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!

Vacation 2021 and catchup.

Just a quick run through of pics from our summer vacation.

It of course started one day earlier when we got the twins.  We still have them and from the sounds of things, it could be for a much longer time than we anticipated.  Time will tell.  Ryan keeps telling me the mantra of "18 years!" trying to get me in the mindset that we're raising these kids to adulthood so might as well quit looking for the end game until it happens.  

And he's right.  These kids are developing right under our noses so we're going to let them enjoy life and grow.  It's not their fault and we're treating them as if they're our own.

Pay no attention to the state of our house.  We don't! :)

Actually I'm trying lately.  As soon as we heard that they'll be here for probably another month or two, we've shifted into "let's make this work" mode and we're baby proofing everything and just not throwing things behind the couch where they can't reach it.

I don't care if they play on the piano but the Legos HAVE to get put away...

Our vacation was the first full weekend in August.  I rented a cabin in Wisconsin, fairly close to Maddy and Matthew's town.  Ryan and Jen drove our van out with the twins and Meri, Leon and I drove in her car.  We stopped a few times on the way out when we saw activities we thought they'd be interested in.

 

now Luke wants to be a farmer.  Well, just for a second.

We found the cabin and it was right across the street from the lake entrance!  The twins enjoyed that!

Maddy and Matthew arrived and we all settled in.  The cabin was perfect.  It had several kayaks and a canoe as well as a fire pit with enough Adirondack chairs for all of us.

And a closet full of board games and toys for a 9 year to old to approve of.

He wants this toy set for Christmas.

So much fun to just relax and enjoy each other's company.

Meri even brought Reedus!  

Everyone pitched in wherever help was needed.

Each family unit took care of one meal.

And this is my entire family, except for me and the twins, out on the lake. 

With the kayaks and equipment supplied, the kids had a blast learning how to use it all.

Leon really bonded with his child sized kayak and raced Matthew across the lake.

He loves kayaking now and I'm so glad he stepped out of his comfort zone and tried it out.

He and Matthew had lots of bonding time and memory making on this trip.

BTW those are beef sticks.  Those two could eat their weight in those things.

And the last morning before we left, Meri got the timer on her phone set so we could get a group shot.

We'll need to do a trip like this again!

On the way home, Meri, Leon and I stopped at every touristy thing we could find.

Making memories even at a boat dock.  

It had a path into the woods with private beaches.

And mimicking every statue they could find.

Found a place called Ship Rock, somewhere in Wisconsin and it was fab!

Lots of graffiti but also lots of moss and greenery.

And places to climb and wear off some energy.

Those two were like billy goats all over this thing.

There were tearful moments, there were happy moments.

There were moments when we got sick of each other.

There were many trips 10 miles into town for eggs or something else we forgot.

There were moments at a local laundromat due to a baby blowout during the night.

There were tense moments driving in the downpour 20 miles to find diapers.

But I love what family I have left and had a wonderful time.

Yesterday wore me out!

It wasn't the SITS thing that did it... We left on vacation on Tuesday and have been on the road. I will be getting back to all the commentors from yesterday this weekend when I get home. We spent Tuesday night at my sister-in-laws in Kansas City.

On Wednesday morning, we met up with one of my loyal Bloggy buddies at an IHOP in a town nearby!!! Annie Jones! She brought her adorable little Kat, who is a chatty Cathy! So cute! I took a picture of them, but one of my girls accidentally deleted it... I'm so sorry Annie!

The rest of the day we meandered down to Branson, MO, stopping here and there. It's not as green down here as we thought it would be, but it's still pretty gorgeous. There is no level road anywhere here...

We stopped at the Fantastic Caverns. There is a reason they don't post the prices anywhere until you wait in the line for 30 minutes to get to the counter. It was $26 per adult and $13 per kid! GASP!!! Robb is muttering, these better dang well be the most FANTASTIC caverns ever... Next time, we'll try to check out these things ahead of time! The caves were pretty neat tho. We rode on motorized wagons through them. They were huge! and very pretty!

We were going to stop at Lambert's Cafe - Home of the Throwed Roll in Springfield yesterday for a late lunch. But the line to get in was out the door, so we got fast food instead and promised the girls we'd go tonight instead. That's going to get changed too...

We found our cabin and it's gorgeous! The view of the mountainside behind is so pretty and full of trees and paths. Meri and I explored last night as much as I could handle. There is an indoor pool, shuffle board, ping pong table, foos ball, games galore. The girls are getting ready as I type for us to go on a hike and take lots and lots of pics of the resort where the cabin is. This was a really good choice to stay!

The girls flu from earlier this week finally caught up with Robb and he was down for the count last night. I felt so miserable yesterday that we went to bed at 8pm. Robb and my room is on one side of the cabin with our own huge bathroom including a whirlpool bath and shower. The girls have the same thing on the other side of the cabin. A big long screened in porch on the back overlooking the woods and mountain.

So anyway, tonight we'll skip Lamberts and maybe hit there for an early lunch tomorrow on our way home.

I hope everyone is having a great week!