Canoeing, Kayaking & Tim McGraw!

Today started with a few quick errands, then it was back to rendezvous with Rob and Jesse to head out to Harrison for a day on the water! We met up with Jessica, Bumper, Andrew and his brother Will, then continued on to find a couple of Jessica's other friends Phil, Liz and Alicia. The lot of us loaded up on the bus and made our way down to the livery, where we stocked our canoes and kayaks with goods for the day and launched out onto the river!

perfect day for a new hat debut! 

Off to the water!! 

jesse

my favorite guy ♥  

andrew, jessica, will & bumper in the water swimmin' 

bumper & will 

go bumper, go!

hangin' out with panama jack :) haha

slow down and enjoy life! 

bumper! 

one of many beaches

jess, bumper & andrew 

jesse

captain bumper!!

cute little paddler!! 

so freakin' cute! 

he hopped up with us for a bit - heya! 

diggin' these guys! 

in love with that guy! 

love love love. 

liz & bumper

more fun on the beach

Eight miles after drop in, we pulled off the river and dragged ourselves back to the car. It was a quicker-than-expected 45-minute drive back to the homestead, with a quick stop off at Eli's BBQ first. We opted not to stay and eat due to the wait time, but did get to smell the flowers & soak up some of the simple stuff :) 

We headed up to storage, grabbed the boat and headed back down to the boat ramp. Jessica and Andrew were waiting, and in no time, we were all geared up and en route to Riverbend for Tim McGraw.

the persian cat because the glasses don't fit my face... face. 

riverbend!! 

jesse and me.. after about 20 attempts between
3 of us to get the "right lighting" with the flash.. haha

concert time! 

perfect ending for the perfect saturday night! 

Jessica and I finally wore out, and took advantage of the warmth from the cuddy; so we wound up falling asleep there and apparently snoozing through the rest of the night until we pulled off the river..

welp... haha.. there's that. 

PERFECT. SATURDAY. IN THE BAG!

That's a wrap, folks!

xo | cmd

Operation Pack Up & Eat Fried Green Beans ;)

Hello, rainy day in Illinois... Here we were hoping for half decent weather to get the bike out for a sping, but of course it had to be a dreary day. On the flip side of that, I realized by the end of today that we were meant to be confined to the house; Rob and I made some major headway in getting things packed up and sorted through at his place in preparation for the move.

But first things first, it was time for a haircut for Rob today, so before breakfast we stopped by and got that all taken care of...


holiday haircut lineup (:

From there, it was out to breakfast and then back to the house for what became a day of digging through boxes, furniture and all that other miscellaneous stuffffff that seems to materialize only when you're trying to pack up and move somewhere. We wound up with a giant truckload of drop off for Goodwill, and braved the steady rain to do it.

dreary drop offs at goodwill

I orchestrated my visit this weekend in sync of course with when my favorite staffmember of Bindy's would be working; my sweet Santa friend Alicia and basically the entire cast of Bindy's was on hand tonight for their Christmas party, and there really weren't any dull moments (:

alicia!!! ♥

we'll call it... Christmas spirt... vegas bomb style...

best friend.... && i love him so.

And that's that! I'm here through Christmas Day, so until then, we are tackling the oh-so-enjoyable task of staging Rob's belongings for their big road trip to Ohio. I'm happy to say that tomorrow morning I'll finish the last load of laundry here; at that point every single thing he owns will be clean. At the same time. Holy... record first. Hehe.

But for now, lights out. G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Fun Little Saturday (:

We started off the day with a very early lunch at Olive Garden... honestly, I don't remember the last time I was there, so some OG salad, breadsticks and gnocchi soup really didn't hurt my feelings at all. From there, we took an impromptu run out to Highland to surprise a certain soooomeone at her work.... hehe..

 

I didn't get to take a picture with Ali today. Instead, I borrowed this off her Facebook from Halloween, which is way better anyway. Haha. Meet my great friend, the adorable lumberjack. I MISS YOU, ALI!!!!

my favorite ginger lumberjack friend

The rest of the day was filled with relaxing, a couple trips out on the bike [sorry, I don't trust myself enough to be phone-photogging from the back of the Harley...] and playing with the dogs. Dinner rolled around soon enough and for that, it was off to my favorite fried green bean venue, Bindy's. It didn't hurt that this gal was working either. And yes, Alicia I promise I will bring Syd back some weekend and we can do a playdate outside of Bindy's with you and little Cam! 

she's the best.

After Bindy's, we found ourselves parked in Kyle's backyard for a bonfire. This right here is my idea of a perfect Saturday - hanging with friends and just relaxing by a backyard fire pit - nothing fancy or extravagant.. just a simple good time (:


fire faces

 Our last stop of the night was to hold up on a promise of swinging by a send-off farewell shindig for Andy, who leaves shortly for military boot camp. THANK YOU in advance for the service you are about to give.. glad we could come and see you off!


celebrate and thank you!

It's always a good time coming out here to visit.
Tomorrow should be a good day, too (:

xo | cmd

Road Trip Warrior: IL [Again]

Guessss what day it was!
... and no, not Hump Day.

Correct Answer: ROAD TRIP DAY! -- I know that sounds ridiculous to most people, but it's not the 5 hours of driving that excite me [duh], but what's at the other end of it that makes all that solo karaoke time entirely worth it.


road trip warrior face! beautiful day for a drive (:

hey, marc!

I wish I would've snapped a shot of what I walked into when I rolled into Rob's house at 9pm [CST; and yes, I made record time]. He & Jesse had wrapped up their days early and taken the boat out for a spin, so by the time I got there, he was dreamin' away on the couch. I absolutely would've left him to nap if it weren't for the fact that I was on a mission tonight for some fried green beans at Bindy's. Rob told me earlier that Alicia wasn't working tonight, but to the disappointment of my disappointment, she was, and so I got just about everything I could've wanted out of that place. Haha (:

Oh, and what's a trip to this place if I'm not running into my old boss while I'm out and about?

We were there for a whiiile... which obviously means pictures at some point. He didn't realize I was on rapid fire mode, but I wound up with a slew of Rob faces, so heck.. I figured I'd just put them all together! (:

forever goofy... [among the many] reasons i love him. ♥

fools together.. it's why we work ;)

So here I am... in Illinois again! Tomorrow is Mike & Kelly's wedding reception; it'll be great to see them, baby Elaina, and some other familiar faces. I'm sure it'll be a good time. For now, it's lights out!

xo | cmd

H-A-P-P-Y Saturday!

apple tree | granite city, il

First things first:
Places we've - well, I've - never been... and breakfast.

Rob introduced Syd and I to the Appletree Family Restaurant in Granite today. It's not a spectacular venue by most standards, but my hometown has very similar places and I love them... so I wasn't opposed at all.

It turned out to be much more like a diner than anything else, and I happen to love diners. Breakfast was delicious, Sydni was happy... we were all together in the same place at the same time... life's good.

From there, we headed down to a car show in Belleville, hosted in part by a guy Rob works with. Today was the perfect day for this (: 

perfect day for a car show!

And then it was off to Dawne's! It was so good seeing her, and if I'd had my stupid phone with me, I would've taken a picture to commemorate the first time I've seen her in months. She and Sydni had some long-overdue catching up to do, so we chatted for a few minutes and then went on our way.

We stopped by the mall for a few minutes, snagged some Orange Julius and checked out the new trends at Zumiez [luckily nothing spectacular enough to take home this time], and were back at Rob's in no time.

These two got some quality play time in today (:

tug tug tug tuuuuug...

Once the pups were a little tuckered out, we geared up for an afternoon ride out on Rob's [newest] bike. It's sad, but this is the first time we've ridden together.. haha. There's a first time for everything! Ours is just usually... delayed. (:

knockout bike. knockout boyfriend.
all around win (:

We rode over to Jesse's, where I finally got to see his little Zepplin [new puppy!], who is far too cute for his own good. I didn't have my phone with me, so these are borrowed.. but trust, the next time I see this little one, I'll have some shots of my own ;)

zepplin! adorable growin' lil brute (:

The three of us took off in search of a hangout, landing us at a pool table and a drink before deciding not to risk the chances of rain on the bikes for the night. Rob and I headed back to change and trade a chopper for a diesel.

goofball. & i love everything about him.

Before long it was back to Jesse's, to pick up him and his friend Kelsey.. and off to Fast Eddie's it was. We were in the mood for some grub and chick-on-a-stick sounded just about right. Y-U-M. (:

fast eddie's bon air | alton, il

Then to Rajun Cajun piano bar, where Jesse, Kelsey & Rob all failed at convincing me to get up on the stage and play anything. I thought about it, yes, I did... but I didn't. Sorry guys.. maybe next time. Haha ;)


rajun cajun piano bar | alton, il

We dropped Jesse & Kelsey off before our final destination of the night: Bindy's. Alicia made Rob promise the last time he saw her that I'd come by when I was in town next. So... it seemed perfectly fitting, especially with it being Bindy's 24th anniversary party!

♥ alicia!! [not my best picture, but we'll deal...]

This is backdated, fo sho. We made it home, had one of those liquid-encouraged, brazenly-candid conversations on the way, and at that, called it a night.

¡Hasta Mañana!

xo | cmd