Swinging in the Park

Weekend in Maine

(Picture stolen from someone on Facebook that I don't know. Shh.)

Thursday afternoon we hit the road as soon as Trevor got home from work and arrived at Briana's right around midnight.  Thankfully Maxwell slept most of the way - he is a traveling champ!  After dropping me and Maxwell off, Trevor drove the rest of the way to Orono for Alumni Band at the homecoming football game.  What a crazy kid - I'm sure he was exhausted, but it sounds like he had a blast.  Here he is drumming away on Saturday. 

(Picture stolen from Tavia's Facebook ... Thanks Tave!)

Maxwell and I spent the morning with Bri & Iz, and then headed to Tave's for lunch with her and Aunt Bonnie.  SO good to see them all, and of course I didn't take a single picture.  Tavia made THE best butterscotch cookie bars.  It's probably best that I do not ask her for the recipe, since I am on a junk-food-hiatus until Thanksgiving.  Ugh.  Wii Fit is right, I really need to shape up .....

Saturday evening, Briana drove me and Max up to Freeport where we met up with Dad to take us the rest of the way to Union.  Saturday night we pretty much just crashed.  Well, everyone except Maxwell ...  He was too excited to finally be at Gramma and Grampy's house to settle down.  It wasn't long before he had us all worn out.  Here's Maxwell entertaining Grampy, while Nellie lays beside them feeling quite neglected.

After Sunday meeting a few people stayed for lunch and Bananagrams, and of course more entertainment from Maxwell.  He really is on his best behavior when there are lots of people around.  He tends to be a lot fussier when he's just home alone with me - apparently I am boooorinnnnggg.  He is a social butterfly, just like his daddy.  He loves to be in the spotlight and just ham it up!   

Monday, Aunt Pammy came over for lunch and Maxwell snuggles.  Aunt Darlene, Uncle Mahlon, and Carol Lee stopped by that afternoon.  Max is a pretty popular guy.  I guess that's what happens when you're super cute and then you move far away ... whenever you make an appearance, no one wants to miss it!!

Gramma did not mind one bit giving him all the attention he needed and more this weekend.  I'm not sure how Maxwell will be able to wait until Thanksgiving to see her again!  I had fun this weekend trying out the camera on my new iPhone.  I feel like I've finally entered the 21st century now that I no long have a flip phone.  Trevor is enjoying his too, just a tad ..

Tuesday morning we headed out bright and early to hit the road for home.  We hit a few snafus on the way* but eventually we made it home and tumbled into bed.  Now I feel like I need a vacation to recover from our vacation!  PHEW!  Thanks for an awesome weekend Mom & Dad!!  Miss you already and can't wait for Thanksgiving.  :o)

*Traveling Snafus:

1) Got 6 miles down the road and realized we left 3 bottles in the fridge.  Oops, we kinda need those ...

2) Had to stop mid-trip for an oil change when the "check engine" light came on and the car started heaving.  

3) Came upon a deer standing in the middle of the highway, at night, while traveling at about 75mph.  Almost peed my pants.

Trevor Gets Stuck On The Roof

At about 6 o'clock this evening, I noticed two girls peaking through our front door.  I answer the door, wondering if it's Girl Scout Cookie Season already.  "Um, hi, there's some guy on the roof and he said to tell his wife to come talk to him ..???"  I laughed and thanked them, and headed out front to see what Trevor needed.  Yes, I knew he was on the roof, so that part didn't surprise me.  I figured he wanted me to toss up a snack or something.  But, rather than continue writing my own blog post about today's adventure, I've copied and pasted Trevor's own words from Facebook.  Partly because I'm lazy, and partly because first-hand accounts are always best.

So, we want to watch TV in our bedroom, but we can't get any reception inside since our house in brick. Then I realize that there's a giant antenna on our roof! Awesome! I can just bring a cable up there and hook up to that (it's our landlord's, so we're not stealing it from anyone). Great, so now all I have to do is climb out of the attic window onto the roof, shimmy up the front, and down the back side to the chimney where the antenna is attached. Well the window is pretty tiny, so I almost didn't fit out in the first place. Plus, the front of the roof is really steep (about 60 degrees from horizontal). About 3/4 of the way up I thought, "I don't know if I'll be able to get back down from here." But I had come that far and wasn't going to give up before I saw what was what. The back of the roof is much less steep (about 30 degrees), so I had no problem back there. Except I got to the antenna and realized that it's at least ten years old and all the wires connecting it had been cut! As in, there was no way I could connect my coaxial cable. It was at this point when I climbed back to the peak and looked down the front of the roof that I realized this story only had one of two endings: either I'm going off the front into the maple tree (a la Chevy Chase or Tim Allen), or I'm waiting for the next person to wander by my house to ask them to tell Ashley that I was stuck. I chose the latter, and ended up climbing down the ladder provided by the fire company. Of course, all the neighbors saw the fire truck pull up and came out to see what was going on. Ashley went around assuring them that everything was fine, "My husband's just stuck on the roof." She got some good pictures, too, so you should all check them out.

Visit from Gramma

Mom is here (finally) and I am soaking up every second!  Yesterday we wandered around TJMaxx and Wal-Mart (oh yeah, we're classy), with Maxwell being a little angel in his stroller.  He took a couple catnaps, but mostly just gazed up in amazement at all the drool-worthy items we were debating buying.  I got a lovely canister for my coffee; I'm quite enamored with it.

Today is beautifully sunny and chilly - the perfect weather for strolling around town.  We'll probably walk over to the Dickinson campus, check out the shops on Pomfret street, and perhaps mosey by the library to drop off some books.

Tomorrow we are heading to Lancaster to the Whoopie Pie Festival.  Trevor has been talking about this since before we moved down here.  He's more than a little excited about the Whoopie Pie Eating Contest. He says if it's free to enter, "then even if you lose, you're a winner ... because you get free whoopie pies!"  I guess I can't argue with that logic.   We may have to get Maxwell's face painted while we're there, just because.

The Big Move

Saturday we left Maine bright and early, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed (what does that expression even mean?), torn between excitement and sorrow.  Since graduating college - or earlier - I've been looking forward to the day I would finally leave.  I've lived there since the age of 4; it was about time I took my first steps into the great big real world!  But when it finally came down to it ... I never knew how hard it would be to let go.

Thankfully, once we hit the road all seemed shiny and bright.  We had a new house to look forward to, Max was all smiles, and I was filled to the brim with encouraging words from friends and family. 

Six stops and thirteen hours later, we were in our new hometown.  Weird feeling.

Right now we're about to head to the new house, keys in one hand, tall iced coffee in the other (it is HOT down here, and yes I'm a wimp from Maine).   The movers come at 8, and then (surreal as it seems) we'll be living in our new house.  Maybe then this will all start to sink in ...