Teenager in the House

It is official, we have a teenager in the house. Madison turned 13 the day we were traveling back from New England, so there wasn't a lot of hubba-ba-loo that day. We had a small party on Saturday night. She invited three friends over and I took them to see the movie Secretariate. CAUTION - SIDETRACKED - GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Anyway, the girls loved the movie and I enjoyed watching them sit on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the horse won the triple crown. They were shocked and amazed at the end of the movie when I told them it was a true story. They all loved it.
We came back and had some cake (um, yeah, the BEST cake - chocolate mousse from La Baguette. The girls played Wii and I of course took photos (no they are not posted here). Below are some interesting facts (13 to be exact) about our wonderful daughter, Madison Jo.

1. Favorite Movie: Secretariate
2. Favorite Food: Smoothies
3. Favorite Color: Purple
4. Favorite Song: You Think You're Cooler Than Me
5. Favorite Musical Artist: Ke$ha
6. Favorite School Subject: Reading (no surprise on this one)
7. What she does in her spare time: Playing Zelda, Wizard101, Reading, Playing guitar/clarinet, writing stories/books
8. Best Friends: Alexis, Jamie, Abby and Bailey
9. Favorite Outfit to Wear: red cami, gray and black striped shirt with angel wings (rhinestones) and jeans (oh, don't forget the jewelry)
10. Book she is reading now: The Rescue, Book 3
11. Where she would like to go on vacation: Kings Island (Ohio) or Sea World (San Antonio)
12. Who she admires and why: "My best friends, because we stick up for each other and they are like no other friends that I have had"
13. The thing she likes most about herself? "That my style is different than others and it makes me unique"
    

I love my girl and am very proud of her.

New England Day 5: Massachusetts

Today we headed south to Massachusetts. We first made it to Salem. I really wanted to go to the memorial for those that died during the Salem Witch Trials. The traffic was horrible and as we soon realized, visiting Salem two weeks before Halloween was insane. The town is creepy to begin with and then you add in all of the townfolk who dress up (WEIRD, CREEPY, dressup). They all get into character and parade around town celebrating witchcraft and witches. This is really sad when the whole point was that the women and men really were NOT witches. Okay, promptly left Salem and headed to Glaucester (pronounced Glostah).
Gloucester is most well known for the location for the movie The Perfect Storm. We visited the Fisherman's Memorial, which was very cool and the Fisherman's Wife Memorial. The town itself is a blue collar fishing town. This is also where Kayla (my sister-in-law) and I split a lobster. This was the first time I have had lobster and especially the first time cracking one open. I can say that I have done it, I don't know if I would do it again - kinda gross. We could see a very beautiful stone church, so we decided to check it out. It is named St. Anne's. GORGEOUS!
We headed to Rockport after Gloucester and did some great shopping and of course took pictures of some fabulous scenery.
Rockport is much more sophisticated and artsy, so the shopping really was good.

Fisherman's Memorial

St. Anne's church in Gloucester.

Inside of St. Anne's church.

Gloucester's Town Hall.

Really cool door along the streets of Gloucester.

Church in Gloucester.

Motif #1 in Rockport Harbor, Massachusetts.

Boats tied up in Rockport Harbor.

Gateway to a home in Rockport.

LONG DAY!

New England Day 3 & 4: Throw out the GPS.

Yesterday was icky!!! The winds were horrible and the rain was constant, so we didn't do anything exciting during the day except buy two winter hats. We did make it to the Museum of Art yesterday and got to see a Monet and Renoir.
Today started out much better. We set out to see some lighthouses and anything that was interesting along the way. We tried to use the GPS, but realized it wasn't worth it because we kept finding things and go a different direction. So, we just drove, with no time schedule and no particular schedule (SOOOOO not me).
We stopped at Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth. This is an active lighthouse and it is the only one that you can go into.

The Portland Head Lighthouse is the most famous lighthouse. The rocks surrounding the lighthouse make for some pretty fantastic photographs. Yesterday during the Nor'Easter, the waves were crashing 30-40 feet into the air.

The next stop was Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse also in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. This was off the beaten path a bit, so a lot less traffic. On top of the rocks was a really cool worn down brick building, which made a really cool backdrop for some pictures.

I took a picture of these cattails because they seemed so perfect.

This is the Irish Heritage Center in downtown Portland. I absolutely love the architecture. The steeples are amazing, the doors were large and wooden. This place was just really neat.

This is a church in Kennebunkport. I LOVE the clock on the top of this. This whole church is just beautiful.

My favorite location thus far. This is an old, hand laid stone Episcopal church on the coast of Kennebunkport. The sunset was hitting this stones and it was just magnificent.

This is the door to the church, the round, hardwood door with the metal hinges and cross are amazing.

Sunset on the beach of Kennebunkport. Ahhhhh.

I will be posting MUCH more tomorrow. I have a ton more pictures from today, but don't have time to get them all uploaded. We haven't been in bed before midnight this entire trip.

Are You Ready For This?

WARNING: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN. So, with the Nor'Easter approaching quickly, we decided to cram in as much as we could today, since we might be stuck inside for a couple of days. Needless to say, everything we saw today was like watching a movie scene. I hope you enjoy looking at these; I had fun taking them.

Early morning on Atlantic Coast Wells, Maine

Old concrete bridge in Wells, Maine

Nature preserve between Wells and Kennebunk

Driving to Kennebunk

Kennebunkport, summer home of George W. Bush

Portland Head Lighthouse, Cape Elizabeth Maine

Harbor seal pup

Halloween truffles bought along the pier in Portland.

Earthquake and a Nor'Easter

I left Oklahoma City this morning at 8:55am and within 10 minutes there was a 5.1 earthquake. Not a good thing to see on my cell phone when I landed in Kansas City. Needless to say, I was a tad bit shaken up. Spencer's daycare was okay besides the building and windows shaking.

We made it to Wells, Maine tonight and the fall foilage is spectacular. The town is quaint, cozy and not much was open at 7:30 for dinner. We are headed out first thing in the morning to catch the sunrise before the Nor'Easter hits tomorrow night. YEP, what luck we have. A full blown Nor'Easter is going to slam the Atlantic coastline and beginning Thursday night through Saturday we can expect high winds (blowing all the leaves off - BOO HOO), power outages, coastal flooding and rain. Our plan tomorrow is to get in as much photography as we can.

This quaint little town is completely decked out for Halloween. TONS of pumpkins and mums. These are no ordinary pumpkins, they are HUGE. These are outside of our hotel.

So off to bed to get about 6 hours of sleep until the sun comes up.

Photoshoot Practice

I have been wanting to get some practice with my camera and using the manual settings, so my good friend Christina let me take pictures of her daughter Haley. I learned a lot. The first thing was something very simple, Haley NEVER stopped moving. This posed a challenge for me, but I soon figured out which setting to leave my camera set to. All in all, I got some good pictures of her.
This shot was after Haley had been running for about an hour. She paused on one of the little benches, enough time for me to snap this.

This is my favorite shot of her.

I love the ornery look on her face.

This was a second best picture for me. She was just so happy to running wild.

Still running.

Just Push Play

Play time.