Vacation Highlights

Preface to say SORRY for ALL the pics!!!  I didn't want to leave any out, but I actually DID, if you can believe it!

 I went on a vacation with my kids!!!!    It was wonderful.  

We rented a cabin in northeast Iowa for 3 nights.  RIGHT on the Mississippi.  Well across the highway that ran parallel to it.  Well, if the trees were gone on the other side of the highway, you'd see it...

An adorable cabin!!!  However when we got there, I discovered that there was no oven. WHOOPS!  I had brought 3 frozen raw lasagnas for the Saturday evening meal that I was in charge of.  I learned how to do them in the gas grill!  and the Convection microwave that they had there.  Whew!  I learn something new every day.  It may not stick but I learned something.

I first tried out the grill for Friday night dinner and promptly burned 3 of the 5 pizzas before getting some advice from Jen on how to make it work.  Apparently 600 degrees is too hot for pizza.  AND you need to shut off the 2 center burners.  I can do that.  AND keep an eye on what the grill temp is.  350 is the magical number for lasagna and 425 for pizza.

Meri and (bf) Ryan made a ton of hand formed burgers for lunch on Saturday. I did supper, as I'd mentioned.  Jen and Ryan brought a ton of sandwich fixings for lunch on Sunday. Maddy and Matthew made slow cooker pork carnitas for my birthday supper on that same day.  I made breakfast on Saturday with a ton of eggs, scrambled every way but sunny side up.  I think we did more eggs and muffins and banana bread on Sunday and leftovers for breakfast on Monday.  

Activities!!!

Friday night, we just moved into the cabin and then later had s'mores around the fire.  (bf) Ryan was a whiz at lighting the firepit.  

Meri brought Reedus on the trip and he enjoyed all the cabin time with us too.  Even playing hide and seek with us later outside.

Saturday morning, Maddy and I went on a walk down the highway and tried to take a couple roads that lead to the Mississippi but some no trespassing signs headed us back.  

After breakfast, we all just hung out and relaxed, playing board games until lunch.  At which time we realized that we might need to make an appointment for the kayaking!  I had gotten mixed up as to what we should have reserved and what we don't need to reserve, so I called them.  After a couple phone calls and texts, we found out that the guy had a couple people cancel on him and he had 8 kayaks for us to use that afternoon. YAY!  

The best $30 per person we ever spent!  It was so much fun.  Tensions and tempers flared now and then, as people were getting dunked right and left.  There were rapids, some calm areas on the water.  But through it all, it was an adventure. I'm so glad I didn't take my cell phone on the trip!!!  I'm glad NO ONE did!  But regretting the gorgeous pictures we could have taken.  The only ones who didn't get dunked were Leon, Jen and Ryan (bf).  The rest of us flipped over at least once.  We were able to grab shoes and water bottles as they tried to escape us.  I think Meri lost some sunglasses. 

 And at the very end of the trip, the rapids picked up and Leon shot right past the place where we were supposed to get out.  Ryan headed off after him and they had to drag two kayaks across a campground and a bridge to get back to the rest of us.  My kayak got away from me and ran into Jen and then down the river.  The current was bouncing me down the river on my butt...  SOMEONE grabbed my kayak and oar, thankfully and we eventually got everything dragged up on the shore.  

What a ride! I will definitely do that again!  Except for the last part...  That hurt.

We got back to the cabin in time to get the lasagnas in the grill and then just relaxed that night with everyone taking turns in the shower and then a fire.  I think we even played hide and seek as well as sardines that night.

Someone showed Leon an episode of the old cartoon Recess and they were all hooked.  That stayed on in the background the rest of the weekend. 

Early on Sunday morning, Meri, Maddy and I did a hike in Effigy Mounds and found the Nakasaw Overlook.  So beautiful!  

The scenery in Marquette, Iowa when Maddy, Meri and I drove into Prairie Du Chein, Wisconsin after the walk to get some frufru coffees for everyone.  Because we're ROUGHIN it!

Got back for breakfast, then all of us went to McGregor Iowa to go on the Spook Cave boat ride.  It was a lot of fun and we bought a lot of souvenirs while waiting for the next cave tour. 

 Leon, Meri and Ryan (bf) panned for gold.   If I knew how to remove someone from the pic, I'd remove the kid in the red shorts...  sigh... Oh well.

The cave was beautiful and you had to duck down in several spots to get through tight passages.  

My girls...

I happened to catch a pic of my Ryan and Jen. :)

Back to the cabin for lunch and then we headed to Effigy Mounds again and did a hike that Robb and I had taken Maddy and Ryan on twenty five years ago when we'd visited the area on a camping trip. 

 

If you're not familiar with what Effigy Mounds is... it's an indian burial ground from probably 750 years ago.  The mounds are shaped like animals, mostly bears or eagles. There is a large grouping of mounds on the hills overlooking the Mississippi and it's really lovely!  

Paths have been built so you can hike around them to each and to overlooks of the gorgeous river.  

On our way up the hill, one of the park rangers passed us and someone jokingly asked her to be our tour guide, she said SHURE!!!  She had us slow down and see little things that we would have totally missed.  She identified plants and what they were used for, tiny chipmunks, an ice cave rock that we would have walked right past.  She was great!  She also gave a history as they know it of the mounds and the area.  It really brought the past to life and made the rest of our hike even more memorable.  

If she hadn't been there to make us slow down and smell the roses, we'd have just hiked out to the overlooks and mounds and called it a day.  But instead we saw EVERYTHING and several snakes.

Hannah eventually left us for a while and we discovered that we were noticing even more things that we would have walked right by.  Later on, we caught up with her at the Eagle Overlook and she took a group pic of us.  

We got back to the cabin for dinner and were wiped.  We'd walked over 3 miles just on the hike.  Leon was totally pooped.  We didn't even do a fire that night.

Maddy and Matthew brought a Stranger Things cookie mix to make with Leon and he loved putting them together.  Eating them was a different story.  I'm told they didn't taste good.

It was my birthday on Sunday and the kids surprised me with a cake baked in the convection microwave!  I don't know how they did that without me noticing...  Meri took me out of the cabin on a walk down to the no trespassing signs, which I thought was suspicious but ok.  I don't mind walking down there again if you're so enthused to see the signs...  Then we heard a weird bird sound of "CaCAW! CaCAW!!", which was what it was supposed to sound like, but I heard "ComeBACK ComeBACK!"  and that was more accurate anyway.  It was a signal from Maddy to bring me back.  And then they jumped out of the dark kitchen and I had candles to blow out. :)

Monday morning, after breakfast, we packed up everything and cleaned up the cabin.  We're making plans for a bigger cabin closer to home for next year.

What a great time!  Time spent with your children and their loves is time well spent.

Oh!  Tip for the day: When renting a cabin, take extra toilet paper along!  

Especially if there are 8 of you!