Life in the Country

Good Morning,

I know I have sucked at blogging lately, I blame summer just a little because I want to be out in the beautiful weather as much as I can before it inevitably ends and for some reason I have been sick more this summer then I have in years and its totally kicking my ass! I cant seem to shake this sickness, I get it and then it seems to last forever, goes away ad comes back... its just miserable!

As I mentioned before we were planning on going kayaking on Saturday but Jason ended up having to work, its the nature of his job so I understand that but I will admit I was a little disappointed that we had reservations to go and we had to move it to Sunday. In the haste of the things changing Jason just called and changed the date and we headed down to meet everyone for dinner.. when we got to talking about the changes with everyone's work schedules changing I realized sadly that we would miss Ava's birthday party.

I suppose its the nature of the beast and all the guys working together and the schedules changing it just happens. I ended up being really sick on Saturday so I suppose it worked out for the best.

We got up first thing on Sunday morning and were so excited to hit the road and get out of the city! The weather was much better this weekend and the drive was absolutely gorgeous out there! This weekend we were heading to the Delaware River again but this time about 60 miles south of where we were last weekend.

We had made reservations to kayak with Kittatinny Canoes & Kayaks, we chose the trip from Milford to Dingmans which was 8 miles, 3.5 hours. I was a little bit anxious about 8 miles, I wasn't sure how I would feel after paddling 8 miles but let me tell you we had the BEST time! Sadly I did not take my camera or phone, I seriously thought about it but was afraid not knowing the river and what the traffic would be like, if I flipped the kayak or something I would be in big trouble. I know for next time though to invest in a dry pack and take a camera because the day was beyond gorgeous!

We had packed a lunch and stopped along the way to swim and eat. It was a really hot day so swimming along the way was a must! It was such an amazing time, I cant stress that enough! Kayaking was so much fun, we saw bald eagles, deer along the river, crazy huge fish in the water.. it was incredible! 8 miles didn't feel like 8 miles until 7.5 miles in and my arms were definitely feeling it!

The whole second half of the trip we talked about how we absolutely needed to buy our own kayaks and make this a regular thing! Although my arms were tired I was so sad to be finished on the water! Having said that our day did not end with kayaking and the second half included the camera.

Although hiking is really not my thing Jason had planned a few hikes and let me tell you the end result was amazing! Our first stop was my kind of a hike.. a boardwalk! Haha! Lets look at some pictures, shall we?

Some of the places we saw reminded me so much of Hawaii, the waterfalls and the lush green surrounding them!

Ya we were both a little burnt from kayaking! Turned out later we were both a lot burnt! 

If I am correct this is Dingman Falls... I am pretty sure I am right about that. It was a really gorgeous place, you could get a guided tour if you wanted to. I don't know if you can really even consider it a hike, I wore flip flops! 

The second place we landed I honestly don't remember the name and I cant ask Jason because hes at work, so if you are really interested leave a message in the comments and I will find out for you! This was about a 10 or 15 minute drive from Dingman Falls and a little more of a trek. By a trek I mean I had to put on real shoes.. its been a hot minute since I have worn real shoes outside and I didn't care much for it! 

A bears den!

There were people actually down in the water, at this point we were wishing we hadn't changed back into our regular clothes because it was so hot and a dip would have been awesome! 

This place was gorgeous, the amount of places in this area to hike and see waterfalls and just gorgeous scenery is amazing! You can actually hike the Appalachian Trail up there which extends from Georgia all the way to Maine I believe. 

After we finished hiking we stopped at the smallest little pizza place in Layton, NJ which turned out to be a local watering hole. The towns baseball team was in there doing shots, but there were also families having dinner.. it was kind of quaint.. very small town and cute! Whenever we are in a small town Jason and I have the same conversation...

Me: "This is the cutest town ever"

Jason: "I know, wouldn't it be nice to live here?"

Me: "No."

End conversation. 

We have had the most amazing weekends getting out of the city and enjoying summer and the outdoors! As much as I have wished that we could be at home I am so enjoying our time! Jason and I are just in the best place and even after almost 4 years of marriage I feel like we cant get enough time together! I know as the job goes on like all other our time together will be less and less as he works more and more so I am just eating up every second we have! We are already planning out next trip to kayak, possibly before we got home but if not definitely after. 

The next two days around here are suppose to be super crumby, thunderstorms and what not so I plan to do some blog planning and post writing so I have posts ready! 

I hope you guys all had a fantastic weekend!! 

 

Bad Blog Week

Good Friday afternoon y'all!

I know, its been a really bad blogging week which sucks because I was on such a roll but this sickness whooped my ass this week! Not feeling well has left me at home for the most part and therefore I don't have much to write. I still have a terrible ear ache that wont go away, even when I had a double ear infection last month my ears did not ache as bad as it is now.. its been miserable!!

Tonight we are grilling with the Dutkiewicz and Goodwin crews and tomorrow we are heading out early to kayak for a couple hours and then go for a hike! We are absolutely loving getting out of the city on weekends and making the most of the beautiful weather while we still have it!

I promise next week to be better about blogging, I have a list of posts planned for next week and plans for next week that will give me exciting things to write about!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, I can tell you that I am so looking forward to ours! We will be attending Miss Ava's first birthday party on Sunday.. my uterus already hurts! Ha!

Cheers!

Frenchtown, New Jersey & Tubing the Delaware River

Good Even all,

I know I broke my streak, I had intended to let this weekend slide by and be back on Monday but good lord let me tell you.. this girl is SICK! I swear Peru screwed with my immune system because I never got sick until I went there and since coming home this is the third horrific cold I have had. Just last month at this very same time I was miserably sick and here I am again not in much better shape!

I haven't done anything the last two days at all.. literally. I made some homemade cream of chicken and wild rice soup..

I added broccoli to mine but Jason was without, I had intended to follow a specific recipe but that didn't happen, I like to do my own thing. But because of that I also cannot share the recipe with you! Next time I will write down what I do so I can share because it was excellent. 

So I thought I would stop in today, due to popular demand (Fiona, haha) and tell y'all about our awesome trip to Frenchtown, New Jersey where the McMann's, Jason and I went tubing down the Delaware River. We had intended to go on Saturday but the weather wasn't suppose to be fantastic so we decided to hold off until Sunday. Well we woke up Saturday to rain but we said screw it by the time we got there the weather was suppose to be better and we really wanted to go! 

We left the city and headed to farm country ready to hit the water! I will say it was absolutely gorgeous out there, the smell of clean air and just absolutely gorgeous scenery! By the time we arrived it had finished raining thankfully so we got our tubes and headed towards the river!

**Disclaimer: All off the following pictures of the tubing and on the water are courtesy of Tanya and her camera. I didn't trust myself to take my phone or camera, but Tanya was smart enough to have a dry bag and got picture! So thank you to her for sharing them with me so I could then share them with you!**

When we arrived we had to sign a waiver.. you know, if we died they weren't responsible. We selected tubes and life jackets and headed to the bus. We were bused to the drop off location where we were to get into the water. 

I mean would it kill him to take a decent picture? I actually didn't even know he made a face until Tanya sent me the pictures yesterday, I almost died. 

At least someone got a decent picture!

I was a little anxious when we arrived at the river to get it.. lets be honest I am not much of an outdoors girls and have spent VERY LITTLE time in lake water, I mean very little! We had purchased water shoes because it was mandatory that we wear them and that gave me a little peace of mind, but when my ass hit that cold water I tell ya I had second thoughts!

It actually wasn't all that busy which was great, the weather stayed overcast but it was still really nice. 

The river itself was gorgeous, there were beautiful homes surrounding and tons of scenery! I really enjoyed being out there and relaxing! 

As adults we were required to take life jackets but didn't have to wear them.. and we didn't... although Jason warned us on the way our possibilities of drowning. 

The water was pretty clean, for the most part we could always see the bottom of the river.. that as far as I saw had no fish!

There were rough parts of the water but nothing dangerous. I swear if only you could have heard Jason while this picture was being taken, he was having such a good time!

Halfway down the river there was a place to stop for lunch which was included in our fee. We had a few options of meals, snack and drinks! It was a nice little pit stop to get out and stretch and have a snack. 

You couldn't really miss it but if you wanted to you could have floated on by! 

When we got to the end of the river we hopped out and there was a bus waiting to take us back to the truck. When we arrived back we all changed into dry clothes and cleaned up before heading into Frenchtown. Naturally it was a quaint little town and Tanya and I wanted to tour around the shops and obviously Josh and Jason didn't feel the same. We encouraged them to get a drink and we wouldn't be long but they insisted on joining us.. they lasted about three stores and decided maybe we knew what we were talking about and headed for that drink!

Typical small town America.. SO CUTE!

Below this bridge is the Delaware River.

Cute little coffee shop with homemade pie. I could never live in a small town but boy do I love to visit them!

This place was a bookstore in a house! All the rooms were themed, it was amazing! I honestly could have lived there and bought one of everything. This little place was so unique and full of my favorite things!

Needless to say most of the shops were unique and had wonderful little trinkets as well as odd larger items. 

I got a kick out of this guy, Jason LOVED those little green army men as a kid and talks about them on occasion so when I saw this bottle opener I almost died. I kick myself for not getting it for Christmas or something. 

The Canadian girl in me had to take a picture of this Maple Leaf shaped table! It was made out of a birch tree and absolutely gorgeous! This was one of many gorgeous tables in this little shop that I would have loved to take home. Jason was so lucky I didn't have my wallet with me! 

After Tanya and I finished exploring we found the guys and decided to find somewhere for dinner. We toured through the town a little more on the way out and then before getting back on the interstate we stopped at the Cracker Barrel for dinner. The McMann's had never been there and you know how much I love it and I hope they did too! The food was excellent as always and so was the atmosphere, it was a great dinner! 

I'm not going to lie I was sad to come back, we had such a great day and it was so nice to be out there away from the city and seeing something new and different. I look forward to our weekends and the exploring we do that's for sure. 

So that was our weekend, sadly I am feeling miserable and sick but hoping that with the amount of sleep I am getting (I haven't had much choice, I have had zero energy), cold meds, vitamins and lots of fluids I have high hopes to feel better tomorrow. I probably would have ventured out today but it was HORRIFICALLY hot and humid today and with feeling so crumby I just didn't think it was a good idea. God bless my hubby, he came home and asked about dinner.. I really had no answer, I could have cooked something but I really just didn't feel like it so he saved the day and ordered pizza! 

He is just off getting a haircut so I thought I would stop by here! My mom is face timing so I am going to head out! I will be back tomorrow.. maybe, haha with more! 

Hope you all had a great weekend! If you are thinking about tubing the Delaware River you can check out the company we used HERE.