While hubby's away...

Kristi & Alex will play!

This week, Joey is on a man-cation with our dear friend Mark at his glorious cabin on the French River in Canada. You might recall that we usually go together over the 4th, but this year I'm saving my vacation for the move (read: decorating/organizing) and it actually is a really good time for Mark and Joe to reconnect their friendship. You know, bro time and all that.

So, while he's off fishing and grilling and scratching and burping, me 'n my 3 year old partner in crime are rasing a little hell of our own.

Sparklers!

Trips to Target!

(Please note he is wearing Joe's cell phone
holder as his "wallet" so he could buy a toy.)

I honestly just love hanging out with Alex. It's no longer this relationship of me taking care of him every second of every day...it's more of a friendship and hanging out together to do fun and silly things. Don't get me wrong, I'm his Momma first, friend second...but still, it's fun to have my dude as a sidekick. It also helps that Target is one of his favoritest places in all the land. He comes by it naturally.

Anyway, if you need us for the next 5 days please consider looking at Chuck E. Cheeses, the Warren Community Center or Target. Peace out.

For Mike.

I suppose I should have warned y'all that I was going to be oot and aboot for a week or so. And apparently, my lack of scheduling caused at least one faithful reader to hop into a tailspin and vandalize my Facebook wall with pleads of entertainment of the blogging kind. So, here we are.

Hi, Mike. I see that you missed me. I would say I missed you, too, but then I would be lying, and I only tend to lie when Joey's cooking* and Kelli's most recent shoe purchases are involved. Instead of missing you, I was jumping off cliffs, floating through rapids and rediscovering why my liver hates me but loves tequila. On that note, Raspberry Crystal Light and tequila is DELISH. Trust me on this.

The Joey and I headed for our annual trip to the French River, Canada. Why we go to Canada for the 4th of July week I will never know, but what I do know is that it's one of the most amazing places on earth, and certainly worth the eleventy billion hour drive to get there. But that is neither here nor there, and instead of boring you with my tales of yore, I'll stimulate you visually, eh? That's what they say in Canada. Both the 'stimulation' and the 'eh'.

 Floating on the French.

Joey used it as an opportunity to keep his beer cold.
I love that man.

 Joey with his River wenches.
Note the incredible scenery behind us.
I hiked in that. HIKED. As in, sweatted my own sweat, which I
try to do as infrequently as possible.

It is at this point in our journey that I entertained the idea
that cliff jumping might be fun.
I did this three times. What is wrong with me?!?

Joey also took a brave turn.

Note that he is smarter than yours truly and only did it once.

 The rapids to the immediate right of the rock?
Another moment of insanity pictured below.

I'm the head under water.
I also did this thrice. Glutton for punishment? Perhaps.

 Tequila, duh.

The view from the cabin. Not a bad place to spend a week, eh?

So there you have it - that's what I was doing when I wasn't blogging. I promise to not ever leave you again, Mikey. Or, at the very least, warn you when I do so you can take up other reading hobbies. I recommend Chelsea Handler. I think we're long lost fourth cousins or something.

*For what it's worth, I love Joey's cooking. Mostly because if he's cooking that means I'm not.

French River Recap: 2010.

There's not much to say about our trip that can't be done via pictures - aka my lazy way of recapping the week. Really, we did a lot of eating, a lot of reading, a lot of sleeping and a lot of drinking. Disperse some campfires, fishing, boating, skiing/tubing and other water-related activities throughout the week and you pretty much have our summer vacation in a nutshell. No, this is me in a nutshell. Look at me! I'm in a nutshell!

To recap, this is our travel route.

Yes, it's a ridiculously long drive. Yes, it's worth it.

Mark (our friend and cabin owner) and his

LOVELY lady friend, Kelly.

Seriously. I pink puffy heart her.

Moosejaw. Love the Madness™.

A rose between two thorns, indeed.

Floating on the French.

Frenching on the French.

Proof that at times, I am rather adventurous.

What you can't hear from the picture are my screams of

"SLOW DOWN! I AM GOING TO DIEEEEE!"

That is my husband.

That is the cliff he jumped off.

Again, what you can't hear from the picture are his

screams of "I AM GOING TO DIEEEEE!"

An island's version of a firetruck.

This bad boy flew RIGHT in front of Mark's

cabin about a dozen times - it skims the top of the

river to scoop up water in its base and then flies over

a fire to dump the water.

To be discussed in a later post: the top ten reasons I didn't miss my kid AT ALL while I was on vacation. Seriously. Not even for a minute.

Vacation.

It's time for my semi-annual pilgrimage into the wild. I'll be back in 10 days...unless the fish get to me first.

Vacation Bliss.

In roughly 48 hours I will be well on my way to this:

A dear friend of ours owns a cabin on the French River in Canada. It's about 300 miles north of Toronto and is on an island. Which roughly translated means that no form of technology is allowed while I'm there. No texting. No Facebooking. No blogging. No emailing. In short, no one can find me. It's bliss, really.

I've never really been much of a "nature" girl. In fact, you'd have to pay me to sleep in a tent. My idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn Express with crappy bathroom freebies. But there's something about this place that is just magic. I hike. I canoe. I boat. I shoot rapids. I swim in open water. I've even been known to catch a fish or two. It's but once a year, but I am so, so, so looking forward to it.

And no, Alex will not be attending. This is a vacation for Mommy and Daddy, only. Word.