I heart times like these

This is what it's all about. I spent last weekend with some of closest friends, in Decorah, IA where we all met. We rented a cabin just a bit out of town, and had a grand old time. There were no concrete plans, just food we wanted to eat, and a bar or two we wanted to go to. There were originally supposed to be 9 of us, I believe. But after plans fell through, we ended with just 5. Which was fine. We all have the ability to sit around and laugh a lot no matter who is in attendance.

Top 10 things we did, in no particular order other than I numbered them

1. Ate Med Bread from Pizza Ranch. OMG, that is good stuff!! (It's pizza without the sauce and just cheese. But I'm convinced they put some sort of cheesy induced crack on it because you just can't get enough.) And by the way, the only Pizza Ranch that makes it is in Decorah, so it's a must every time!
2. Had ice cream at the Whippy Dip. A little walk up ice cream shop but totally beats out any DQ. Their Ice Cream Sunday comes in a plastic boat, in a cardboard box, it's that big.
3. Went hiking at the Ice Caves and Dunning's Springs. At the Ice Caves we climbed a bunch of rocks and saw Decorah from a good height and distance. And at Dunning's, well I was just in awe of how pretty it is. I'm a bit bummed I didn't go there more often when I was in college.
4. Ate. We snacked all day. I left the cabin more full than I ever remember being. we had lots of cereal. Sugary, really bad cereal too. That is one of the joys of being a grown-up, you can eat like a kid if you want. And we went to some of our favorite restaurants, for old times and good foods sake.
5. Played games. This group of friends has always been big on board games. And we played a new one to me called Pit. It's loud, fast, and easy. Just like me! HA! (Just kidding, Family.)
6. We had a fire almost every night. Much laughter was shared around that fire.
7. we drank. It's not a weekend getaway with these friends unless there is some booze involved.
8. We toured the college campus and were amazed at all the new things they are doing. Renovating and improving. In fact we joked that the college was doing very well without our alumni donations!
9. We watched movies that we all had seen a hundred times before, so it wasn't bothersome when we said all the lines right along with the movie. I don't know about any of you, but I love to recite movie lines when the movie is playing and it drives some people crazy. So when you are with others who do it too, well it's oddly comforting.
10. And I'm going to be corny here, we made new memories. We all were saying that this was something we want to become an annual thing. Same weekend, perhaps in other towns. But it was so great to be with each other again that it needs to happen more often.

And a picture or two from the trip.