Popham Beach

Memorial Day Weekend:

Jaycee's very 1st time at the beach! Such a cute swim suit and so appropriate for the semi-chilly day at the beach. Thank you Aunt Jodi!


The beach looking over the Atlantic Ocean. Popham Beach. About 1 1/2 hour South from our house in Pittsfield. That's really close. Next 90 degree day we'll be found our here on the beach!


More scenery at the beach. The people in the pic kinda ruined my picture, but it was beautiful. Trees line the coast as you can see in the distance. We also could see 3 different lighthouses in the distance.


Jaycee and I playing in the water. The water was soooo cold and it wasn't the best sunny day to be at the beach. It was still fun. Jaycee loved the waves.



Jaycee and Dale playing in the sand with shovels


We dug a hole....


And deeper....


Where's Jaycee?!!!!


We left Saturday morning about 10 a.m. with the Berg family to the beach! We went to a beach called South Point Harbor and it was ghost town. It was pretty windy and chilly so we decided to go to the other end of the peninsula where maybe the wind wasn't so bad. So we went to Popham Beach and played! We had a great time and decided to bring sand home in our swimsuits! ha ha. Gotta love the beach. I ended up with a sunburn on my back, but not too bad. After the beach we went to Freeport for dinner at Antonio's Pizzeria. It was a fun and exhausting day. Then the make the day even better we got to end the night with a Skype with Dalynne & Aimee. It was pretty late, but we were SO SO SO glad we stayed awake to talk. Also decided to talk to them about when we come out for Christmas. It's kinda early to think about but it'll come sooner than later. CHRISTMAS WILL BE AWESOME THIS YEAR ;) What a super fab weekend so far. Today we made fajitas right after church and turned out delicious! Tomorrow is a fun filled day starting with a parade, and the day with the Lowe family in Acadia National Park! yahoo! HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL!

90 Degrees and RISING!

Last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday it was SO HOT! Thermostat was at 82 degrees in our house and even hotter outside with humidity. This was our idea of cooling off. Funny thing is, our water outside doesn't work yet, so we had to fill up pitchers and a cooler of house water to play in the pool. It really worked well though, and Jaycee had fun. That's all that matters


Smile



Jaycee having fun outside


Jaycee and her cheesy smile. It's cute isn't it.

Good morning Mr. Sun

Okay, so Maine has some crazy weather that I'm not used to yet. The other morning Jaycee woke up screaming-probably a bad dream. Craig got up to go get her to calm her down. I looked around and the sun was just rising. Now in Utah when the sun was up it was oh 7:00 am or so...Well we brought her into our room and I looked at my clock....4:30!!!! In the Morning!!! That is a huge adjustment for me. Almost every morning it takes me by surprise. So let's just say I need some dark shades because the blinds aren't cutting it. When I wake up almost every morning, the sun is up and ready for the day. My alarm clocks says 7:30....not ready for the day yet! Craig loves it----I hate it!!!! I seriously think the sun rises at about 4:30 in the morning. Maybe it's because the mountains aren't here for the sun to rise over. Hmmmm...

Our weekend in New Hampshire, Mass, & Vermont

Just getting done with our 2 hour drive to Sharon. Jaycee looks grumpy! She really was happy today! I just love taking pics with her


Haylie getting practice on being a big sister! Weeee.....


At the top of the hill


Sharon, Vermont- Joseph Smith Jr. birthplace-son of Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy Mack Smith


The grounds to the visitors site was beautiful. This was taken on top of the hill by the Memorial


We're so glad we were able to spend the day here and feel of the sweet spirit of Joseph Smith. What a magnificent man! We watched a 70 min. video in the visitor's center about Joseph. I truly have so much respect for everything he did and went through! I would love to meet him one day


Brayden is King of the World!


Jesus Christ! The cornerstone of our religion!

The reason for going to Sharon, VE was not only because it was Joseph's birthplace, but Dathan found out they were having a room display of statues of Christ's life. It was only going on for 2 more weeks so we had to hurry out there before Kel had the baby. What a wonderful day!


Statue of Christ in Garden of Gethsemne


Christ carrying the cross statue


Vermont. Right outside of Sharon, Vermont...I had to stop to take a pic. The trucks ruined my pic though. Vermont is very pretty, green, and farms everywhere!


Ben & Jerry creamery---where it all started! The factory was about 45 minutes north of Sharon, so we made a trip of it and went! We went on a tour and saw how the ice cream is made and the whole story of Ben & Jerry. It was really interested and yummy!


We are a happy family!


Bray & I in a tunnel at Ben & Jerry's Creamery


I'll take a pint of that cute ice cream!


Where's Brayden!


Craig eating a small ice cream cone....Peanut Brittle-it's a new flavor


Jaycee helping Mommy eat hers....coconut Layer Bar


Sharon Vermont is about 5 hours from our house. When we map quested it, the roads took us right where Dathan & Kel live. So we decided to leave early on Friday to head for Pelham, NH and go to dinner with the Allen family! We went to dinner at Uno Chicago Bar & Grill. It was pretty good and we had an awesome waiter ;) and yes, Dathan, yes he is! That's all I need to say!
Saturday morning bright & early we left at 9 for Sharon. Dathan MADE US stop at Dunkin Donuts---ok ok, it was our idea. They're everywhere out here so we decided to get a bite for breakfast and try it out. Not very healthy, but we'll work out later. But for the record, Dathan did SWAY us into getting Munchkins. Okay, for all you Non-Dunkin peoples...munchkins are super mouth gasmic donut holes pretty much. Oh, man! I'm sure pretty fattening, but hey, we needed to eat breakfast. We spent our day at the birthplace of Joseph Smith then spent the rest of the time right outside of Burlington, VE @ the creamery. We had a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Pelham, and was starving. We stopped in Montpelier, VE for dinner at Julio's Mexican Rest. I got fajitas. I thought that was pretty healthy and loaded with veggies. We all were so hungry cuz we had skipped lunch cuz we were on the go. While in the capitol of Vermont we got a free show: a lady was yelling at her boyfriend, a couple F words yelled back and forth, boyfriend gets out of car and slams door, car speeds off, car hurries and parks and lady looks for her boyfriend, then we looked behind us and the guy and girl were hugging! All in about 5 minutes. THEN, just when we were about to order our dinner, the lady walks in and sits at the bar telling her whole story to the bar tender. I thought I was in a movie! I had just witnessed some major drama! We got back to Pelham about 11:30 at night and went straight to bed.
We went to sacrament meeting with Dathan & Kel and the meeting was about patriarchal blessings. The church may be the same where ever you go, but the people are so different. The wife of the Patriarch spoke and in her talk she said "GO CELTICS" and talked about how they had great TEAM WORK! I laughed to myself. AND I TOTALLY AGREE with her! It's just different outside of Utah! That's all there is to it. We ended up heading back to home in Maine at about 5:30 after spending a fun day with family. What a great weekend! Thank you Dathan & Kel for spending your weekend with us and making it so much fun. We owe ya!
More fun weekends to come....NEXT?.....This weekend is Memorial Day. We're thinking the beach @ Booth Bay or Acadia National Park w/Bar Harbor. More pics to come! Love you All!

Date Night

Tree scenery

For our date night we decided to make a quick dinner at home and head to Waterville to check some fun stores out. We're trying to not eat out as much and so far it's working. Just crazy cuz there is no tax out here in Maine on groceries, so why not make our own dinners. So on our way this was our scenery. Waterville is about 20 miles from our house so takes about 15 minutes south.


Downtown Waterville. So we found a parking spot and saw all the cars thinking it'd be a busy Friday night. As we were walking down the sidewalk, we noticed everything was pretty much closed! It was so weird! We're used to things open until late hours of the night. The only store we found open was an organic foods store, but they were getting ready to close. We were stunned! Why so many cars with everything closed, well except for restaurants that is. We asked a lady who was walking in a hurry,...There's a dance recital REHEARSAL! That many people for just that?!!! We're still surprised. Obviously Waterville on a Friday night is not the hoppin place to be. While we were in Waterville we stopped at our favorite ice cream place Cold Stone and got some dessert and headed to good ol Wal-Mart.


I don't know if this is Maine or Wal-Mart ghetto....stone wash jeans! Really?!!!! Gotta love it right. I think the lady caught me taking this picture too so I had to hurry and take another one so it looked like I was taking one of Craig.


Here's the quick pic so we didn't get caught! Ha ha


This is a pic for Dathan! Look what Craig found at Wal-Mart.!!!!! Ha ha


Well that was our date night. We got a fan, baby gift for Kamryn, Jaycee a couch, and other needed items. Gotta love the relationship I have with Wal-Mart!!!! Thanks hun for a fun date night!

Skype it up!

It's Tuesday afternoon and I have no motivation! I really need to finish cleaning and exercise. I guess I'm gonna have to choose one or the other considering Craig gets off work in 30 min....hmm...exercise it is! Today I didn't have to take the missionaries to NH because they weren't getting transferred. That saved some time, but I did give them a ride to the library. I like helping those Sisters out. Then I spent the rest of the day talking on Facebook to Matt, Tina, Courtnie and Dalynne Skype with me for 1 1/2 hours!
I love my sister! She went and bought a laptop, got high speed internet, set up Skype, and working pretty much 5 days a week to try and fly her family out here in September! She shows me everyday in some way she cares. Rhett even drew us some pictures and mailed them. Which they are now on the fridge! Thanks Rhett :) Just want to tell Dalynne and Justin thank you for caring and loving our family! Keep in touch! And thank you for technology for making it all happen!

Chimi?

So I've been posting on Facebook something called "Chimi" it's a little inside joke, and I guess I'll let you in on the joke. The other day home from Lake George I was telling Craig how I'm so happy! I was telling him how love is so amazing once you found the perfect one. I compared my perfect love to eating a chimichanga! Ha Ha. It really was a good comparison. So since then I told him he's my chimi. So there ya go. My chimi is the best chimi I'll ever have and lucky to found the perfect chimi! he he

And so it begins....

We love Sundays!

Last night we watched "The Fourth Kind" Craig hated it, and it freaked me out. It got over about midnight, and I, Amanda, have an imagination and was scared to sleep. I'm always scared of the dark as it is. So we stayed up last night until 2 cuz Craig being a trooper watched "Yes Man" with me so I wasn't scared anymore. I kept asking him if he wanted to go to bed, and he said....This movie is so funny! Good purchase Aimee and Kyle...and Thank you!
Well we were feeling the effects of a late night this morning! At 8:00 I was not ready for waking up. But we had to be on time to church cuz our name was being called for our membership! So we leave our house at 945 and got to church right on time! It takes about 10 minutes to drive to church. As we walked in the door right before the meeting was to begin Brother Lowe pulled me aside for an interview. Here comes my calling! When he asked I was expecting Primary Pianist since I had been helping the Primary the past 3 weeks. I turned to Craig and said...it's not what you think. We got our membership read in and the next was my new calling. RELIEF SOCIETY INSTRUCTOR! Now I'll admit, this is gonna be a challenge for me. But I've been in Primary for 7 years and I'm excited to learn! I will be teaching on the 3rd Sunday every month. Wish me Luck! After church was over I got set apart. Craig's calling is soon to come! That's what Brother Lowe said :)
As I was sitting in Relief Society the Sister Missionaries told us they were on a Car Fast! I guess it's the mission president's way of discipline. I think at least. So they are going to be calling around for rides this week. On Tuesday morning at 845 in Manchester, NH is transfer meeting! And yes,....they need a ride. No one even showed interest in helping out so I volunteered. That means if they are getting transferred, I have to wake up at 5 to go get them in Newport then drive 3 hours to their meeting! I think it'll be fun. We'll receive blessings in return! They'll be calling me tomorrow if they need a ride. But I did find out on the way home they stop in Portland @ Costa Vida and they buy lunch for all the missionaries and their rides! Yay for free lunch!
We ended the rest of our day with naps, and then made cookies to take to our new friends who live so close...The Lowe family! They are Awesome! We have a lot in common with them. We ended up talking for a good hour while the kiddies played with Izzy. They even gave us some chives that grow in their yard! Crazy! We're already planning tomorrow is a play date at the park and gonna do a BBQ soon! On our way home we took a pan back to our neighbor Jackie who made us "Maine comfort food" and found out she will be gone Mon-Thur for a Bx on her lung. We hope everything goes okay and she'll be in our prayers!

We just love Sundays!

Lake George

COMING INTO THE PARK---LAKE GEORGE


PARKING LOT WALKING DOWN TO THE BEACH AREA


LAKE GEORGE!


IZZY PLAYING IN THE WATER---SHE WAS FETCHING STICKS. IT'S TOO BAD CRAIG DOESN'T DUCK HUNT CUZ IZZY WOULD RETRIEVE DUCKS SO WELL.


"CHLOE" FOR RACHAEL PRICE! :) THINKIN ABOUT YA!


TIME TO LEAVE...TOO MANY BUGS & FLIES...CRAIG SAID IT'D BE PERFECT FOR FISHING.

SATURDAYS=PLAY DAY!

The reason why I love doing the house cleaning in the week is so when Craig is off on Saturday we can take advantage of the day!
We woke up to go jogging...we both made goals to lose weight by December when we come to Utah. I have only 10 baby pounds to go!!! Bob & Jillian have been working my butt off! Well when we went to jog it was pouring rain and couldn't go. We'll make it up on Monday!
For Mother's Day Craig bought me Mario Brothers Wii! I'm addicted. The thing is not only do I love to beat the board, but I'm obsessed with getting all the gold coins. If you've played the game you know what I'm talking about. Craig and I worked on finding gold coins for seriously 2 hours!
In our little town of Pittsfield a main highlight is the library. Kleinschmidt donated $ and time for employees for an addition and upgrade on it. Today was the reopening ribbon cutting ceremony and Kleinschmidt employees were invited. We went there and walked around. I loved it. Such a cool, old, historical building. They have an awesome kiddie area! I can't wait to take Jaycee there. While we were there, a guy was outside (Big Bill) getting something off the sidewalk. We walked outside to look at what it was and there was a dead bat. Creepy! Gross!
Across the street was a little "restaurant on wheels" called Phoenix Cafe. We were curious about the food cuz a lot of people are there usually. We ended up eating lunch and ordered chimichangas for only $4.50. Pretty cheap! And yummy. While eating we were people watching and noticed: a lot of young Asians(MCI)---which is a really good school here---, people walking or riding bikes around town---it's almost rare to drive a car, and we noticed how beautiful this town is! We love it here!
At Craig's work he had a site visit to the Kennebec River in Skowhegan with Steve Reul. Steve had told Craig about a really nice lake not far away that people swim and fish at. So today we decided to go visit it. It took about 20 minutes to breath-taking views. It's a little early for the season so not many people were there. We bug-sprayed up and headed down to the water (It's black fly season right now and boy do they bite!) The sand at the lake is brought in from the ocean. So there is grass area, cabins, tennis courts, fishing--it is a lake...duh, and swimming area. I got in the water up to my knees. It was cold. we let Izzy in the water to play and fetch sticks. She loves that. After getting swarmed by bugs, we decided it was time to leave. Below are pics!....
We ended our Saturday with homemade sub sandwiches (we don't eat out very often anymore), getting tickets online for the Portland Seadogs game (Yay mom, dad, and maybe Dathan & Kel are going too), playing a bit of Mario Bro. (Craig did while I do this blog), and now watching a scary movie from Netflix. I love Saturdays!

Big Bill's Dollar Day

Don't ask how I got her to stick her tongue out. It's cute though. I love this pic. On our way...


Girls picture!


The Sebasticook River that we cross to get there. This river runs through Pittsfield


Smile Craig! The sky looks cool behind him.


Thanks to Grandma Phyllis and Auntie Dana, Jaycee is a pro at eating ice cream



Yummy :)


Messy girl


The chair we like to sit on. That's the whole experience is get ice cream and sit and relax


This is Big Bill's ice cream shop


As I was driving home from Waterville, I saw a sign outside of Big Bill's. $1 for ice cream. I told Craig right after dinner, found out they closed at 9, and we headed up for ice cream. Since we got bit the other day on our walk, we decided bug spray is a must! We sprayed up and headed for our walk to Big Bills. Let me remind you....Big Bill's is next to Craig's work, so only .4 miles. I love this town!