Soooo much fun!

We're (Derek, Darrin, Sarah, and I) back from out canoe trip up in Mesick... never heard of it? Neither had we until this trip. It is located 20 miles north of Cadillac and about 35 minutes south of Traverse City. What a BEAUTIFUL place! We stayed at a campground called Northern Exposure, which was right on the river (it actually looked like a lake because it was so big) where we canoed (The Manistee River). For those that don't know, I love to canoe. Being on the water on a sunny day with a cooler full of beer and hanging out with fun friends is such a treat! Who knew such simple things could make me happy? Well, actually a lot of simple things make me happy, but that's a whole other subject! Anyway, this canoe trip exceeded my weekend expectations. There were about 30 other people from "home" on this trip... many of which Derek and I went to school with... Ryan Strevel, Rodney Strevel, Larry Creed, Mark Chaustwich (sp?), Shauna Boggs, Chris Jones, and the list keeps going. The river was absolutely wonderful... the scenery was gorgeous! The weather was perfect... low 80s and not a cloud in the sky. I guess I should mention that we didn't actually "canoe." We rafted down the river. Sarah, Darrin, Derek and I all shared a raft (I wasn't too excited about rafting instead of canoeing at first, but in the end it was better... more comfortable... less tipsy... we could all ride together... more room for the coolers). We went through 140+ jello shots and one-and-a-half cases of beer in the 6 1/2 hours we were on the water... YES, we shared the jello shots! I do have to say they were pretty damn good, though. We made pina colada jello with pineapple rum, strawberry daiquiri jello with rum, and blue raspberry jello with vodka. Very yummy! What a great weekend trip. Thanks to my sister and Ken for letting us borrow their pop-up camper. We were very thankful when we crawled into bed after a lot of drinking! I took pictures with a disposable waterproof camera, so I'll post them when I get them developed. I hope they turned out... I can't believe how addicted I am to DIGITAL! I hate 35 mm now! It's mainly the instant gratification part of it... another simple thing I love... instant gratification! LOL!

I mentioned I would share my gigantic tomato plants... get a load of these... seriously! They are taller than me! I would take a picture of me standing next to them, but obviously that's a little difficult by yourself... I guess I could do the self-time, but *anyway* you get the idea. There are a lot of tomatoes on the plants, but they are still very green. I can't wait for them to ripen. I love fresh sliced tomatoes with salt.... I'll also have Derek grill some with fresh mozzarella... another one of my favorites! We also **talked** about trying to make stewed tomatoes and fresh spaghetti sauce. I don't know if we'll actually follow through on that, but the thought is there. I bet Derek could make a killer spaghetti sauce. Maybe I'll push that one!

I've got more to share, but I'm a little lazy today and moving slowly due to the weekend demanding all of my energy to keep up with the *high school field party* replay/reunion up north, so I'll share more later. Lori, the boys, and I are supposed to go to the beach tomorrow. I'm going to check the weather... Happy Sunday Night!