) and the other was by stripping a beadheaded olive woolly bugger.

After the sun finally went down, the fishing really turned on. The fish were jumping like crazy and I tried 3 or 4 different dry flies before I threw on a blue dunn, they loved it!!! I would wait for a fish to jump and then I’d cast right where it jumped and within 10-15 seconds I’d have a fish. A beautiful 18.5 inch cutthroat provided me with my PR for fish on a fly rod and between the two nights I landed 16 or so fish between the 15-17 inch range… it was so much fun!!! These Bonneville cutties have deep red cheeks and awesome coloring. I really think Manning Meadow is my new favorite fishing spot!!!

To top it all off, I spent last weekend on the Boulder at Donkey Lake. Dad, Bradley, Parker, Preston, and I went up Friday afternoon and camped over. It was a ton of fun!!! For the first time ever on the Boulder, we brought some ways to get out on the water. Bradley and I had our float tubes and Dad brought up the canoe. It was a good thing we had them too!! The water was really low this year, which meant we had tons of weeds. Being able to get out on the water made all the difference. The fish weren’t going crazy like they had been in past years, but we were still able to land some really beautiful brookies. Friday afternoon/evening (while the sun was up) I tried just about everything in my fly box to no avail. Finally, a beadheaded olive wooly bugger with an extremely jerky stripping action and a good 5-6 second pause between strips started producing. As the evening progressed and the sun went down, a purple parachute adams on the top was producing very well. We finished the night with an awesome meal of 9 high mountain brook trout filleted, battered in Red Lobster biscuit mix, and fried in a cast iron pan over a propane stove.  Being in those mountains with the leaves changing and crisp early fall air did me a world of good. There is an indescribable feeling when you get to immerse yourself in the mountains and it is a feeling that ranks near the top of good feelings in this life.

Saturday morning was very cloudy, fairly windy, and it sprinkled most the morning. The fishing wasn’t amazing, but we all ended up catching a couple. Overall, the whole trip was an amazing opportunity for the McGuire boys to get out and spend some time together!!! Its crazy to me how big my little brothers are getting. Bradley and I have always been really close, but seeing how parker and preston are 15 and 17 years younger than me its pretty cool to see them turning into youngmen and falling in love with some of things that I grew up loving. Parker and Preston both caught their first brookies this last weekend, and it was their first trip to the boulder. Here is to many more trips and tight lines!!

Life Changes Fast

Well once again, it’s been a long time since I lasted posted on the blog… So much has happened, I’ll never be able to write it all here. Honestly, when I forget to write in journal, or blog, for a really long time, it’s 10 times harder to start again because I never know where to start or what to include.  My last entry was in October of 2015. It’s now August of 2017, nearly two years have gone by and some absolutely amazing things have happened over those past two years.

For starters, Benjamin has gone from one of the cutest little babies in the worlds to one of the smartest, most active, fishing loving toddlers ever.  His mom is his best friend, and he has the best smile in the whole world. It blows my mind how much I love that little guy. He asks me if we can go fishing about three times a week, and it’s nearly impossible for me to say, “no”. He’s the best fishing buddy anyone could ask for!!!

As for Amelia and Me, a lot has changed.  Since I last posted, I continued working my internship at LEI, worked my parks job at the county on weekends, and I also worked as TA for Dr. Guthrie’s concrete and asphalt class.  Three jobs plus full time school just about killed me. In the meantime, we moved from the house in Provo into my Aunt Shannon and Uncle Stefan’s basement apartment in Orem. It was so awesome living with the Arnoldsens!!! It was way cool getting to see them almost every day, going to the same ward, and just being so close to family. We also loved the fact that we got to use the hot tub whenever wanted!!!! Benjamin’s bed time was 7:00 PM and we’d hit the hot tub for a good hour probably 5 times a week to just decompress a little!!! It was awesome!!

Finally in December of 2016 I graduated from BYU with my degree in Civil Engineering!!! It took way longer and was so much harder than I could’ve ever imagined, but it was worth it!!!

I walked in August because the don't do graduation ceremonies in December

The day after I took my last final, we moved to Monroe, UT. I was offered a job as a structural engineering EIT with Jones and DeMille Engineering in Richfield.  Jones and DeMille has been an amazing company to work for, and I have loved every second working for them!!! Monroe is small town of about 2,000 people 10 minutes south of Richfield. We loved living in Monroe.  We lived in the Monroe 4^th ward and we couldn’t have asked for a better ward. We got to know so many people and had such a great time!!! Amelia ended up being called to the activities committee and was involved in weekly pickup volleyball games, monthly sewing nights, the community orchestra, and all kinds of awesome stuff. I ended up being called as the Young Men’s President, which was crazy, but I absolutely loved it!!! We even did a priest/teacher combined super activity to Lake Powell and it was spectacular.

Unfortunately and fortunately our time in Monroe was short lived. It’s unfortunate because we moved away from such an awesome ward, but extremely fortunate because….. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!  If you would have told me that I’d own my own house within 8 months of graduating from school I’d call you nuts, but here we are.

And since we are crazy, within a week of buying our new house, we went on a week and half cross country road trip to Wisconsin for the Kolts Family reunion!! It was awesome, and we loved every second of it!! We even got to come home through North Dakota and Montana and swing by my parent’s cabin, in Ashton, Idaho, for the McGuire Family reunion. Such a blast!!!

And on top of all of that…… WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY GIRL.  Amelia is pregnant and due on Dec. 17^th, and we are so excited!!!

I had no idea that in a 365 day period I would graduate from BYU, we would move to a place neither of us had ever been before, I would begin my career, we would buy a house, Benjamin would turn 2, and we would have our 2^nd child…. Needless to say it’s been one heck of a year!!! And it’s only August!!! J