Birthday Cake & Lobster

The Saturday that we arrived at the Red House was Carys's birthday, so we decided to split up in order to get things ready.  The boys ran to the grocery to get supplies for the week, while the girls headed to the house to get some stuff unloaded and let Carys play.  After we unloaded and got Carys settled, she stayed to play with Grandma while I ran into town to pick up her cake!

When we all got back and unpacked, we decided it was time to open presents and have some cake.  Up first the presents....

 

Her cards played music, so she was shaking it!

She was a little slow on the unwrapping part, mostly she just wanted to tear off a piece and play with that!

 Ever since Uncle Jr. put his hat on her, she is always wanting to steal them, so Grandpa and Grandma thought she should have her own 'pink' one!

Reading her new book with Daddy

After presents, we fed Carys dinner and then it was time for cake! She wasn't too sure at first, but as soon as I gave her a little taste of the frosting, she was tearing into it for more. 

She was sweet and shared with Mommy & Daddy!

  

She was really getting tired here, so we decided it was time for a bath and bed.  Poor baby had cake up her nose and we were trying to keep her from rubbing her eyes!

It was so fun to watch her enjoy her cake.  I ordered her a chocolate fresh berry cake with vanilla buttercream and it was so good!  The cake I ordered for us was not very good, so we ended up finishing up hers after she was tucked in bed!

On Sunday, we woke up and hit the Farmer's Market to finish up our shopping for the week.  The market was small, but packed with tons of great stuff and we had a lot of fun picking out our dinners for the week.  We knew we wanted to have a lobster dinner, so I visited the seafood truck and bought fresh, live lobster straight from the lobsterman himself!  I was so excited to try lobster.  When I was 15, I had an allergic reaction to the dye that I was given for a cat scan and was told at the time to not eat shellfish.  I haven't eaten it since, but I've always wondered if I was really allergic.  So, after we booked our trip I figured I'd get tested.   I had an allergy test right before we left and it turns out that I'm allergic to just about everything except shellfish!  So, I was definitely pumped for our lobster dinner Sunday night!

Carys helping Grandpa shuck some corn.

The guys getting ready!

Apparently, it's a two-man job!

I have to admit that I was a little sad knowing these guys wouldn't be alive much longer!

and into the pot!

Thankfully since I was a newbie, the Red House came equipped with instructions!

Dinner is served, and the verdict...

Wow - it was so yummy, definitely want to do this again!

Our weekend was pretty hectic traveling to get out to Maine, but it was so nice to get finally get settled, celebrate Carys's birthday and doing some relaxing.  We have a busy week planned though and I can't wait for some of the fun stuff we have coming up!

The Red House

We are on vacation this week on Mount Desert Island in Maine - home of Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor.  This is our home away from home, The Red House, and I was so excited when we finally arrived.  It's even more charming then the pictures, and has everything we'll need for the week!  It's also right outside of Bar Harbor, so we're close to everything. 

We are here with Scott's parents and we've already realized that a week won't be long enough to see and do everything we want to!  It was a long drive to get here though, so we are trying to pack in as much as we can!  

We had a 16 hour drive, so we were nervous about Carys being trapped in the car for so long.  We left after Scott got out of work on Thursday afternoon and made it as far as Utica, NY.  Carys did really well during the drive, but she doesn't fall asleep as easily as she used to in her car seat and at her normal 7 pm bedtime, when it's still light outside - she was still wide-eyed!  I think she finally fell asleep around 9 pm, and we decided to keep driving for a couple more hours.  After we checked into the hotel though, the Bug was wide awake and overtired, which every parent knows is not a great combo!  It was rough trying to get her settled down, but she finally passed out and thankfully slept the rest of the night.  

Friday was pretty uneventful until we hit some major traffic North of Boston.  I have GPS on my phone, so we decided to get off the highway and try to "skirt" the traffic by taking some back roads.  Well, I will admit that I'm not the greatest navigator under normal conditions because I have trouble making quick decisions, add in crazy traffic, unknown back roads, a whiny baby, and a frustrated husband and well, let's just say it wasn't pretty!  Scott and I have made a pact that from here on out - we NEVER leave the highway unless we are in very familiar territory.        

After finally getting through the worst of the traffic, we stopped in Portsmouth, NH to get some exercise and snacks before finishing our drive for the day.  We LOVED Portsmouth!  It was a beautiful city and we were bummed we couldn't spend more time exploring.  We did get the Bug nice and wore out by letting her cruise up and down the streets though.

After our stop in Portsmouth, we hit the road again to finish up our drive for the day.  We stopped in Freeport, ME for the night.  Scott and I had visited Maine a few years ago in December and stopped in Freeport and loved it, so we were excited to stop again.  The last time we were here, I got a monogrammed L.L. Bean duffle.  Scott had received one as a gift for standing up in his friend's wedding, and he uses it all the time.  I love mine, so of course, Carys had to get her own monogrammed Bean bag while we were here!  So, now we have matching L.L. Bean luggage -we're so classy!

After breakfast and shopping, we hit the road for the final leg of our trip.  Overall, Carys was a trooper.  We had a couple of rough nights because she was overtired, but she did great and we are so glad that is such a good traveler!

Here's our Road Warrior with her favorite toy - her glow worm!

Happy Birthday Bug!

Carys, I can't believe you are already a year old!  The time has gone by so quickly, but I can honestly say that the past year has nothing short of amazing.  Every day has been so much fun watching you grow and learn new things.  You are becoming quite a character lately and love to entertain us, especially after we start laughing at you!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

SWEET GIRL!

We are celebrating the week with a trip to Bar Harbor, Maine.  We are hoping to do some whale watching, hiking, biking and just plain relaxing, we're also looking forward to some birthday cake and of course, some wicked good Maine Lobstah!  

Moving Day

I can't believe it's August already!  I think it's about time that I catch up on what we've been up to.  Moving day pretty much turned into weeks, and I must confess that we are still not completely unpacked!  Oh well, we have gotten a lot done and are starting to feel pretty settled in.  We still have a pretty big checklist, but we've tackled a lot of projects along the way, so we feel pretty good about the progress we've made.  So to recap...on July 21st, we said "good-bye" to Ohio and "Hello" to Michigan!

We rented the biggest U-Haul we could and loaded it to the max then towed Scott's car behind.  We also had my FIL's truck that was towing the Harley, Scott's truck, and the van.  Talk about one crazy procession!

Our original plan was to pack and load all day on Wednesday, spend the night in Ohio, and leave first thing Thursday morning.  Well the boys had a lot of energy and got everything loaded faster than we could pack it up!  By noon, it was looking like we could finish in the next few hours, so we made the decision to leave that afternoon.  Needless to say, those last few hours became complete chaos!  Gone was the organized room by room packing that we started out with.  Instead it become a free-for-all, grab what ever is left and shove it in a box!  Alice was trying to entertain Carys, but by this time she was tired (and probably wondering what the heck was going on) and just wanted her mom or dad (preferably dad).

Wearing Uncle Jr's hat and and helping him move some boxes helped keep her happy!

After we finally got everything packed and checked at least 10 times for anything left behind, the girls jumped into the van and headed North, while the boys stayed to load the trailers.  Our plan was to stop for dinner along the way and let the boys catch up.  But, as you know, nothing goes according to plan!

Instead, the giant U-Haul got a flat tire and the boys were stranded on the side of the highway for 2 hours!  Did I mention that it was hot that day - 94 degrees and humid - not the kind of day that you want to get stuck on the side of the road!  

The boys were really tempted to bust into the cooler they had sitting in the back of the truck, but they (wisely) decided that was not the best idea.  Instead, they pulled out some camp chairs and sat alongside the freeway, chatted, and thankfully kept their spirits up!  

    

They finally arrived a little after 10pm and got everything secured for the night.  We had pizza and some ice, cold beer ready for them, but it didn't take very long before we were all crashed for the night!

  

 Moving is not fun, moving with a soon to be toddler, is even less fun.  But, thanks to the hard work of our "crew" we got 'er done with a only a few bumps along the way.  I will say though that we were so excited to get home and settled in, that it really made the effort feel totally worth it!  Thanks Mom & Dad V. and Uncle David for working your tails off!  We so appreciate everything you do for us!