Thanksgiving

Yesterday we traveled to Portland to go to Joan & Scott's house for Thanksgiving. The head gasket went on our car so we didn't think we were going to be able to make it. After a conversation with Joan on the phone and a discussion with our friend Ken it became clear that we were going to make it to Portland after all! Bella & Lexie went down to Portland with Laura, Travis & Lauren on Wednesday night. The girls were happy to get to spend time with their cousins and we were happy to have a quieter house. Thursday morning Sam, Otto and I began to make our way to Portland. We stopped in Freeport to exchange Sam's jacket at L.L. Bean. I actually got to go shopping on Thanksgiving!! We exchanged Sam's jacket, picked me up a sweatshirt (a very warm one), Otto got a hat and we got some small Christmas items.

Once we arrived at Joan's house Sam got to spend some time with his brother-in-law's down in what I will call the man cave (women need not enter!) I also was able to spend some time with my sisters, it isn't often that all 4 of us are together.



The kids/teenagers all played together upstairs. I think they spent most of the time playing Wii sports.

Dinner was awesome! Thank you Joan and Scott for providing such a wonderful meal for us.







After we ate Scott cleaned up all of the dishes while Becca, Susan, Joan, Laura & I went for a walk. I think Susan & Joan were preparing for a marathon because man do they walk fast! With the dishes cleaned we were ready for dessert! Joan even got a box of cella milk chocolate covered cherries because she knew they were my favorite (I got to bring the leftovers home with me...they are gone now!) Shortly after Sam, Otto & I had to head home so that Ken would be able to have his car back for work. Bella and Lexie stayed another night at Aunt Joan's and grandma and grandpa brought them home today.

Getting ready for Halloween

It is hard to believe that Halloween is only a couple of weeks away! We went and picked pumpkins at a new place this year. Pumpkins were only $1 a piece there! We usually go to Treworgy's but we couldn't pass up the $1 pumpkins this year. We actually bought 15 pumpkins! We will probably still go do the corn maze at our usual place.



Yesterday, Otto and I made some bat cupcakes! Here is how they came out:



Sam started working at the L.L. Bean call center in September. Sam, Otto, Ken and I took a trip down to the employee store in Freeport. Sam is the only one that can go in the employee store (I will be able to if he becomes full time) so Ken, Otto and I went to the L.L. Bean flagship store. Sam gets a good discount at all the stores so I got a bunch of stuff for the kids for school and Christmas. Our car is currently not inspected so we thought it would be safer to rent a car. Sam went in to rent a family sedan that would fit us all and they gave him the keys to a car and sent him out to the parking lot...he was very surprised when he saw this....

Is summer really almost over?

I would like to begin by saying....if there is actually anyone out there that reads our blog please leave us a comment so that we know people are actually reading it! Thanks!

There has been a lot of rain over the past month so we have been trying to fit in outdoors stuff whenever we happen to get a rain free day. The first weekend in August Otto and I went with Josie and Susan to A Day Out With Thomas for Josie's birthday.



They called for a little rain that day but fortunately we didn't get any! Josie and Otto had a blast. They were both a little scared of Sir Topham Hatt...Otto managed to get over his fear long enough to get a picture with him!



The next day Sam, Lexie, Otto, Ken and I went to the Volkswagen show in Windsor.



Bella was in Parsonsfield with my parents for the weekend. So when we left for the show it wasn't raining at all but the weather was calling for rain. Right when we got to the show it started to rain. The rain picked up very quickly and we had a severe thunder and lightening shower. We were stuck outside with nowhere to go. We all got in the car soaking wet...it was a long wet ride home. I think we got 5 pictures of the whole VW show.

The fair had $1 day the day of the Volkswagen show so we waited for the rain to stop and headed to the fair. Bella and Lexie decided they needed to go on all the "big kid" rides. So they tried out the cliffhanger



and the zipper..



and the cobra...Bella did the remix but Lexie wasn't tall enough. I went on the cobra and that was enough of those kind of rides for me. I remember when I was young and I could go on the Gravatron, Zipper and Sky Master all day long. Those were the days!

Last weekend we worked around the house...so no pictures.

Saturday (2 days ago) we climbed Chick Hill.



At the top we ate lunch and picked blueberries.



Once we got home it started to rain. Rain had been in the forecast all day but we don't wait around for rain! The sky turned this creepy color after the rain.



...and there was a rainbow.



Yesterday the girls went over to Laura's house to play with Lauren. Otto, Sam, Ken and I went to Swan Lake.

Sam cooked us hot dogs for lunch. There are a million picnic tables there but they were all taken. There was a huge birthday party that took up 5 of the tables! So we just found a bench to cook on.



After we ate we went swimming...



saw some ducks...



swam with the ducks...



played in the sand...



tanned...



and just had a good time!

Bella turns purple!

Last Wednesday Bella was promoted from green belt to purple belt!



She has worked very hard over the past few years to get where she is!



All of the sensei's made sure she got the test she deserved.



By time the night was over she was sweating!





GOOD JOB BELLA! It wont be long before you're a brown belt!

Sam and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on July 18th! I am not sure if it seems like we have been together forever or if it seems like only yesterday that we were married...somehow I doubt that will ever change. We have had some adventures over the past 10 years and we both look forward to what the coming years hold for us!


Laura had the girls over for a visit while Sam, Otto, Ken and I took a trip to the Owl's Head transportation museum on the 19th. We have all kinds of pictures of old cars, trains & planes we will need to print up for my scrapbook but I am just going to put a few of Otto on here...

Otto's VW...


This is Otto with the "Otto gas engine"...






While we were there we also checked out the Owl's Head lighthouse.







On our way home we stopped at Red Robin in Augusta for supper!



RED ROBIN! YUM!

Carving Update

I made my first sale two days ago!! I made a sign out of maple for Ken's cousin John. He wanted to make a sign to give the people that he is going to visit in Wisconsin.

Currently I am making some Maine themed signs and other projects. When we went to Acadia last Friday I came up with an idea to make replica signs of the various signs in Acadia. When I was looking around in the gift shop at the top of Cadillac Mountain I saw a carved replica trail marker selling for $50 and some random small signs selling for quite a bit as well. I made one sign for Thunderhole and another random sign from the park loop road. They are all carved and look really good, but I need to go get some brown paint. The other project I am working on is a carved checkerboard with the outline of Maine in the background. I have carved half of it so far, but it needs some minor tweaking to get it just right. Once I get enough samples finished I plan to go back to Bar Harbor and talk to some shop owners about selling my works.

I went to Lowe's yesterday to get some paint and some more wood, but I forgot to bring a sample of the color brown that I need. I did, however, find some gallon cans of stain for only $1!! They had five and I bought all of them... I'm sure I'll find use for that much stain.

Hopefully I will make it out to get some paint some time this week.

I'll post some pictures once the checkerboard is stained and the signs are painted.

Acadia National Park

Yesterday, Sam came home from work and decided that we needed to go Acadia. Last year we bought an annual family pass so we might as well make use of it. On our way we stopped to pick up some subs at Subway so we could have our traditional picnic with the seagulls at the top of Cadillac mountain.



We arrived at the top of the mountain and ate our subs.




After we finished eating we walked around...



and posed for some pictures...




We descended the mountain and headed towards Thunderhole. It was high tide so it wasn't very exciting. So we walked around the rocks






...or was it we climbed around the rocks?





After about 5 hours in Acadia we headed home. It has been our experience over the past several weeks that when we finish our days activities it starts raining (thus creating my motto "We can't sit around waiting for rain"). The weather has forcasted rain basically every day for the past month. So this trip being no exception it started to rain.

-R.I.P.

(The following is written by Sam)

So, after we got back to Bangor it started raining heavily. We were driving up Old County Road towards our house and the lightening was very close. Right after we passed Schoolhouse Lane, lightening struck the telephone pole that was about ten feet behind us, blowing out the transformer. I could see the sparks rain down behind us in the rear view mirror. The power went out on most of Old County Road. We took an extra lap around the loop to see what areas were affected by the outage. Our street was fine and most of Main Road was fine, but about half of Old County Road was out. We came home and decided that we would watch a movie after Rachel finished cutting Ken's hair. Rachel was about 99% done when the power went out at our house. We scrambled around to get some candles lit using my cell phone as a light. Luckily Rachel has a collection of about thirty Yankee Candles and they put out really good light.

We lit about ten candles and since movie-watching was out of the picture, started a game of Risk. I hadn't played Risk since High School, and I don't think Rachel had ever played. Rachel and Ken fought over North America while I worked on gaining control of South America, Asia and Europe. Once they realized what I was up to they formed an alliance to take me out. They both attacked me until my only troops had retreated to Siberia. Then Ken turned on Rachel. That was lucky for me because I would have been out of the game otherwise. The power came back on at midnight, but we were well into the game and continued playing until about two-thirty.

After the game Ken wanted to clean up the last part of his hair that Rachel hadn't got to because of the power outage. He picked up the clippers and shaved a strip right up the middle of his head. The depth guide had been removed so it was just the bare blade. I guess he'll have to shave his head bald now.