Camping in Zumbro Falls, MN

We try to plan a fun trip with the Hoppe's every year.  Last year we did the Dells and this year we did a weekend of camping in Zumbro Falls.  We have been there before and really like it because you can do a short tubing run right behind your campground all day long and mostly because there are very few mosquitoes.  We got a late start leaving Friday night because we were unsure if we should go.  It looked as though strong storms would be coming through the area and being in a tent, we didn't know if that would be safe.  We decided to go after watching the weather on the news that night.  We got there and set up our brand new Christmas present, a tent!

The tent worked perfectly and was very spacious for our family. The Hoppe's had their fish house and brought along a picnic tent.  We had a nice space.  After setting up the tent and getting the kids to sleep, we stayed up and had a fire.  We went to bed at about 1:00 Am and the storms started at 1:25 AM.  Fortunately, the boys slept through the entire storm.  I was pretty much the only one awake the entire time, thank goodness.  I peeked out a few times to see the Hoppe's flashing their lights at us to come over and sleep with them.  I would have called them, but neither of us had reception.  We stuck out the tent and did great!

The next morning, we were on breakfast duty with pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage.  Andy even tried to pull out some of his Benihana moves with the eggs.  It was entertaining.

The Hoppe's brought some bubbles to play with and Alex found some friends at the nearby campsite to play hide-and-seek with.

Sam pulled out his fishing rod/reel and tried to catch a few fish, but as Alex says they only saw one dead one.  But, Alex was loving it!

Before lunch we bought our wristbands, put the life jackets on and headed down the river in the tubes.  Alex loved his new life jacket, Emily and Aiden? Not so much.

It was quite cute. They seemed to be talking in their own language. Aiden would show Emily where to pull his life jacket off and Emily would show Aiden how to get her wristband and life jacket off.  They didn't seem to be happy campers, but funny enough that they were distracting each other.

After the river, we had some lunch courtesy of the Hoppe's and put the kids down for a nap.  Which went surprisingly better than I had anticipated. 

Little Man did not touch his sandwich, but dove right into those chips.  Oh well, we are on vacation, Mom!

 

The both slept like this for hours...

 

While the kids are asleep, the mamas will rock the river and the dads will sit on the bank and watch people rock the river...Both parties content.

The kids woke up and after a short shower we had a delicious dinner!  The shower left some puddles that my boys enjoyed fully.

A quick little shower later for all and s'mores it was before bed time.

How do you eat a s'more?

We went to bed a little earlier tonight, maybe 11:30 and the storms started about the same time again tonight only this time the wind came too.  It was fine, when we woke up about 6:30 the tent was already dry.  We quickly packed up to get going and just as we were putting the last few things away, it poured again!  

Although the boys slept great both nights they were exhausted and took great naps on Sunday.  We got home, took baths/showers, put on our pajamas and didn't leave the living room all day!  

Lucky to have such a beautiful family and friends!