NYC!

Today was our big city adventure. It took me the whole hour long drive to navigate for Amy and then figure out where to park that would match up with our hop on hop off bus adventure. 

We parked by the Guggenheim and made our way into Central Park for a bathroom break. Then, in “if you give a mouse a muffin” style, we were hungry so we got sandwiches from a little eatery, then Amy got drinks and snacks from Walgreens, and we walked back to the park to enjoy our lunch. Frankie is her papas granddaughter and ordered up a Reuben. She loves ‘em!

After a series of misadventures we finally made our way onto our bus. The blondes and I found seats up top and the rest were able to join us after a few minutes. 

I love a double decker bus tour!

We went uptown first. 

Then we switched busses for the downtown tour. 

We were pretty stoked when we got the whole back row to ourselves. That’s my fav seat because it sits up higher than all the rest. 

Broadway is getting ready to open back up! There was even a huge billboard that said “The Mormons are back!” The girls were very disturbed that Broadway would make fun of us, but I assured them it is ok and told them about the ad the Church took out in their playbill. 

Their faces when we drove into Times Square for the first time were priceless. 

We rode all through downtown, little Italy, Chinatown, the garment district, the whole thing. We even peeped the Statue of Liberty. 

There were lots of “from the movies” comments. 

I loved seeing the 9/11 memorials and am looking forward to visiting them one day. I can’t even believe it’s been 20 years. 

Frankie requested and took this shot. 

We had to duck under branches more than once. 

It was also a perfect weather day. 70°’s and overcast, we couldn’t have ordered a better day. 

Max requested I join him. 

We rode back to Times Square for some exploring. Oddly, no one even asked for an souvenir. The kids were so good today, it was such a nice day in the city. 

We went to a giant Krispy Kream and I was hoping to show them the cool donut conveyer belt, but it wasn’t running. 

We grabbed a quick dinner (after our donuts), and then walked 2 miles back to our parking. Our bus tour expired at 6:30 and we were out till 8:45. We walked over 9 miles and really only got complaints the last mile, and everyone knows that one is always the hardest. We had an easy drive home and the girls first ever day in NYC is a wrap!

This and that

On Sunday we went to the Yorktown Heights ward. There was an opera singer behind us, so that was awesome. Also, in a few weeks they’re going to have their old stake president and wife who are just back from their mission to England speak, and when they announced his name I recognized him from a book I read about a man from Connecticut and I thought how cool to be in that same stake. 

After church we went to a park and talked about all the big important things on the girls minds. These girls are insightful and good and want to be better each day. They fast willingly and were excited to go to church. I really love spending time with them. I had a 2:00 meeting with President Boyd, so we came home with a few minutes to spare. 

The girls moved into my room so now we’re 3 to my queen size bed and one on cushions on the floor. Surprisingly the bed situation hasn’t bothered me. I am changing as I get older, that’s for sure. 

Sandy whittles her fancy pencil for me to keep score for Skull King. She’s hilarious. 🙄😂

Sunday night it rained hard and we found a few ceiling leaks. Buying a new house can be so stressful.

Monday brought lots of calls and waiting for workers. The kids and I did some trail maintenance and then Kristi and I stayed with the kids while Amy and sandy went shopping. Sandy loves driving the jolly green giant which is so funny because she’s so old. She said she loves being up so high. 

Today I tutored and then took the kids to their new little library. They each picked a pile of books and then we checked out their new school. 

After lunch we went to a Pirate Escape Room that was my least fav one I’ve done and that we just barely failed. Then she couldn’t even tell us what we missed and what we would have found. Lamest. We got Chinese for dinner and we’re all ready to hit the city tomorrow!

43

Friday was a quiet day. We slept well and did laundry and put things away and showered. Amy hung lights, Sandy bought a fire pit, and Adi put it together so we had a lovely evening outside complete with the s’mores we didn’t have while camping.

We played games till just before midnight and I caught exactly midnight on my 43rd birthday. 

AMC sent me a free popcorn and movie for my birthday, so we went ahead and took advantage of it. Amy and i saw Old from M. Night Shyamalan and in spite of the dumb dialogue and some unnecessary gore (the spider scene 🙄), it was super thought provoking and has lead to many discussions. We had seen a preview when we saw Black Widow, so the girls were interested to hear about the movie. 

We went to the movies in Port Chester, so we checked out their little water front and did some shopping there. Sandy made chicken cutlets for dinner and I got sweet cards from all the kids. It was a good quiet birthday because really the trip to Maine was my gift. 

Meanwhile Matt, my dad, and the elders got together for hot dogs and car washing. The elders had come over a few times before we left and now have come over a few times since we’ve been gone. We so missed hosting them during Covid!

Speaking of Covid. All the sad faces. The Delta variant is bad and Covid numbers are way up again. We’ve been masking indoors for awhile, and more places are requiring masks again. I’m so bummed to be back in this spot and praying things don’t get worse. 

Mainely

First of all, the very first town we drove through in Maine had a “Maine Street” instead of plain old “Main Street,” and we’d hoped every town did that, but no. Many did, and that extra E was incorporated in many cute business names. Sad missed opportunities for those that didn’t use it.  

Our last day in Maine found us still not having eaten a Maine lobster and we headed out to remedy that situation first thing. Also, that night was sooo cold and Amy and I got a terrible nights sleep because we just had 2 blankets, which were fine the first 2 nights but not the 3rd. I tried to cuddle with her but she wasn’t really into it. Cold camping is so miserable! The kids were all snug as bugs in warm rugs in their nice sleeping bags.

But back to lobster. 

We had seen this cute little lobster shack and since we really just wanted to share one lobster roll and we aren’t fancy, we stopped there. Q and D both got stuffed lobsters as souvenirs and requested pics at our lobster shack. 

That little sandwich there is the most expensive little sandwich I have ever bought. That is a $30 sandwich! $35 with the tip because I def needed someone to walk it from the window over to me. When he gave me my total Amy and I whipped our heads to the menu, but of course they don’t list prices. I had to clarify that I just wanted the one lobster roll. He said “you don’t order lobster much, do you?” And we laughed and laughed. I’m glad we tried it and also I don’t think I’d need to try it again. 

The car ride home got crazy when max and Delaney started a dance party. 

After awhile I let them play games on the iPad and it was cute watching them work together. 

We checked out Portland on our way home. First stop - The Holy Donut. 

We had read that was the place to go in Portland. They only had coconut left, and they were delightful. 

We drove through their downtown but it was starting to rain and everyone was kind of tired, so we called it a driving tour and carried on. I did manage to squeeze in this cute little Bug Light. 

They modeled it after a Greek monument, isn’t she cute?!

Adi was our photog. 

And then we spied this little cutie behind her. I always love 2 lights for the price of 1. 

That is Spring Point Ledge LH and we could have walked out to see her too, but it was actually raining by this point, so we didn’t. 

Amy took the rest of the kids back, but Adi, my frizzy hair, and I stayed out for a few minutes. 

It’s so sad to visit lights and not be able to go inside!

Goodbye for now, Bug Light. 

SPLL also has a working beacon, so I had to grab a pic of the light on. 

We hit loads of traffic and it made our drive home feel very long. Our dinner plan was also very fluid. I wanted to get some pizza we’d had when we visited the Streeter’s a few years ago, but then decided I didn’t want to add unnecessary time on to our drive. We had pulled in to a Chicfila and just to check I looked at how far Woosters was, and it was only 8 minutes away. We decided to be adventurous, but our first foray took us to the wrong address, so that was added fun. We finally found it and it was in the cutest little mini warehouse food court with adorable outside seating with lights. Seriously perfect group date night spot. 

I sent this to Darlaina and I was so excited! Skippey’s Dare pizza has peanut butter and bacon and it was SO good at the Streeter’s. So we got a large pizza and…. not as good as I remembered. In fact, kind of hard to eat because it had so much pb. Maybe I got the wrong one? So sad. 

We ate in a little room upstairs that was perfect for social distancing and also for loud and rowdy kids that have been traveling all day.

We got home around 10 and unloaded the essentials and got to bed. Maine was stunning and I am definitely in love. I can’t wait to go back!

Bar Harbor

I didn’t feel like we could go to Maine without going to Bar Harbor, so on Wednesday we got up and drove an hour and a half up there.

Our 8 person tent was chock full of our 7 people. 

On the way up to Acadia I managed to snag the last parking spot for Cadillac Mountain.

I have wanted to go to Acadia National Park forever, but thanks to Jen Hatmaker for the Cadillac mountain rec. it did not disappoint. 

It was windy and just a smidge chilly on the mountain. 

But so beautiful and we all loved climbing all over the pink granite rocks. 

Silly shot. 

That’s Bar Harbor behind us, the 5 little islands down there. 

This is another one I want to come back to to see the first sunrise in the US. That’s only from October to March though, so we didn’t worry about arriving that early. 









These 2 had to do some sun bathing in their hoodies. 

I was not on my timer pictures A game. 

See?

Our Rockette performance needs some work too. 

Adi’s panorama. 

We drove to another spot and got some silly pictures while Amy and Quinn ran back to the car. 

Laney requested this silly one. 

I love these girls. Being house guests isn’t always easy and we’ve had loads of long talks. These girls are trying hard to be the best people they can be. 

Nerd lineup. 

After that we drove down into Bar Harbor in search of lunch. We drove around for a long time looking for parking. We checked several different lots and finally found street parking. We were close to giving up on our pursuit because it was so crazy busy. 

We settled on lunch at this Route 66 Diner and had to send some pics to papa. 



Monkey see, monkey do. 

And we were off to explore!

Delaney picked a Maine lobster for her souvie and I just couldn’t say no. 

Cute little Christmas shop. 

Sadly we didn’t see any moose in Maine. 

After everyone got their souvenirs and sweatshirt and hats and magnets, we headed down to the water. We got distracted by Maine’s Oldest Bookstore where we had to buy a Maine picture book. 

My favorite part of Bar Harbor was the waterfront. 

The shopping wasn’t actually as cute as I wanted it to be and there were lots of people, but this view made up for it. 

A photog of the photog. And also we all need our hair trimmed. 

D was fascinated by then lowering the sails. 

I texted my childhood bestie happy birthday and sent her a picture of Amy and I. A little bonus gift for her. 😂

We drove back home and stopped in Camden to check out their cute downtown. 

Mini doors, amiright?

I wanted to get the cute downtown but we have so many big heads that we took up most of the picture. 

It was a full day of beautiful Maine sights. I am smitten.