Adventures in Canadian Babysitting
NOTE: if you are a casual reader of this blog - the below might overwhelm you. This is an attempt to describe a week-long vacation in which a thousand photos were taken and did not discriminate much in presenting them. If you are a Sanblog superfan...get comfortable.
A few weeks ago we aimed the family truckster northward and headed to Canada where Amie's family has a small house on the St. Lawrence river. It's a magical place...life is simple there....drinking beer on the dock (always Labatt Blue), swimming in the river, waterskiing, drinking beer on the dock, you get the idea.
We go there every summer with Amie's family but this year we made an extra trip with our friends Ben and Kate (who have a daughter Ginger's age named Alice and another in the oven), Emily and Sean, and Ryan and Sarah. Ironically we went there for July 4th (leaving the US to hang with our friends from England on the day we celebrated our independence from...England...struck no one as odd...but alas...we did it anyway...because...it's a free country).
The ladies all went to high school together and refer to their group affectionately as "SAKE" (Sarah, Amie, Katie, Emily...yes...it's very silly).....we (the men) therefore are required to refer to ourselves as "CRABS" (good luck negotiating that acronym in your mind..Ben came up with it...he's British and so we assume it makes sense in some "greenwich mean time" kind of way.)
Anyway...as usual the paparazzi were out in force to document our adventures....
The trip up is 6 hours when you are NOT stopping every 2 hours for the kids to feed and take care of business. This was one of many stops along our 8-hour journey.
Soon after arrival...Lucy got a little too excited and hit the (formula) bottle HARD. The next day she was "wicked hungover."
When you are cool...the sun shines on you 24 hours a day...
Luckily Lucy was there to grab the wheel of the boat when Daddy's "blood-Labatt" level exceeded that which the mounted Canadia police would typically allow.
NO TALKING ON THE BUS!!!
Captain "Pasty White Guy" and First Mate "Pale Skinned Irish New Englander" scanned the horizon for incoming UV rays.
Amie is always so deathly serious on the boat....just can't get her to loosen up.
Ginger and Alice have a long of history of sharing baths...and we, therefore, have a long history of taking pictures of them sharing baths....it's all very cyclical and interconnected and...squeaky clean.
Hoodlums
So brave...
Ginger yelled "Hello fishy" at this fish 498 times in 3 minutes until it died of being yelled at by a toddler.
Amie stole Ginger's firemen hat...as she is prone to thievery and criminal acts...happens every time we leave the country.
The seagoing Sanborn crew in full vacation mode...
I told Sarah that it wasn't really appropriate to yell at my infant daughter at close range...she ignored that edict but Lucy held her own.
Here I can be seen clearly losing money to my friends...as I am prone to do whenever playing any game of chance.
Player.
Katie, Alice, Emily, Sarah, Amie and Ginger get their ladytime in...
Ginger sought to repair decades of bad blood between the US and Great Britain with one, terribly cute hug.
Story of my life...
The ladies manned the sniper rifle station at the top of the house.
A big part of the "experience" in Canada involves swimming in the river. The river this year was cold. And when I say that it was "cold" I don't mean that it was "refreshing." I mean that after you jumped in you waited for God to take you into his kingdom for your "great reward" in the hereafter. It was "hypothermia cold" but don't take my world for it...look into Sean's eyes...which do not betray his emotions.
Ben even had a "sissy shirt" on and was still visibly shaken by the temperature of the water.
Mr. Bevad laughed openly at the sight of his son-in-law (the above-mentioned Ben) in excruciating pain.
Having seen the terrible pain inflicted upon Ben and Sean at the hands of the icy cold Canadian water....Ryan performed some kind of Incan (or was it Mayan?) sumo-Kabuki theater routine to gird up the inner strength to follow suit.
Then he and Ben started doing things I can't really explain...
Finally Ryan took the plunge...and then proceeded to his river bath...which took on characteristics of the world renowned "Canadian ballet"...
Could have lived my whole life without seeing this burned onto the back of my ocular cavity and into my subconscious forever.
Ryan demonstrates our brand loyalty...it's really Labatt Blue or it's river water up there...
"The sea was angry that day my friends..."
Lucy thought she heard someone from the other room call her a whimp. She propped her head up immediately so as dispatch her furious anger against the perpetrator.
Ginger hates chocolate ice cream...hates it.
Sean issued some mandatory"man time" to counteract the aggressive "hurricane of estrogen" that had been circling our camp for days.
Extensive measures are taken to ensure no Sanborn skin sees the sun...we are not a tropical people...nor is Sean.
Sarah at sea.
Ben has a John Deere hat - which at first seems incongruous for a British finance guy - but he is, at heart, a country boy.
Alice stands at attention and salutes in the presence of her general...err....mother.
Ginger doing her best impression of a rabbit (or a really cute kid with a rubber ducky life vest).
The ladies Sanborn.
We got pulled over by the Canadian boat police within our first 10 minutes on the water (Dick "arguably" cut off the police boat in a narrow channel but that's beside the point). They busted our chops about drinking on the boat (which we were not even doing...yet) Mr. Bevad (seen at right) gave the coppers a little mouth...because that's just how Big G rolls. He said to them, "Hey...mounty...how about a little, you know, something for the effort. We didn't bail you boys out of a little something called WWWII (pronounced dubya-dubya-eye-eye ) so that we could come up here and have you country boys bust our baloney over some soda pops."*
*I may have remebered this wrong.
Don't hate the player...hate the game.
Captain Dick will get you high tonight....and take you to your special island.
The ladies Walker.
Ben teaching Alice about how to dive into the water like a man.
Dick took a timeout from his sippy cup to have a chat with Ginger.
Hollywood parents...
The lady in red.
Alice spotted a pterodactyl flying low over the water...but no one took her seriously....to their own peril.
Ginger's kissing Lucy....Mommy's wearing baby sunglasses...I turn my back for two mninutes and it's a hippie commune.
Canada is known for it's synthetic/commercial/industrial landscapes...
My Canadian workstation...everything a productive internet entrepreneur needs to survive in the wild.
In this tiny Canadian town we ran into a Chinese restaurant called "Boston Chinese"...which begs the questions...is Boston really known for it's Chinese food? It that really a selling point? And also...is there any part of the world where you can't find a Chinese restaurant? I mean...how far do I have to go?
Ben decided he wasn't really into having a girl anymore...so he sort of "forced it."
Team picture...minus Lucy....who was off sniffing glue again...reckless child that she is.
A few weeks ago we aimed the family truckster northward and headed to Canada where Amie's family has a small house on the St. Lawrence river. It's a magical place...life is simple there....drinking beer on the dock (always Labatt Blue), swimming in the river, waterskiing, drinking beer on the dock, you get the idea.
We go there every summer with Amie's family but this year we made an extra trip with our friends Ben and Kate (who have a daughter Ginger's age named Alice and another in the oven), Emily and Sean, and Ryan and Sarah. Ironically we went there for July 4th (leaving the US to hang with our friends from England on the day we celebrated our independence from...England...struck no one as odd...but alas...we did it anyway...because...it's a free country).
The ladies all went to high school together and refer to their group affectionately as "SAKE" (Sarah, Amie, Katie, Emily...yes...it's very silly).....we (the men) therefore are required to refer to ourselves as "CRABS" (good luck negotiating that acronym in your mind..Ben came up with it...he's British and so we assume it makes sense in some "greenwich mean time" kind of way.)
Anyway...as usual the paparazzi were out in force to document our adventures....
The trip up is 6 hours when you are NOT stopping every 2 hours for the kids to feed and take care of business. This was one of many stops along our 8-hour journey.
Soon after arrival...Lucy got a little too excited and hit the (formula) bottle HARD. The next day she was "wicked hungover." 
When you are cool...the sun shines on you 24 hours a day... 
Luckily Lucy was there to grab the wheel of the boat when Daddy's "blood-Labatt" level exceeded that which the mounted Canadia police would typically allow.
NO TALKING ON THE BUS!!! 
Captain "Pasty White Guy" and First Mate "Pale Skinned Irish New Englander" scanned the horizon for incoming UV rays.
Amie is always so deathly serious on the boat....just can't get her to loosen up. 
Ginger and Alice have a long of history of sharing baths...and we, therefore, have a long history of taking pictures of them sharing baths....it's all very cyclical and interconnected and...squeaky clean. 
Hoodlums
So brave... 
Ginger yelled "Hello fishy" at this fish 498 times in 3 minutes until it died of being yelled at by a toddler. 
Amie stole Ginger's firemen hat...as she is prone to thievery and criminal acts...happens every time we leave the country.
The seagoing Sanborn crew in full vacation mode... 
I told Sarah that it wasn't really appropriate to yell at my infant daughter at close range...she ignored that edict but Lucy held her own. 
Here I can be seen clearly losing money to my friends...as I am prone to do whenever playing any game of chance. 
Player. 
Katie, Alice, Emily, Sarah, Amie and Ginger get their ladytime in... 
Ginger sought to repair decades of bad blood between the US and Great Britain with one, terribly cute hug. 
Story of my life...
The ladies manned the sniper rifle station at the top of the house. 
A big part of the "experience" in Canada involves swimming in the river. The river this year was cold. And when I say that it was "cold" I don't mean that it was "refreshing." I mean that after you jumped in you waited for God to take you into his kingdom for your "great reward" in the hereafter. It was "hypothermia cold" but don't take my world for it...look into Sean's eyes...which do not betray his emotions.
Ben even had a "sissy shirt" on and was still visibly shaken by the temperature of the water. 
Mr. Bevad laughed openly at the sight of his son-in-law (the above-mentioned Ben) in excruciating pain. 
Having seen the terrible pain inflicted upon Ben and Sean at the hands of the icy cold Canadian water....Ryan performed some kind of Incan (or was it Mayan?) sumo-Kabuki theater routine to gird up the inner strength to follow suit. 
Then he and Ben started doing things I can't really explain...
Finally Ryan took the plunge...and then proceeded to his river bath...which took on characteristics of the world renowned "Canadian ballet"...
Could have lived my whole life without seeing this burned onto the back of my ocular cavity and into my subconscious forever.
Ryan demonstrates our brand loyalty...it's really Labatt Blue or it's river water up there...
"The sea was angry that day my friends..."
Lucy thought she heard someone from the other room call her a whimp. She propped her head up immediately so as dispatch her furious anger against the perpetrator.
Ginger hates chocolate ice cream...hates it. 
Sean issued some mandatory"man time" to counteract the aggressive "hurricane of estrogen" that had been circling our camp for days. 
Extensive measures are taken to ensure no Sanborn skin sees the sun...we are not a tropical people...nor is Sean. 
Sarah at sea. 
Ben has a John Deere hat - which at first seems incongruous for a British finance guy - but he is, at heart, a country boy. 
Alice stands at attention and salutes in the presence of her general...err....mother. 
Ginger doing her best impression of a rabbit (or a really cute kid with a rubber ducky life vest).
The ladies Sanborn. 
We got pulled over by the Canadian boat police within our first 10 minutes on the water (Dick "arguably" cut off the police boat in a narrow channel but that's beside the point). They busted our chops about drinking on the boat (which we were not even doing...yet) Mr. Bevad (seen at right) gave the coppers a little mouth...because that's just how Big G rolls. He said to them, "Hey...mounty...how about a little, you know, something for the effort. We didn't bail you boys out of a little something called WWWII (pronounced dubya-dubya-eye-eye ) so that we could come up here and have you country boys bust our baloney over some soda pops."**I may have remebered this wrong.
Don't hate the player...hate the game. 
Captain Dick will get you high tonight....and take you to your special island. 
The ladies Walker.
Ben teaching Alice about how to dive into the water like a man. 
Dick took a timeout from his sippy cup to have a chat with Ginger. 
Hollywood parents... 
The lady in red. 
Alice spotted a pterodactyl flying low over the water...but no one took her seriously....to their own peril. 
Ginger's kissing Lucy....Mommy's wearing baby sunglasses...I turn my back for two mninutes and it's a hippie commune. 
Canada is known for it's synthetic/commercial/industrial landscapes...
My Canadian workstation...everything a productive internet entrepreneur needs to survive in the wild. 
In this tiny Canadian town we ran into a Chinese restaurant called "Boston Chinese"...which begs the questions...is Boston really known for it's Chinese food? It that really a selling point? And also...is there any part of the world where you can't find a Chinese restaurant? I mean...how far do I have to go? 
Ben decided he wasn't really into having a girl anymore...so he sort of "forced it."
Team picture...minus Lucy....who was off sniffing glue again...reckless child that she is.
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