Simple Pumpkin Fun

I know this is the weekend for carving pumpkins and eating too much sugar, but I really don't like to cut my big pumpkin. I like it to last through Thanksgiving. So the kids and I compromised. We each got a small pumpkin (in addition to my big pumpkin and the white one hubby bought for me). I used my apple corer to make those perfect little polka dots.
They chose to paint theirs. Something their crazy mom said about bugs n such.

Here's the fam!

That's me with the fabulously long eyelashes.

What is your pumpkin tradition?

I love getting real mail. Especially if it looks like this:

Come to momma. It was a good day!

I actually won a fellow blogger's generous giveaway! Annette at Designs By a Rose hosted a giveaway that was ultra-sweet... I even got to choose what kind of gift card! The Target one was tempting, but I knew I'd end up spending it on groceries. So I chose the one card that I knew would be savored by every last sip.

I've enjoyed several Grande Non-fat Decaf Peppermint Mochas. My mouth is watering just typing. Would it be bad to load the kids up in the car in the middle of the day for a coffee run?

Thank you Annette!!!

Dear Faithful Reader,

I know you are surely tired of my vacation pictures, but, since this is my blog, I get to bore you reflect for one more day. Acadia National Park has to be one of the most beautiful places on God's green earth. Unfortunately, the first day of our visit it was more gray than green. Gray as in pouring rain and foggy. The previous night, we knew rain was in the forecast, so before we went to bed, we prayed as a family that the rain would hold off until morning so that we wouldn't have to break down camp and sleep in the car for the rest of the night. Our prayers were answered. It began raining at 6:15 am. We decided to go ahead and make a day of it and visit the park. Hubby and I enjoyed the drive, but unfortunately, we had promised the kids a hike.

But it was 45 degrees, raining and gusty. So we let the kids out of the car and told them to take a hike. Literally. They spent about 10 minutes battling the elements and we called it a day. I wasn't really complaining because I knew what was in store for the night: HOTEL

Twelve years later, and it is still one of our favorite spots in the world.

On our way home, we made a few more stops:

Nubble Lighthouse was our last stop in Maine.

Since it takes over 2 days of straight driving to get home, we decided to make one more "small" stop. Haha! I know, it was like a mini vacation within our vacation, but we like to make the most of it.

We visited 3 of the Smithsonian museums, and thanks to this burnished galaxy man, we took home a very happy little boy.
It was truly one of the best weeks of my life. Our family grew, laughed, bonded and peed in a bucket together. Would I trade it for a week of luxury? Not on your life. My memories are priceless.

My "Computer Class"

I had the pleasure of having dinner with 13 fellow bloggers on Saturday night. As you can imagine, putting a group of women whose common interest is wordage, was quite entertaining. Funny, we never had a single moment of awkward silence.

I didn't know that bloggers were so beautiful. When I say beautiful, I mean inside and out. A precious group of ladies.

From left to right: Tracey {NC Brownings}, Amy {Bambino Bliss}, Rachel {NC Rachel}, K2 {Secret Agent/Reader}, Heather {Life with the Lords}, Kristen {KR & Company}, Janel {Dandelion Dayz}, Susan {Carpool Queen}, Kellie {La Vida Dulce}, Jessica {Chubby Dove}, Sandy {Seasoned Sister}, June {Bye, Bye Pie}, Robin {Chosen} and moi!

I finally got to meet Kellie. She was the brainchild behind this shindig. And she did a diggity-dog good job of playing hostess. She even took the time to create a beautiful embroidered gift for each of us.

I ended up sitting next to June. Because of her continual hysterical comments, my side hurt from laughing.

See, even CPQ could hardly contain herself.

With a room full of bloggers, the flash photography was enough to recreate a lightening storm.

One of my favorite moments was meeting a new friend, The Chubby Dove. As you can see, she's not Chubby. But her blog sure has a cute name! We hit it off as soon as she walked in and didn't stop talking until it was time to leave.
Our meeting place was a cute little italian bistro. When the food came out, so did the cameras. The waitress surely thought we were crazy. But she didn't know that we were a group of super-cool internet I've-never-met-you-before kind of friends.

As I was heading out the door to for my evening out, my hubby asked if I needed to take my computer. No, I just need my camera was my response. When I got home I was giddy and told hubby that I was "in my happy place." He said, wow! you must have learned a lot in your computer class. Hunh? I guess our pre-evening communication was a little off. He thought I was going to a blogger meeting. Actually, I was going to meet bloggers and eat this:

Thanks, girls, for a fun-filled evening.

We're going to plan another one, so if you are a NC blogger/faithful reader, let me know.

Sunday Rest

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

The Maine Idea

If any state has it together, it is Maine. Everything there is aesthetically pleasing. There are no billboards, no annoying "open house" signs at every corner, and their Starbucks is the cutest in the world. After my night with the birds from hades, I took a walk on the wild side and ordered a Peppermint Mocha. With caffeine... something that I've been off of for several months.

After meeting momma's needs our breakfast treat, we strolled around Freeport, Maine. Not much is open at 7:50 in the morning except this place:
But after all, L.L. Bean is what Freeport is famous for. And their Canadian geese. Six blocks of L.L. Bean stores were open. We strolled a few, and then found the outlet. Did you know that with 3 kids and a shot of caffeine, you can do it all in 32 minutes flat?

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As CPQ says, "always eat local while on vacation."

I totally agree. 100%.

It isn't hard to do when this is the local fare:
New England clam chowda. This is not your Cambell's soup variety either. Every bite was creamy goodness.

It's also fun to try the local beverages. Old Soaker won my heart.
Hubby even bought a six pack for me to bring home. Some people buy magnets, I buy soda.

But let's be real. What is the creme de la creme of Maine?
Oh. Yes. And I enjoyed every single bite. The kids thought it was totally gross that he looks at you the whole time, but I wouldn't have cared if he introduced himself in a cute little French accent. I had driven 1,247 miles for this plate and I intended to take my time.

We had reached our furthest destination of the trip: Bar Harbor, Maine. It is the quintessence of New England coastal living.
I highly recommend this little town located on Mount Desert Island at the base of Acadia National Park. A tourist spot? Totally. Charming? Definitely. A must see.

It also turned out to be my favorite camping spot. Rustic without roughing it. (Aka: warm showers, clean toilets, and enforced quiet hours.) One of the things I really liked about this campground was the separation of tent sites and camper sites. Not that I don't like campers... in fact by this point in the trip I had camper at the top of my Christmas list. However, it was nice to have a quiet, natural setting.
When we arrived at the Bar Harbor Campground, I made nice with the lady at the office and casually asked her about wildlife. She laughed and said, "oh, honey, the only thing we have have around here is deer and squirrel." I think I let the words I love you escape my lips, but I did refrain from wrapping her in a bear hug.

Out of all the campgrounds I had scoped online, this was the one that I was most nervous about. 1.) They don't take reservations. 2.) Their website looks like something I could have designed (that's not much) 3.) When I called, the guy laughed and said I definitely wouldn't have trouble getting a site (later I found out that it isn't peak camping week, hence the laughter)

But it was cheap. And it was the closest one to the town. So we tried it.

I am SO glad we did. If you are ever going to Bar Harbor and need a place to camp, this is perfect. Check out the view:

The fall colors were at peak that week (1st week of October). It was cold, but not unbearable. I did sleep in my earmuffs and gloves, but I SLEPT. Like a baby. Without loud teenagers, honking geese, rabid dogs, or bears.

There and Back Again

Twelve years ago, before kids, my hubby and I took our first "real" vacation. We loaded up the car and drove. No reservations. No definite plans. Our final destination was Bar Harbor, Maine, but we took our time getting there. We visited places with funny names like Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, and Kennebunk.

One night we drove until it was almost dark. As we arrived in Freeport, Maine, we stopped and asked the locals about a place to camp. After following the directions and setting up camp in the dark we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. When we awoke the next morning, we found the most wonderful surprise. Our campsite was right on the coast of Maine.

Some things are worth doing again.

This year, our family vacation included a blast from the past: Recompence Shores

Check out the view from beyond our tents.

At low tide, the kids had a beautiful playground of nature

We had the entire peninsula to ourselves, which was so nice but would prove to be a problem for me.
We enjoyed several hours of exploring, pretending, and enjoying nature.
Just before sunset, we noticed a beautiful flock of Canadian geese that landed in the water (the little dots above the kids' heads in the picture). There were hundreds of them. This intrigued me because I've only seen maybe 20 or so fly together in the V pattern. I didn't know that many birds would hang out together.

Well, well, well, it seems that just like humans, geese get rowdy when the crowd gets big. As soon as the sun set they started getting restless. We laughed and joked about it as we enjoyed our s'mores. By bedtime it had turned to nervous laughter, as in hoping they quiet down soon haha kind of laughter.

As was our nightly ritual, we put out the fire, piled into one tent, played UNO by flashlight and then got ready for bed. Up until this point when we were actually in civilization the girls had slept in one tent, and the rest of us had slept in the big tent. Unfortunately, my oldest daughter and I figured out about the same timejust how remote of a place this was. She didn't want to sleep without a grown up and neither did I. Oh wait. I am the grown up.

There was no way to fit all 5 of us into one tent, so we drew straws. Okay, in reality, hubby doesn't fit in the little tent so he got to stay put. I volunteered to sleep with our 8 year old daughter, and nervous daughter got to stay in the "safe" tent with the boys.

I used the geese as an excuse of not being able to go to sleep, but my hunter-husband assured me that they would get quiet as they bed-down for the night.

I'm buying him a Hunter's Guide to Canadian Geese for Christmas.

Truthfully, I'm not really sure when geese sleep. Between the hours of 11pm and 5am they quarrel, bicker, fight, wrangle, feud, argue, squabble and mate. Loudly.

I'm thinking the boys from Pennsylvania should come hunting.

Since I couldn't go to sleep, I let my mind wander. It wandered to mathematical word problems such as:

1. If a family of 5 is located 3.2 miles from the nearest cell phone service and 1.6 miles from any other human being, how loud would they have to yell if a bear attacked their flimsy little tents in the middle of the night?

2. If a pack of wild dogs/coyotes (which I did, in fact hear) attacks a family of 5, what is the mathematical induction that there would be survivors, given that the only form of weapon is a 5 inch pocket knife?

3. How long would it take if a woman drove 5 miles to town, purchased a firearm, and illegally killed 472 Canadian geese?

I never thought I'd see daylight. If I did survive the night, I knew I would emerge from the tent with a head of white hair. Thank you, Jesus, for Revlon.

At one point, this conversation actually occurred between hubby and I:

Me: Psssst! Are you awake?

Him: Well, I am now.

Me: Did you hear those wild dogs?

Him: Yes

Me: What are we going to do?

Him: I'm going to go back to sleep

Me: I CAN'T sleep, I'm scared.

Him: Okay

Me: Will you go with me to the bathroom? (paint bucket at the tree line of our site)

Him: Yup

Me: I'm scared. I can't sleep. I'm going to sleep in the car.

Him: And leave our daughter in the tent by herself?

Me: Well..... I guess not.

Him: Here, you'll feel safer with this as he hands me the pocket knife

Really? Because those wild things will have to get within 5 inches for this to even be effective.

Back in the tent, I shake daughter awake.

Me: Do you want to go sleep in the car with me? It will be so fun!

Her: Why? Why do we need to sleep in the car if we are sleeping in the tent?

Me: Because I can't sleep, um, with those birds making all that noise.

Her: Sssnore

I'm really trying to be a good sport, but 2 out of 3 nights with barely a wink is stretching it. Would I go back to Recompence Shores? Yes. With a sound-proof tent and a 9mm.

The redeeming factors? The memories we made and photos like this:

We're only half way through our camping trip. So, stay tuned... ;)