"You're going to Millinocket? WHY?"

On Sunday we headed north to Millinocket. Most locals will laugh and ask why would you go way up there? There really isn't very much up there once you get north of Bangor but we headed out to see for ourselves anyway. I spotted a nice park and sandy beach right when we pulled into town so we stopped to let the girls run around a little.

The Discovery Channel has a show called American Loggers that features the Pelletier brothers who make their living logging in northern Maine. They recently have opened the Pelletier Loggers restaurant in Millinocket. The restaurant was beautiful with lots of logs and creative stone work and was full as could be with locals and about 50 bikers. The food was excellent too!

We took Highway 11 back home and spotted 2 moose along the side of the road. We stopped in Bangor at a park so the girls could get some wiggles out after such a long ride in Grandpa's truck.

Another fun weekend!

Friday brought our usual trip grocery shopping, then home to have a picnic in the yard. The weather had been so beautiful lately! It's nice to get out and enjoy it.

Saturday we hit a couple yard sales on the way over to mom and dad's campground where we played on the playground and waded in the lake.

Big Water

After a stop at the gas station and Dunkin Donuts for so Pie could potty and we could get some coffee we headed out to Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor is a very touristy little town with lots of shops right on the ocean. There was a cruise ship docked so there were lots of sales going on to lure in more shoppers. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for being outside. We all found T-shirts and I got Chris some stickers for his tool box. We had a nice lunch and of course we had ice cream.

Next we headed to Winter Harbor to see Frenchman's bay. It was amazing! There are a lot of places in Maine where you see the ocean but being in a bay it doesn't always seem like the ocean, more like a river in the Penobscott bay and more of a big lake in the Belfast Bay. But in Winter Harbor there was ocean as far at the eye could see. The waves came crashing up on the huge rocky cliffs and splashed way up in the air. Pie thought it was so cool to see the "BIG WATER". It was sort of hard to tell how close we could get to the water and soon we found out!!

Frenchman's bay was really awesome to see and defiantly worth the drive to get there.

Discovery Museum

It was cold and rainy today. A perfect day for the Discovery Museum in Bangor. We stopped at Paddy Murphy's for lunch and had fried pickles and awesome sandwiches. Both girls were very good sitting at the table. The we walked up the street to the museum. Pie always has a really fun time and Sammie is getting old enough to enjoy it now too. Mom surprised me with a family membership so now we can go whenever we want! I am excited for Pie to be able to attend some of the classes that they offer.

BigG's

We headed out to Winslow, Maine to go to the world famous Big G's deli! The have the best sandwiches ever and they are so HUGE! Everything is homemade and so delicious. It's more than worth the hour + drive to get there. Mom had a shrimp salad sandwich, dad had eggs and sausage with homemade toast and I had their thanksgiving sandwich complete with turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce. Holy YUM!!!

Afterwards we went into Waterville and walked around downtown - not too impressive but I'm not sure what else to do in Waterville, Maine. Mom found some good deals on sweatshirts for herself and the girls then we found a shop that sold gellato. We ordered vanilla, mixed fruit and donatella which was mocha flavored. They all were good but the mixed fruit was amazing!

Pie made a new friend while Grandma was shopping.

On they was back home we went past the log cabin that Chris and I have looked at to buy. Apparently the owner has moved out and now it's empty. It certainly had a different aura without the upkeep that it had last fall when we first saw it. I left feeling sad this time, not quite the same feeling I had had before. I really hope that whoever does buy this cabin gets it back in shape, and loves it like it deserves.

We got home and it was about time for Chris to get up for work. He ate his sandwich that we'd brought him and headed out. He's so tired. I hate seeing him that way. Although I'm worried that he may not get a lot of work in the next few weeks, I do hope that he can get some rest.

Garden!

Today we planted our garden! Mom and dad came over (with donuts!) and we got to planting. We started with a row of Sunflowers, then 2 types of sweet corn. After the corn we planted green beens and peas, regular carrots and "kalidoscope" carrots that are while, purple and deep red! We also planted tomatoes, beets, yellow and butternut squash, onions and of couse pumpkins! I can't wait to see some prouts comming up in the next week or so!

Sammie still wasn't quite feeling up to par so she ended up in my arms most of the day while mom and dad did most of the work. Pie had fun helping Grandma pick the rocks out of the garden and plant the seeds, it will be interesting to see how well she spaced them out!! The black flies were out with a vengance, mom had some Backwoods Off that seemed to help but I still ended up with several bites on my face and woke up on Tuesday morning with my right eye swollen shut. I swore I wouldn't complain much on this blog but there just is nothing good to say about black flies!!

Fun weekend

We just had errands to run on Saturday . I needed to get groceries and mom and dad had a few things to pick up too. Mom had gotten her camera wet at Niagra Falls and wanted to get a new one. We headed to Bangor and hit Radio Shack in the mall then went to Target where the girls got some new jammies and cute sun dresses. Then we headed to Wal-Mart for food and to compare prices on cameras. We found that Target had the best selection and was the only store that actually had someone there to answer our questions.

While we were out shopping our first ever garden was getting rototilled!

Chris's work schedule is always changing. After working nights for about 6 months, he finally got put back on the day shift. Now starting Monday he's working nights again. But working nights is better than not working at all. He is very lucky to have been schuduled for boiler tube training, only a select few were chosen and he was one of them. With all the unknowns of his job, it's hard to tell if the training will happen on time or get pushed back due to some sort of emergency in a boiler. I just can't express how proud I am of him for working so hard and making such a good name for himself.

While Chris was napping, the rest of us headed to the beach. Once we got there we decided it was way too windy, so we headed to Belfast to go to the awesome big slide park. Pie had a blast on the big slide and Sammie even got Grandma to go down it with her! The wind wasn't nearly as bad at the park and it turned out to be a really nice day. After the park Grandpa took us all to Dairy Queen for some yummy ice cream!

Once Chris woke up from his nap we went back to my mom and dad's campground and had bbq's steaks and fiddleheads! YUM!

Sammie hadn't been feeling to great today. She selpt off and on all day and ended up with her first ever fever. She also has about 6 teeth comming in all at once so hopefully that was all it was.

They are here!!

My mom and dad showed up this afternoon! They made better time than they thought they might and got here a day early! It was so nice to see them and even though I hadn't seen them in almost a year and a half it felt like we'd never been apart. It only took Pie a few minutes to warm up to them and was soon chasing "Ca-pah" around the yard and was swinging with "Gah-ma". It was nice to see them all having fun. Sam was still a bit unsure of who these new people were but was interested in watching everyone play.

Grandpa bought a surprise for the girls too. He made them thier very own picnic table and benches. The girls loved it right away and even ate supper at the new table that night.

 

Unsocial

The weather today was BEAUTIFUL. About 65 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and just enough breeze to keep the black flies away, a perfect spring day, it was nice to be able to get out and enjoy it!

Chris has been working in a mill this week welding tubes in a boiler. Even though it's an extremely long drive and it's insanely dirty work he loves it. He's busy most of the day and feels like he's accomplished something at the end of the day. I'm glad that he is enjoying his job but it makes for really long days for us, especially when he's at the mill several days in a row. (If everything turns out for the best, he will be at a mill all summer long.)

Today is day 4 since I have left our house. I wonder how many people could spend so much time without much social interaction? It actually doesn't bother me much. I have a few really awesome friends that I talk to online and can always call my mom when I want to hear someone's voice. I guess living on the side of a mountain suits me just fine. 

Traditions

Someone once told me that the younger generation just doesn't follow in traditions like older people do. I guess that just depends on how you look at it.

Chris and I have started to create some of our own traditions. Since we don't live as close to family anymore, we've had a bit more freedom do celebrate our holidays however we want since it's just the four of us.

Once tradition that we've started is eating manicotti for Christmas dinner. Not something that's been in the family forever but it's something that we've done several years in a row. I don't think I would ever insist on manicotti if someone wanted to eat something different or would be upset if my girls grew up and wanted to have fried chicken for Christmas dinner. Traditions should be fun and not feel like an obligation. Creating our own traditions has brought me more joy than most of the passed down traditions that I've been involved in.

Another tradition that I've started is taking a picture of me and my girls on Mother's day. My first Mother's day, Chris took picture of Audrey and I to celebrate our success with nursing. I had worked so hard and struggled through so many issues that I wanted to remember the beautiful side of breastfeeding my first born daughter.

I fell in love with this picture, it really represented how special our relationship had become. So on my second Mother's day Chris took this picture of Samantha and me.

So for my third Mother's Day, I felt that I should keep up the tradition of taking a nice picture of me and my girls.

So while my traditions may not have been passed down from generation to generation or involve rituals and ceremonies, they are traditions that I hope to keep going for years to come. If my girls want to carry them on, that's great, but I hope that they start some new traditions of their own too.

The Calling

Have you ever had something call to you so strongly that you couldn't ignore it?

Chris and I have been browsing other living options, our current house need more work than what is worth putting into it, besides the fact that we just don't like it. One night last fall while searching online, Chris came across this house.

We looked at the pictures and thought it looked like a cute little cabin. During Thanksgiving weekend, we were out for a drive and found ourselves heading out to find this house. It's address said it was on a major roadway but actually it's about 3/4 of a mile back in the woods. We drove back and found the house.

We both liked it and wondered what it looked like inside. We headed back home and filed the house in the back of our minds. Every once in awhile one or the other of us would stumble upon this house online and would comment that it was still for sale.

One day last winter, on our way home from shopping in the big city I told Chris to drive out past the cabin again, I just wanted another look. When living in Maine, it's pretty important to get a feel for what you will be in store for in the winter, what may be ideal in the summer might be a nightmare in the winter months. Luckily the road to this cabin is fairly flat and is most of the 3/4 of the mile are plowed.

We got to the house and Chris went to knock on the door to ask the owner a few questions. He went inside and had a look around. (The girls were asleep so I stayed in the truck with them.) He came back out with some info and the phone number of the real estate agent. He said it was nice but wasn't sure if I would like it or not. "It's not huge, be any means," he said.

We headed back home and once again filed it away, getting on with the rest of the weekend. That Monday I emailed the agent and made an appointment for the next weekend to see the inside of the house.

There was still a lot of snow on the ground and we realized that owning our own plow would be essential, but this driveway would be a million times easier to plow than the hill we live on now.  the next Sunday, we waited for the agent to arrive and then went in to see the house. It was very cozy with hardwood floors and a stone fireplace with a mantle that cried out for Christmas stockings to be hung from it. It had two bedrooms, a loft and a nice sized semi finished basement. It wasn't big but it was perfect, probably the closest thing to our dream house that we ever could find.

We talked to the agent and the owner discussing a possible land trade since the owner would be looking for a new place to live. As we got more information, we realized that trading land wasn't going to help pay off the owners mortgage, which was the only reason he was trying to sell the cabin. So once again we filed the house away in the back f our minds.

Yesterday, the cabin crept back into my thoughts. I looked it up online, it's still on the market and the price was reduced by 15k. I texted Chris just to relay the info, not really thinking much about it. Apparently he's as enchanted by this house as I am.

He came home and applied for a loan online. I'm not sure what will come of the loan, financing seems to be what is holding us back from owning our dream cabin but for some reason it just keeps calling to us. It might not be big, or fancy or new, in an affluent neighborhood but I can't fight the feeling that it's where we belong.

10 more days

Only 10 more days until my mom and dad will be here to visit us! I am so excited and can NOT wait to see them! I love living in Maine and think it was probably the best move we ever made. So many good things have happened to us since we've been here. After years of thinking we'd never have kids, our girls were born here. Chris has had the best job he's ever had and he's made a name for himself, not having to live up to or live down any previous reputation that was made for him in Colorado. We had so much fun on our Harley and have made some good friends.

I just wish that we didn't live so far from my family. I try my hardest to keep them up-to-date with everything the girls are doing, posting an obsessive amount of pictures online, sending video when I can capture a cute moment and talk to my mom on the phone at least once a week. But I am so excited to see them in person and can't wait to enjoy them enjoying their granddaughters!

Mother Earth

When all the trees have been cut down,

When all the animals have been hunted,

When all the waters are polluted,

When all the air is unsafe to breathe,

Only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

~Cree Prophecy

Fiddle heads

We've lived in Maine for almost 5 years now and had yet to eat 'Fiddleheads'. Every spring we'd see signs along the road that would advertise them for a couple bucks per pound. I had read an article about Fiddle heads when we first moved here but hadn't been adventurous enough to try them out until last night.

On the way home from the circus, I had Chris stop by a roadside stand and bought our first pound. Another customer told me that I'd regret only getting one pound, as he was buying 12. "You know, once they are gone you can't get them again until next year." I know he was right, Fiddle heads aren't usually sold in the stores and are only available for s short time during the spring. I still only got one pound and it turned out to be a lot more than I expected.

I asked  the lady who was selling them how I should cook them, "Just boil them like you would broccoli or any other vegetable and then add some butter." Sounded simple enough to me. 

I washed them off..

Trimmed the stems a bit...

and put them in the pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes or so, then added some butter and dinner was served...

I wasn't sure if Chris would be willing to try them, he's not a huge vegi fan but he ate every last one on his plate. They tasted a bit like asparagus but leafy-er. I think fiddle heads will become a spring tradition for us!

Fun Weekend

On Saturday morning we got up and headed out to enjoy the day. Once in the truck we realized that Chris missed a call to go into work,which he wasn't happy about. He returned the call and they already had enough people to cover the work that needed done. It would have been nice money but I was glad he didn't have to waste such a beautiful Saturday working inside a boiler.

We ended up at Lowe's and bought a new lawnmower. We have about an acre that is almost all grass, for some reason it seems even bigger when it's all mowed, it looks really nice out there now.

While Chris was mowing, I was working in my flower beds a bit, Sam was playing in the grass and Pie was flying her new kite. At first I tried to get it in the air for her but soon realized it was better just to let her do it herself. She did a great job running up and down the driveway and had sooooo much fun!

Later that night we went to Chris's buddy's house so they could make a trade on work tool boxes. Chris needed a bigger one and his buddy could use the extra money so it worked out for both of them. His house is a awesome little log cabin on a beautiful lake. It would be such an a great place to live EXCEPT during black fly season. We came home with bites all over us.

Sunday morning, Chris went back out to finish up mowing until the black flies got too bad, then we came back in and the girls settled down for a nap before we headed to the circus.

Pie was excited to see the clowns, tigers and the dogs who do tricks. She seems to prefer the clowns from a distance though. I wasn't surprised that she wouldn't stand with them for a picture, but she was thrilled to accept a blue balloon from them.

Sammie had fun just looking around at all there was to see.

It was incredibly hot in the auditorium and the girls had sat still as long as they could so we left about halfway through the second half of the show. I think in a couple more years the girls will enjoy the circus even more.