What I am Thankful For....Travel Version

I am thankful for:
1. a van that will hold an enormous amount of stuff
2. coffee
3. iPods
4. mother nature provided clear skies and no bad weather for the travel days
5. my own bed with my electric blanket
6. visiting family that you haven't seen in a long time
7. lots of good food

8. watching cousins play
9. diet Dr. Pepper

10. fabulous in-laws
11. Taco Johns

12. a van that can play DVDs at the push of a button

13. the Disney movie Cars ("ightning mckeen" and "mater")

14. multiple bathrooms

15. a fantastic brother and sister-in-law (Kayla you rock, even with a nasty cold)

16. a fourteen year old nephew that chose to stay with his family instead of go to a movie with his friends

17. Spencer NOT falling down the stairs and requiring a trip to the ER

18. Spencer NOT breaking anything from all of the balls thrown in the house

19. casual pictures

20. Spencer learning LOTS of new phrases, "AHHHH, MAN"

21. an awesome house-sitter

22. an oil-less fryer

23. a husband who braved the 14 degrees to cook the turkey

24. pumpkin pie

25. two happy, wagging tails to greet us at the door and who showed their love

Packing

When we are getting ready to go on a trip, I tend to annoy the living daylights out of my family. I get stressed, very stressed. Adding to that stress is trying to pack for a 2 year old. One which requires an insane amount of extra things. So, there I sat in his room carefully planning out his outfits for the week. As I laid them into the suitcase, in went Spencer. He decided he was going to help me pack.
He decided that his goal was going to be plan out the number of diapers he would need for the week. So, in went his little arm into the drawer and he began to bring me diapers. I brought them into the next room where is diaper bag was and began to pack. He on the other hand, had a different idea.

He decided to line them up all in a row.

After this shot was taken, he added about 5-6 more on both ends. He eventually moved the laundry baskets and the magna-doodle out of the way in order to squeeze more in. He was VERY proud of himself.

After the packing, he worked up an appetite, so he decided to feast on some chips and salsa. Ah, can't find good help these days.

A Great Arm

Out of the hundreds of toy options that Spencer has, his favorite is a ball. Any kind of ball. He is simply fascinated by them. He has no qualms about throwing them either. He will throw them in the house or outside. He will throw small ones, medium ones, large ones and balls he can't pick up he will kick. If it isn't a ball, but it can be thrown like one, it will be.

Upon picking him up from daycare one of the dad's comments to me was, "he has a really good arm! I have never seen someone so young that can throw like he does." Great compliment right? My response was, "Do you know how many times he gets put in a corner everyday for throwing?" Unfortunately, it is true. Timeouts don't work. The nose in the corner works for a bit, but not long. The boy doesn't get it or simply doesn't care. He is going to throw anything and everything that resembles a ball.

This weekend's paper was filled with the toy catalogs from Target, Walmart and Toys R Us. I thought it would be fun to start looking through them for ideas for Spencer. I sat at the table with sharpie at hand ready to circle away. I came across a Weeble set. Cute, age appropriate...wait, he would throw the weebles. Nope. Every possibility that I came across, my mind immediately looked for the parts that could and would be thrown. Our wish list was limited to books, a sit and spin and legos. Legos technically can and will be thrown, but since he actually builds and stacks them, I let that one slide. I did find the perfect gift for him..... a nubby sensory ball.

A Very Dark Halloween

We started the afternoon cooking a big pot of chili. About 5:15 the power went out. We decided to go ahead and get the kids ready, hoping that the power would come back on. Spencer was hysterical when we tried to put on his puppy costume. He ran in terror, so we improvised with regular clothes and he went as a golfer.
Madison was not trick-or-treating this year, but wanted to hand out candy with her best friend Alexis. So Madison was the patient and Alexis was the doctor. They were hilarious!

We took off trick-or-treating while we still had some daylight and after about 1 block, we headed home. It was simply too dark. No street lights, no porch lights, the only light was flashlights or some lighted candles. It made things very difficult.

Spencer has already figured out the candy thing. The candy bowl is now on the top of the refrigerator: out of sight, out of mind. All in all, not a very good Halloween.

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.