Meeting the Family

So I took Boxer north this weekend to meet the family. He survived and hasn't run off yet, which is heartening.

We left early Friday morning, hoping to miss traffic. Which we did. Except we then hit major detours and construction. Par for the course in Wisconsin during the summer, I suppose, but what should have been a 5-6 hour trip ended up being an 8-9 hour trip. My god. Exhausting. Irritating.

We were met by a delicious cioppino, courtesy of mia madre, and the boxer and the Ikester got on famously and had a little dog loving going on, and there was a nice campfire and much laughter in the evening.

Saturday morning we went to my favorite place in the world, Big Falls County Park, and met up with my friend Donna and her husband Dana, both huge boxer lovers who now also like Boxer. We took the dog trail walking, chatted, ate some of Boxer's delicious chocolate bread and some of my delicious yoghurt cheese made from homemade yoghurt, and bitched about gas prices.

Saturday afternoon was the big family to-do. So we went and sat in lawn chairs and ate yummy food, and Boxer had them spinning because of course he had to explain the whole concept of pescheterian over and over and then confused them all by enjoying some homemade pork BBQ made by the 'Bama cousins. That evening we were supposed to go to my uncle's rock reunion, but we were both so tired and Boxer was having family overload, that we decided to have some quiet time, helping my stepdad haul the wood stove into the cabin and then taking a trip to the Wisconsin Concrete Park. Boxer has claimed the rights to blog about that, so watch his site for great photos!

We headed home on Sunday morning, and after another 8 hour trip, were we ever glad to see the old place. And so begins yet another work week, already exhausted.