Christmas in July!

Our Christmas gift to my side of the family last December was a fun weekend of camping and canoeing adventures in Decorah. So last Friday we all met at a campground right on the Upper Iowa River and began the fun (despite ridiculous rain Friday night that required Mike & I spend a little time in the laundromat drying out sleeping bags after a fault with our rain fly...)

We had a great time canoeing and kayaking, sitting around the fire, enjoying delicious grilled food and swimming & floating in the river. The kids (Cale, Ayla & Jonah) experienced real camping for the first time and it was so cute to see them all help set up the tent and roast marshmallows. I wouldn't trade a weekend like that with my loved ones for anything in the world!

One bonus was how much fun Xena had swimming in the river, it was hilarious to watch her work so hard to swim upstream and then zoom so fast downstream with the current! She was one pooped puppy when we got home.