A walk in the woods

I love that it is spring, and that the bugs haven't come out yet! We can go for walks in the woods and not get eaten alive!!

Saturday Chats at DD and Meech Creek

Today was the quarterly event at Designer Digitals, where everything was 30% off and they had chats going all day. I managed to make it to quite a few of them as we was home with the girls doing laundry and other stuff around the house. The weather was beautiful so we did spend a good amount of time outside too, don't worry!!

I did the following two layouts for a couple of the chats:

Click layouts for credits

After we had naps and snacks in the afternoon, we took advantage of the warm weather and not bugs and went for a walk down the Meech Creek Valley. I've posted photos from here before, but this time was with kids!

Heading out with two determined kids
(not as determined on the the return trip,
they probably heard "let's go girls" about 100 x)

Also the first day in shorts!
She learned quickly that when you fall,
you scrap your knee.

I love this one of Gillian!

Our destination-the small bridge over
Meech Creek. A great swimming hole, that only
Bender got to try today!

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and be much cooler. We have swimming in the morning and we'll head over to the in-laws for dinner in the afternoon.

Hope you all enjoyed the nice weather today (if it was nice where you were!)

Another day at home, with Gillian this time.

This is how the morning went. I got up, ready for work, left with coffee in hand, drove to work, turned my computer on. Then Eric called to say Gillian had thrown up. So I put my coat back on, grabbed my purse, left with coffee still in hand, and drove home. She was basically fine for the rest of the day, but I wanted to be sure. Eric had too much work to do, so I went home, as I have no work to do right now.

So here is what you do with a day off with Gillian:

play on the couch

yell at Bender to sit, in "baby talk"
(notice her right finger)

Climb on the fireplace

climb up and sit on the table

Play Mr. Potato Head

Sit around and look beautiful

Random Gillian Notes from Today:

She is a busy girl, but a lot of fun. She fell asleep in my bed for the first time, which was really cute. And loved to cuddle. She can say a few words, that really only we can understand. She loves to colour. She is VERY determined, and likes to do what she wants to do. She is very agile, when running, climbing outside and chasing the dog (for a 21 mo old anyway).

Is it Wed?

It's my Mom's Birthday today! Happy Birthday MOM!!! Here she is with Abby looking at photos.



It's been a busy week... taught/took 5 spinning classes, working all week and we have Eric's Christmas party tomorrow night.. wow will I ever be tired on Saturday. 3 of us are sick also, started with me, coughing, went to Gillian, now Abby came down with it today... I hope she doesn't break out into a fever. I guess it's the start of cold and flu season.

I took this photo last week, but never posted it.

Off to bed.. blog more on Friday, since tomorrow we are out.

Some photos to share.

I'm too tired to write about the weekend, so I'll just share a few nice photos I took with my new camera (which I love soooo much!!)

Uncle Art was up for a visit
I just love the expressions on everyone's face in this one.

We tried to get the two of them together, unfortunately
the cheering crowd was not standing beside me! So they
are looking the wrong way!

Gillian

Almost looks like a mug shot??...but I thought it was a neat one.

Employing the "Close your eyes, then OPEN" technique.
you would have thought it was the "close your mouth, then OPEN" technique!
Cute none the less!

I have more, but I'm going to bed...

Maine part two

I left off at:

July 23rd, 2008

WOW, a sunny day!! Look, is that shadow I see:




Since it was sunny, we were again at the beach around 8:00 am. On this day we actually had to put sunscreen on the girls! It did get a little cloudy at one point but generally it was a beautiful day, so we spent a good long time at the beach in the morning. It was much more crowded this day, which made things a little more complicated with Gillian. She kept eying people's beach chairs and then would try and climb up on them... I would whisk her away screaming at me because she wanted to sit in a chair!

Abby had a great time playing in the sand, running around on the beach and hopping waves with me:

Playing on the sand castle
(diaper is on for a reason....)

This is when the tide was out.

Digging a hole... fun!

The beach was pretty quiet when we got there

We had sand for lunch

We had lunch at the beach - which was basically sand covered sandwiches and apples, luckily the girls are at an age where eating sand does not phase them! Around 11:00 Gillian was starting to get pretty cranky, so it was time to pack up and head back for nap time. During nap time, I would sleep too, while Eric went for a run, so it was nice to relax for a minute.

It was time for lobster so that afternoon we went to O'Rilley's to pick up some lobster and Sandborns for some giant scallops.


It was so yummy! The meat in the lobster was pretty small, but still excellent. I wish we could have had more. Abby was fascinated by the lobster and wanted to play with it, but of course, wanted nothing to do with eating it!!

July 24th, 2008.

It was another cloudy day, so we decided to go for a drive. We were thinking of going to a zoo in York, but it wasn't opening until 10:00 am and looked a little pathetic, so we decided to have breakfast in Ogunquit. I had stayed there as a kid and it was a cute little seaside town with lots of little shops. The problem was that there were millions of people too! It was nuts. The beach there is big and long, so I think that is why it's so popular. After eating we walked down to the beach for a short visit but didn't stay to swim or hang out.

Notice Gilly's new little shoes!

So cute!

Unfortunately, when we were heading home for their naps, the rain started! It had been cloudy the whole time, with sporadic rain showers throughout the week, but on this day it started for good. We spent the rest of the time either in the condo, walking around Kennebunkport or in the indoor pool. And while we were having a great time at the beach, we were not having too much fun inside. So after a couple days of it, we decided to pack it in a day early and drive home, with a stay in Stowe VT.

It was a good decision, because the girls were getting really tired, and we were too, thus tempers running a little short for everyone. But when we arrived it Stowe, it was like a weight lifting. We were halfway home, in a place that felt like home and the sun came out for us on Friday the 25th. We did a quick tour, checking out Nana and Bigdad's old house (available for $525,000):

Visited a real estate agent for fun, had some ice cream (unfortunately not Ben and Jerry's!! Which is just outside the town, but in the wrong direction), went to our favourite art store, the Stowe Craft Gallery, which make the COOLEST games tables in the world!! (this photo doesn't do it justice)
And then took off for home. We drove through the Notch and drove through rivers on the way home:

Lots of figgin' rain = flooding

All while the girls had their best "car sleep" of the trip
They were out for a couple of hours.

All in all it was a good trip, a little tireing, but glad we did it. Gillian is still trying to recover, she has been falling asleep at the table everyday at lunch... so we've been putting her to bed really early! Abby had fun, she loved the beach and is still trying to get sand out of her ears! We truly thank Den and Alexi for lending us their condo for the week! They are so lucky to have a place like that!

A few videos in parting:

The first day at the ocean:




This is Gillian eating some sand:

Maine the recap...

So Maine... we went from July 19th to the 25th. Our trip started with a one day driving marathon from Chelsea to Kennebunkport, Maine . It was a long 9 hour trip, that in retrospect should have been done it two days! Abby was easily entertained, with surprise bags I had prepared for her, books, food and drinks. Gillian, on the other hand, was not so easily entertained. When we'd stop to stretch the legs, and change a diaper, she would scream and fight being put back into the car seat. Do we blame her? NO, I would two if I was one year old and strapped into a car seat unable to move for hours!! So we didn't do any sightseeing, except for Eric's "kid in the candy shop" stop at the New Hampshire State Liquor store!!

July 20th, 2008

Upon arrival, the girls test out the furniture!

We arrived in Maine around 4:00 pm and had to stock up with provisions, so I went in search for a grocery store - the only thing within reasonable distance was the little general store in Cape Porpoise. After dinner We went in for a little swim to try and calm the girls down a little, gave them their bath and put them to sleep for the first time in the same room. Not a problem for Abby, since she shares a room at daycare, and at first OK for Gillian too. Unfortunately that first night she woke up for a couple of hours, crying and sad because I think she didn't know where she was. The condo didn't have blinds on the windows, so it was much brighter than what they are used to at home.

On a side note, we were staying at our friends condo near Goose Rocks Beach (see map). It was a cute little two bedroom place with access to both indoor and outdoor pools, and gym and games room, which we used a lot because of the rain.

On our first official day there, we decided to hit the beach! Goose Rocks Beach was fantastic. The sand was so soft and fun to play in, and when the tide was out, the space was great for Gillian and Abby to run free in!

Abby discovers the beach!

It was a perfect place for Gillian to run free

After a few spills in the water... they got n-ak-ed!

She loved the water!
She also loved the sand!!
Gillian protecting our sand castle... you go girl!

Love this shot!

As you have undoubtedly noticed, it wasn't exactly sunny. But we were lucky to have had at least a couple of rain free hours at the beach with the girls, and moments after we started packing up, the skys opened up and it poured!

Here comes the rain...

That afternoon we spent eating fried clams in Kennebunkport, and swimming in the indoor pool!

July 21st, 2008

Unfortunately the second night spent at the condo was a sleepless one as Gillian once again decided that she couldn't sleep from 12:00 am to 3:00 am, and still woke up at 5:30!!! So we were progressively getting more and more tired. But in order to make the best of it, and being up so early, meant getting to the beach early and getting a prime spot (as we were the only family on the beach -- all others were the early morning joggers!)

Day two provided us with a little more sun, but really only glimpses of it from time to time!


Again, the rain hit so we rushed home - which was fine, it was usually time for lunch and naptime by them!

July 22nd, 2008

We decided to go to Kittery, for some outlet shopping on the Tuesday, since it was raining again and we thought that it would be a good plan to shop on the not-so-nice day. It was good, I finally bought Gillian a couple pairs of shoes at the Stride Rite shop as well as some cute clothes for the girls. Eric bought some nice clothes and I got myself a raincoat and some stuff from J. Crew. All in all it was a good, quick, shopping trip to Kittery!

Stay tuned for the continuation of the Maine Recap... as it only gets more and more exciting from here!! I'm off to bed!!