River Rats

For a split second there, I was sure it would be raining today. We didn't really check the weather for the weekend, but had faith in the elements holding out just long enough for us to be on the water for the majority of this Labor Day Weekend.

We may have wondered what the clouds would hold for the day, but by late morning, this was the starting view:

rob, kenny & the bajas

We departed from Dillon's house, met up with Kenny and Taryn, and loaded the Bajas into the water for a day that would be spent with awesome friends cruising the river.

Dillon & Matt hauled Dillon's jet ski's up to the drop-in in Grafton, so we made our way up river to get them, after picking up Kyle & Jesse. It wasn't long before Rob's mom & stepdad joined in, and from there, the day was at our disposal.

relaxing! 

^^ Jesse took this shot; that's Taryn over there on the right laying out, and I... am pretty sure I was asleep lying on the front of Rob's boat. Womp womp. ;)

After we'd lounged on the shore for a few hours, we voted it was time for food, and found ourselves heading to the Big Kahuna. Oh, and the poor little jetter had to be towed; it looks like an update on some wiring is in order!

poor lil jetter.. 

Finally..... 

front row parking & the bk

I have no complaints on how the afternoon panned out. We eventually all parted ways, and Rob and I headed back to Dillon's, where the three of us parked ourselves on the couch to watch part of the American Ninja Warrior marathon that's been on for what seems like weeks now. It was a toss-up on whether or not we'd actually get out and do something, but we eventually pulled ourselves together and found our fail-proof destination: Bindy's. 

and then there's this.. 

^^ Hahahah.. "It's a satchel. Indiana Jones had one!" - I love this guy. 

And that, folks, is how we're kicking off this Labor Day. See ya back on the water tomorrow! 

xo | cmd

Boats, BBQ & Block Parties

[backdated entry, woo!]

Yiieee! Breakfast with Ali!
Living two states away from one of my best friends isn't the worst thing in the world, but it certainly is inconvenient more often than not. I was so happy that we were able to set aside some time to get together for breakfast - well, brunch if you're getting technical - in Caseyville before the day got started.

love this girl!

After breakfast, we made a couple of shopping stops before parting ways for the afternoon. I was due out to Grafton with Rob, Kenny & Dillon.

Kenny just bought a Baja a month or two back [these boys & their forever cycle of toys.. hah], so it was an outing on the lake. Dillon scored a coule of stand-up jetskis [di-no-saurs!!] from a friend's boss, and brought one of them out to play for the afternoon, also.

will the old girl float?

We weren't entirely sure if she'd stay afloat, let alone run, but she still had some spirit in her, and eventually got going strong as the hours wore on.

Back on the boat, we took some mental notes of what we did and didn't care for aboard the Baja, because obviously Rob will be investing in a replacement as soon as he finds the right deal.

pretty little baja

The rain started coming down, and we decided it'd been long enough on the river; we headed back and loaded up for the trip back south. I dropped Rob off at Dillon's house and continued on to get ready and meet up with Ali & DeShawn for dinner.

Mongolian BBQ at HuHot? Yes, please!

a lot of eating was done today, clearly.. hah.
huhot mongolian bbq | st. louis, mo



After dinner, I happily obliged the invite to be taken to Strange Donuts, this fun little [and I do mean little] donut shop somewhere in St. Louis. Apparently, it's a big enough deal that people line the street outside of the place at even the latest hours [in this case, 11:45pm]... for donuts.

Ya can't keep people from their donuts, mmkay?

i'll have one of ... the whole case, please&thanks.
strange donuts | st. louis, mo

Oh, it was well worth the trip. Thank you A&D for the experience!!

strange donuts | st. louis, mo

Back at DeShawn's [new!] apartment, we settled in and landed on Mean Girls [Netflix for the win!] to await the arrival of Tim, who was juuust returning from an extended visit to Germany.

trying to work off some of the food i've eaten today! :\

I'm the jerk that didn't get a picture of all of us including Tim, however we did manage a shot of our spoils from Tim's trip. German chocolate for Ali and me... and a light bulb for Damanji.

sorry, damanji.. haha ;)

We visited for a short while before it was time to part ways again,... for now. I headed back to Alton to rendezvous with Rob, Dillon & Kenny at the Alton Block Party, where we stayed until they closed the place down and we were back en route to Jesse's place in Granite.

alton block party!

Good night, Illinois! We'll see you again for a short while tomorrow before we head home.

xo | cmd

Oh, HellO, Sunday!

W I N N I N G.

Today was just about as perfect as they come [just wish mini was here :/ ... ].

Xx | R I V E R! We made the decision early on to get some river time in, so Rob hooked up the boat and we were on our way to Grafton to meet up with Kenny and do some cruising. Taryn opted out, which honestly.. I didn't blame her after all of us being up eons past our bedtimes like teenagers last night.. haha.

[an oldie, but hey, it works ;) ] | river bound!

It didn't take us long to get moving once we got there; the first stop was The Big Kahuna in Grafton for some food, then it was back on the water en route to a sand bar to relax and do some quaaaa-li-ty people-watching.

Haha... yeahh. Really though, it made for a perfect afternoon, and checked off 'get on Rob's boat at least once this year' off my summer2013 bucket list. I realized today that this, in addition to my time last weekend with Laney, has proved completion of a few major things on said bucket list for the summer that I honestly wasn't sure I'd accomplish... so far I'm doing pretty good.. I wonder... what else I can do before it's over? Hah..

Boyfriend. Boat. Great company. Great.. Day. I needed this more than I realized. It doesn't take much, haha.

hi there, perfect day!

On our way home, we made the decision to go for sushi at Se7en, which was one of our frequent spots when I still lived here. This is never a bad decision for us, and tonight proved solid testament. 

se7en!

I'm here for one more night, which is strange to me.. but whatever, it works (: Tomorrow is the drive back to Cinci, but for now, one more night to relax & hang with my man & the two fuzzballs. Life's good, folks. (:

xo | cmd

Baby Shower | Grafton | Birthday!

I've got a lot to cover in this episode of unimportant Cori ramblings.

First things, first, Marlene's baby shower was today! It was off to the Tower with a familiar group of beautiful women to celebrate the not-so-far-off arrival of little baby girl Cunico. I'm so excited for them - what better way to celebrate than with a beautiful shower for Marlene. 

Thank you so much, dear Marlene, for inviting me to share this special day with you!! I cannot wait to meet little Miss Baby Cunico. She's one lucky little gal! 

******

While we're talking about friends, I'm dedicating birthday wishes out to one of mine from home. I remember both the silly & stupid things of the younger years that were our birthday celebrations, and I'm very proud to see that we've both come a little ways since then. Haha. Happy BIRTHDAY, Nikkis!!  LOL... 

nikki! happy birthday, friend!

Nikki, seriously, hope you're having the best birthday yet; you deserve it, mama!

******

An important bit of realization hit me recently: 

I have been living in the state of Illinois for over a year now and haven't really seen much of anything in the state. To combat that, I thought it well-overdue to oblige a friend's advice and take a trip out to Grafton (IL) today. 

It was my previous perception and absolutely ill-assumed belief that the entire state of Illinois is flat. Haha. I say that only because coming from the hilly roads that traverse most of the frequently-traveled routes in Ohio to Belleville, IL was something of an adjustment, for sure. 

Fact: This place has landscape after all! It was a huge breath of fresh air today when I realized not only is there mild elevation [mild meaning something more than a speedbump, which is about all I've got for miles around where I live], but there's a riverfront, state park, campground & hiking trails out there. It's gorgeous. 

[borrowed photog] pere marquette state park | grafton, il

That's what it looked like from one of the lookout posts. I know I keep making references to the things of OHIO that comprise various fond spots in my heart; you'll just have to pardon those. Standing atop one of these lookouts today instantly catapulted my brain back to Eden Park, my favorite coined spot of reprieve through college. The moments of solace I found there over the course of the time I spent in Cincinnati are unrivaled, and I was reminded of those today. Perfect timing, too. It was one of those days on which I really needed to take a deep breath and just.... exhale.

*Siiiiiiiiiigh. :) 

PLUS, Grafton's a river town, which means that it's situated along a river [for those of you who didn't need that delineation, sorry]. Again, Cincinnati's riverside scenery came flooding back to me [[Montgomery Inn Boathouse, Newport, WEBN Fireworks, Yucatan?? << Really just kidding on that last one.. lol]] Well I had the chance to visit The Landing, this cool little bar/patio spot right on the river. According to the owner, it's shutting down for the season here in a couple of weeks, so I'm glad I was able to stop through before that happens. 

[borrowed picture ;)] | the landing

I must say, I'm both impressed and disappointed.. haha. I'm pretty excited that there's a little scenery to be found around here, but a little peeved that I never went searching for it before. Sad sad.

I'm spent. Today was a good day. 

Let's see how tomorrow goes (: 

xo | cmd