The Fourth!

Did you have a fun Fourth of July? We did! The Fourth is my favorite holiday. Less hustle and bustle than Christmas or Thanksgiving. More relaxation, outdoors, hot dogs, campfires and sun...AND fireworks. Love it. Mark and I spent the weekend camping in Northeast Iowa (where I am from) along the Mississippi River. Here is my summer vacationing hat...or not.

We spent part of one day shopping a bit. This is one of the fun shops in McGregor, Iowa called the Paper Moon. Lots of vintage and artsy trinkets and books. Heart.

McGregor is a super-quaint, no-nonsense town right on the Mississippi - about 20 minutes from where I spent most of my years growing up.

We spent the other 90% of the weekend camping along the river! My parents have a little lot - a big campsite and dock - on the Mississippi where they have a couple of campers and boats. It's close to their home, so they spend every weekend there! Here's the family sign at the front of the lot.

Mark tried fishing off our dock, and only caught ONE fish. He's pouting about it.

I didn't feel sorry for Mr. Pouty Face because I didn't catch ANY fish. Rats.

Kayaking turned out to be better than fishing. This is my sister, Micah's, new kayak. So fun! We want our own kayaks now. Wish list!

Mark's favorite River activity turned out to be wakeboarding. As you can see, he is pretty stinking good at it already! Leave it to him. He's so athletic! Special thanks to our friend Jeremy and Danielle, who let us borrow their wakeboard for the weekend!

My fifty-year-old mom also tried wakeboarding. This is about as far as she got. :)

For all of you daredevil adventurers out there, I DID try wakeboarding last year. However, I have found a much better (and more fitting) calling in the realm of water sports. The Lord has shown me that I am a great spotter, and a great picture-taker when OTHERS are wakeboarding and skiing. I am very secure in my new identity, thankyouverymuch.

In other news, my sister, Micah, went missing one afternoon. She had gone kayaking and was gone for hours. We started to get worried, so Mark and Dad took the boat out to look for her. They found her pulling a picnic table home. Yes, that's right. A picnic table. She had found it floating in the water, so she took apart her life jacket, and used the strings to hook the picnic table to her kayak - a makeshift tow rope. She wasn't making very good time or progress, so the boys bailed her out and pulled it back to the campsite. Leave it to Micah!

One night, we used my other sister, Naomi's, projector to watch an outdoor movie! I do not recommend the movie, Battle Los Angeles, but I do recommend outdoor movies in general.

Mark is taking seminary classes, so he brought along some books to read at the River. Here, he is preaching hell fire and damnation to us in between wakeboarding and fishing.

We saw fireworks on the River, ate lots of ice cream, swam a lot, got several mosquito bites, fed a bear some honey (more on this later), soaked up lots of sun, got a new car (more on this later, too!), ate great camping food, played cards, got some treasured rest and relaxation, and had a great time with our family. Perfect weekend!