Shad's Summer Mancations

My manly husband in Alaska.

Shad's Silver Salmon.


Shad and Mark. Shad and Clark.

They got to fish in a river that you could only get to by plane. The fishing guide came with them and took them out on the river.

Shad and Mark



I think they "borrowed" a bear rug out of the store while they were waiting for their fishing guide. This is them playing around with it. The bottom picture on the right is Shad eating Salmon caviar straight from the fish they caught. Wow. I love it on sushi, but that looks disgusting to me.

Ice/glacier pieces they flew over on the way to their fishing river. Shad talked a lot about this part. He said it was amazing, that he'd never seen anything like it. I guess they are gigantic but you can't tell from the pictures.

This is a separate Boston Trip, that he and Mark went on to do a presentation to some clients. They took a side trip to Martha's Vineyard. Together. Doesn't that just sound funny? Shad and Mark spending the weekend in Martha's Vineyard?

It started with a winter "mancation". About 4 years ago. Now it's an unbreakable tradition. You can't even deliver a baby around that time and expect your husband not to go (ahem....last winter when I delivered Elle and Shad took off 6 days later). Shad loves it and I wouldn't want him to miss it for the world. It's his one break from everything. Even us. I think everyone needs that once in a while.

Well, two summers ago he got invited to go on a trip with some buddies of his. Ocean spearhead fishing in Mexico. "It'll be cheap Liz. We're sleeping on the beach, we'll eat the fish we catch, only be gone the weekend." Alright, alright. It sounded horrific to me, but to each his own. He came back with a whole set of spearhead fishing gear, announcing that he loved it.

Summer Mancation was born.

Then an Alaskan fishing trip came to surface this summer. "It's a once in a life-time opportunity Liz. Alaska. I'll never be able to do it again." Can you tell he's a salesman? I said I would be fully supportive if he agreed to take a full week of work of next 4th of July and take the kids and I up to the Oregon Coast to stay with my parents.

Deal.

Then he had to take a work trip to Boston a couple of weeks back. He and Mark had a couple of free days so they toured the sites in Boston.

I found out last night that they landed the account in Alaska (one reason for the trip) and they'll need to do a "yearly review" with the clients. Bummer for him. Now he gets a yearly trip to Alaska with the boys.

Probably to an outsider he looks like a jerk. Leaving me at home with the kids while he goes off and has fun. But I'm going to defend him. Fully. When I'm not nursing and I'm able to go out of town, he's so supportive. I've flown to NYC , met Rebecca there, and we went to a Martha Stewart expose. Gone to San Diego with my girlfriends, flown up to Oregon to visit my family alone, while I left the kids with Shad. And he knows as soon as I'm done nursing Elle, that I'm cashing in.

I think this time around he felt bad that he'd been gone so much. Because, he came home from Alaska and said, "Hey Liz. Maybe since I went to Alaska, you should get a Mac." What?! I didn't argue. I had one ordered within a couple of days. Gotta love him. I figure it's all a win-win.

I love you Shad.