Backbone State Park

Not much school happened this week, just 2 days worth, so nothing news worthy there. However, the beginning of the week was fun. We went on a family mini vacation to Backbone State Park in Iowa. It was our first time staying in a cabin and it was the first real vacation Emma has ever had. I will not count the month long evacuation to San Antonia we had to make when Emma was a baby due to Hurricane Katrina or the week long evacuation  to the Smokey Mountains we had to make due to another hurricane when Emma was about 6. This was not hurricane created, We simply had a nice get away.

From what we packed you would have thought we would be gone longer then a few days. Doubt riddled the ranks about getting it to all fit in the van. With great finesse and using my puzzle skills I was able to squeeze it all in with room to spare (a tiny bit of room, but still room). The weather was also an unknown. Reports of thunderstorms or cloudy skies depending on the source and the time of day were making us uneasy. We finally decided to pack ponchos and make the best of it....even if it meant relaxing in the cabin listening to rain. Happily the weather cooperated with just light sprinkles on Monday evening and overcast skies but dry on Tuesday (the ride home was under clear blue skies).

Backbone State park was beautiful. The landscape is hilly with lots of rocky out croppings. A river snakes through the whole park. Our cabin overlooked the river where Canadian Geese were calling to each other every now and then. We managed to do 4 hikes, 2 the first day...one in the dark, misty night...and 2 the next day. Emma, Dan, and I had to climb the rocks where ever possible and it turns out Bella is a climbing dog.

Neat rock formations, wild flowers, and bones are things we saw along the trails.

Monday evening we all rested in the cabin and Tuesday morning we had powdered donuts for desserts.

Luckily we brought food and there was an oven/stove in the cabin because we are not fire makers. Our poor attempt at a fire had even Smokey the Bear laughing. We did manage to get one but it was pathetic and the only thing making the actual flames were piles of leaves we kept adding to the smoldering logs. Since it rained the day before our fire was extremely smokey. BUT even with the poor fire and smoke we managed to roast a few wienies and marshmallows. Poor Glenn lost his first wienie in the fire but he tried again and declared the hot dog pretty tasty.

Even with the non-sunny weather and the poor fire, we all agreed this was a great trip. Something we will definitely be doing again.

Here is a pic of our poor pooped out pooch. She is not use to climbing rock formations all day long.