Maine I LOOOOOVE You!!

(This post is way too long, but I need to finish posting about our trip so I can get caught up with other things - like our Memorial Day weekend and NEWS ABOUT OUR NEW BABY'S GENDER TOMORROW!!!!)

Davis is so tired of me going on and on about how I want to move to Maine. But when you see these pictures (all unedited and taken in un-ideal lighting conditions) you will see why. I have been all over this great land of ours, and I have never been in love with a place the way I fell in love with Maine. Maine, Maine, Maine... When our neighbors moved away, our kids' school closed, and we decided to maybe leave our church all in the week following our trip, I told Davis it was DEFINITELY a sign that we should move to Maine. He didn't think so.

Actually, before I get to Maine (Maine, Maine, Maine), we stopped in Salem on the way up the coast. Mostly it was totally hokey and we were totally dorky

but the witch trial memorial was beautiful

and so were parts of Salem - the sun even peeked out for about 20 minutes!

We ate at Fitz's Seafood, which was very extremely yummy. And look - they were celebrating their tenth anniversary too!

We also stopped so I could have a cup of ginger tea (my new best friend, because I am STILL queasy all the time)

and then we went and bought Davis a pipe. He used to smoke a pipe years ago and missed it, and I kind of love the smell of pipe tobacco.

Anyway, now, on to MAINE! We stayed in Kennebunkport and LOVED it. It was foggy and so gorgeous, I don't even know where to begin with all the things I loved. How about the houses?

Here's the one I picked for us to live in - right on the ocean.

Our B&B was awesome, and we'll definitely be back. It was the Maine Stay Inn (in Maine, BTW). Oh and it's on Main Street too. Cute, huh?

I love B&B's, because you meet such great people. The other couples we had breakfast with were fun to talk to. And Walt and Judi who owned the place were so great. We had the most amazing breakfasts - things like rhubarb and strawberry crepes. Sunday we were leaving before breakfast, so Judi said "we'll just put out some cereal for you when you get up." I was thinking like corn flakes, not this

The town of Kennebunkport was completely adorable.

We went antique store browsing

and drove around to see some sights - like this old jail, which was like the oldest still-standing jail in the U.S. or something like that.

Criminals in the 1700's must not have been very bad, because there were no bars on the windows and the doors were thin wood. Maybe it's because all the bad criminals just got their heads lopped off?

Did I mention how beautiful Maine is? Even in the fog

Davis was obsessed with the tides - it was cracking me up, because he gave me constant updates about the tide. Now I just randomly ask him "what's the tide doing?" that and "have you seen a Dunkin Donuts?"

Can you see what's behind that sea gull?

Look closely and you'll see the lighthouse.

We dropped in on the Bush's one afternoon. George says hi.

We ate dinner at Federal Jacks in Kennebunkport, and it was good. The beer was extra good (or so I've heard). This was the view from our table

The next day we had lunch at H.B. Provisions and had the best clam chowder either one of us has EVER had. It was to die for!! It made us sleepy and we went and TOOK A NAP! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON!

Speaking of food, here's a picture of how humongous I am already

and a picture of the whoopie pie that I ate which didn't help.

Anyway... we spent one day in Portland, which was JUST AS AWESOME in a completely different way.

We went to a great coffee shop and, while Davis waited on the AAA guy to come unlock the car after he locked the keys in it, I sat and drank tea and read my new book (which I got half way through on my trip and haven't touched since)

We wandered around and noticed how friendly the people up there are - totally could live there. This shop cracked me up. Not very subtle - the sign on the door says things like NO CELL PHONES! NO MINORS! I asked Davis if he needed any special "tobacco" for his pipe

Across the street was the crytpozoology museum that we went to. It did not know what cryptozoology was - it's the study of monsters and actually it was pretty fun for $5!

We had some sushi for dinner and went to see Bridesmaids before heading back to Kennebunkport. The movie was hilarious in a completely raunchy, silly way.

Our last night, we went to Nunan's Lobster.

It's a lobster shack near Kennebunkport and the lobster was perfect

(I took this picture and then had to turn the little feller around before I could finish eating him! That reminds me, I worked at a seafood restaurant once in Carmel, California, and in our lobster tank, we had "Larry the Lobster." Little kids always came in to visit Larry, and we'd take him out of the tank to show him off... they didn't know that every day Larry was a different lobster) I do feel bad for lobsters, it's not their fault they're so delicious.

If you go to Nunan's, just have the lobster, though. The clam chowder and the blueberry cobbler were awful. So was running back in to go to the bathroom at the back of the restaurant, then walking back out and having your husband inform you that the back of your dress is tucked into your underwear.

Good thing we were leaving town early the next morning.

I want to move to Maine! Seriously. I LOVED it. The people, the landscape, the houses, the weather (really), everything.

But by the end of Saturday, we were really missing the kids. The first part of the trip, we tried to avoid any places that might have kids there, but by Saturday I wanted to ask some lady at the coffee shop whether I could hold her baby! It was so good to get home and have my babies back. I can't wait for our annual family vacations to Kennebunkport to begin!!

BYE, BYE MAINE! TIL NEXT TIME!

Where to Begin...

I'm sorry, friends. I have been GONE. It took me two days after we got back from vacation to even turn on the computer, and this past week I haven't done more than try to get caught up with work and email. So much has happened, things I want to blog about and things I'm not sure I can put into words. For now, I will share that in the past few days, we have lost our church and our school, and I feel like two of the most important people in my life have just died. I know we will be okay, God is already shining a path out of this darkness, but it will take me a while to straighten out my head and my heart. Right now I can't even look at the pictures from the last day of school this morning, so it might be a while before this is something I can blog about.

So, let me just back up and spend a little while remembering the wonderful trip that Davis and I took, and the reason for my absence last week. We went to Boston and Maine for our tenth anniversary - no kids! - and it was AMAZING!

Tuesday night (this is way back on May 17th, folks) we packed up the kids

and sent them off. Okay, that was hard. We've never left them overnight with anyone, and this was for FIVE DAYS. But they were so excited! Well, the girls were excited, not Henry my velcro baby. The girls went to their grandparents' and asked Davis to leave ha ha! Henry stayed with my friend Carla and her family (their dog Macaroni is now in therapy) and after a tearful/screamingful goodbye, he was completely happy the whole time.

We left early Wednesday morning and arrived in Boston around lunchtime and checked in at our hotel. Oh my gosh. This bed

I woke up the next morning and said "I'm never getting out of this bed!" I really think it might be the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on! BLISS. We stayed at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, and if you are ever in Boston, I couldn't recommend it more highly! Of course there's the small chance that being on our first child-free vacation since our honeymoon was just so awesome that ANY hotel would have been THE BEST EVER :)

Here's a goofy picture of me I had to have (Karla this one is for you ha ha ha!)

The view from our room looked out on Trinity Church,

and apparently the tallest building in Boston, but we couldn't see it because of the fog! We ventured out into Boston after showering (and stuff). It was really foggy and drizzly and WAY colder than forecast. I don't have a ton of pictures, partly because I kept forgetting to take them and partly because it was just hard to get good ones with the weather.

Boston Common was so beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Like dorks, we sat around on park benches and read about history on Wikipedia on my phone.

Can you spot Davis in this picture?

They had a Paper Source store!! I LIVE on their online shop and didn't even know they had a brick and mortar (literally of course, since it's Boston) store. I wandered around the store saying "Davis pleeeeeease can we move here?" while he rolled his eyes.

We walked forever, miles and miles, and it was totally fine even with the rain. I was just happy to have my honey's undivided attention :) We stopped at King's Chapel, which was really cool and made me think some day it would be awesome to do an Episcopal history tour of the East Coast - yes I am that dorky ha! I have no idea who this guy is, I just took this picture to show that there were monuments on pretty much every block of this city!

We ended up in the North End neighborhood, which I LOVED. It had so much character.

We stopped for a quick beer (water for me of course) at an Irish pub and then went to Neptune Oyster for dinner. I relied on Yelp a lot this trip, since I wasn't familiar with this part of the country, and as usual it was hit or miss, but this was a for sure hit! One of the top five dinners I've ever had, for sure. If you're in Boston - go to Neptune Oyster and have the HOT lobster roll (unlike the cold mayonnaise versions, this one is just a HUGE pile of perfect lobster with lots of melted butter on a yummy toasted bun with the BEST fries)

I want to hop on a plane right now and have another! We ate lobster every day, that was part of my plan for this trip!!

The next morning, Davis woke up way too early. Actually, we both woke up at 6 every morning - those kids have us well trained! I had no trouble, no trouble AT ALL, just laying in bed another couple of hours. But that would have made Davis crazy, so he wandered off for a little while and came back with some Dunkin Donuts coffee for me

It was a joke between us when we were up there - there was a Dunkin Donuts on EVERY block up there (Boston and Maine)! It was crazy. I have never seen any chain (McDonald's, Starbucks, CVS...) with so many stores. I guess those Northerners love their donuts!

I VERY reluctantly left that bed so we could get on the road. We drove around town a little more, but the view was like this

I never saw water! We drove down to the harbor, but the fog was too thick. I have a TON of pictures from Salem and Maine. I loved Maine - like I have been looking for jobs up there kind of love! More of that to come...

Amelia's School Program and Other News

It has been such a busy, busy week and weekend! This week, Davis and I will be taking our very first child-free vacation since our honeymoon - TEN YEARS AGO! It's our tenth anniversary on Thursday. To say I'm excited is a huge understatement. I've been a little distracted lately, as I drool over pictures of our hotel room and descriptions of breakfast at the B&B we'll be traveling to. I'm also a LOT nervous about the kids, who have never been away from both of us overnight (much less five nights!) BUT they will be in very, very good hands, and they are excited.

In so many ways, these ten years have flown by and they have been happy, happy years. I just cannot imagine my life without my best friend at my side, and I am thankful for him every day! I know these first years of building our home and our family will be years I look back on very fondly. But things have also been hard - law school, three kids in five years, four miscarriages, a child with medical needs and out of state surgeries, they have taken their toll. It's hard to find time to just reconnect and enjoy being a couple among all the other "stuff" going on. And so that is what we are doing next week - we will be in Boston for two days (a city Davis loves and I have never been to), enjoying a fancy hotel, where I intend to SLEEP IN and order room service! And then we are driving up to Maine, where we will spend three days at a little bed and breakfast on the coast. Lobster here I come! I will not be taking my laptop (and unless you have my children and are calling with an emergency, I also will not be answering my phone!) so I'll be taking a little blogging break. I can't wait to tell you all about our trip when we get back!

(Oh and if you're a crazy internet stalking burglar, we have an alarm and a housesitter, sorry!)

So, it's been busy as we pack and prepare. We've done lots of things I haven't taken pictures of, like I took Sophia to a fancy restaurant for spaghetti (her choice) as a thank you for being such a HUGE help on our trip to California. We've been playing this memory game at family night - I love it because the four of us (Davis, me, the girls) are really equally good at it, so it's fun.

AND since I wrote my post about Henry, he has really started walking! He still crawls if he's in a big hurry, but most of the time now he walks. YAY!

Yeah I know, no pants. Again.

Friday was Amelia's school program. It was SO sweet! I love her preschool, and I'm so sad this is her last year there. Henry will start there in a year and a half, just a couple of mornings a week. I love that place and will miss it until then!

Before the program started, Henry decided to test out the chairs

Here they come!

Unfortunately, we didn't have a good shot of Amelia - can you see her? She's on the right in the middle row

The program was great. I love their new music teacher, Miss Amy - she really taught the kids some great musical terms and concepts this year

Here is Amelia with her little friend Stella - I LOVE Stella, she is just the sweetest little girl! I went to law school with her dad and her mom is really cool too, and I'm looking forward to getting the girls together lots this summer

After the program, they had snack - but not before praying

Amelia made me laugh SO hard with her cupcake!

She was all business - she got that wrapper off and ate that cupcake in two bites. All the other kids were just starting theirs, and hers was GONE!

Here is Amelia with her teacher, Miss Martha

We love Miss Martha! I have myself all worked up already, knowing which teachers I want Henry to have there... isn't that bad? Luckily all the teachers are fabulous, so it's not a big deal if it doesn't work out that way.

Here is an artfully composed picture that Davis took ha ha!

To celebrate what a great job she did, I made Amelia's favorite dessert this weekend - strawberry shortcake! (it's my favorite too)

Is there anything happier than sprinkles? Not if you're a 4 or 5 (or 32) year old girl!

Sophia and I have been working on sight words, and I have some flash cards we run through sometimes at breakfast or during random times. Amelia was feeling left out, so now she tells us what the lowercase letters are, and Sophia tells me what the words are

The weather is GORGEOUS here this weekend!! I am packing and cleaning and doing laundry, but I keep running outside to check on the kids playing in the yard, and lingering a little to soak up the sun and the smell of freshly cut grass (not ours, unfortunately ha ha! But the neighbors have all been mowing) I wish I had the time to really work in the yard - it needs it SO badly, but there are eleventy billion other things that have taken priority lately, and it's a wreck.

Happy Sunday, friends!