Our annual friends river trip to Guttenberg, IA was July 21–27! It was so much fun. One of the best weeks of the year!

Just like last year, I am posting about it after I’ve been home from it for a week+.

Unlike last year, I am not going to make you suffer through a day-by-day recap. Mostly because the days were a lot of the same and that’s boring to read.

I will say, this year was even better than last year, for ONE big reason—I didn’t start the trip sick and get everyone else sick. We were all healthy the WHOLE time. Yay!

We also divided meals out this trip, planning certain families to take certain days/meals, and that worked well. We planned it ahead, gave all the ingredients/items needed to my snis, and she did all the grocery shopping for us. Complete all-star! Thanks so much, snis.

We had no set plans for any day, other than it ending with me, Dad, and Val and her husband riding Day 7 of RAGBRAI on Saturday the 26th. It would be nice if the trip started with that instead of ended with it, if people want to do it again. But this worked out fine!

My weekdays and weekends are so scheduled out that a vacation like this where almost nothing is scheduled is a DREAM. Our days looked very chill with a lot of hanging out, painting, going to the beach, and staying up late playing games. There was one excursion to a neighboring town and one into Guttenberg to get supplies and caffeine drinks. But we didn’t leave much!

We had so many laugh-out-loud moments playing games and being ridiculous. It felt so good to laugh and be silly with my loved ones.

I could have gotten more sleep 😂 Maybe next year I should take a day off after to sleep in. My notes from last year say I slept 11 hours the day we got back! This year it was about 6 because I had to go into the office the next day. NOT ENOUGH!

One of my cousins is living next door to the river house for a few weeks and she hung with us several nights and that was a lot of fun! And on the last day, Tiff and her fam left in the morning while we were out on our bike ride, then some on my snister’s husband’s family came to stay. And my younger brother and his girlfriend came for a bit too! It was great to see everyone!

(Interestingly, with so many people and distractions, there is less one-on-one or small group serious discussion and catching up. So while I saw Val and Tiff, I feel like I need to see them again immediately to have our usual in-depth conversations. Which I will in October!)

I am grateful I have another whole week off this month—including more river time, and time with friends and family. It would be hard to come down from this without another fun thing to look forward to.