New England

Matt and I have just returned from a trip up north. The week went so fast and now I'm really feeling like it's crunch time. After all that sneaky month called August starts on Saturday. Enough about that, though. This was a big trip for us! We got to visit with Matt's family, spend some peaceful vacation days as a party of two, and we had a baby shower!

We spent most of last Saturday driving up the east coast playing the license plate game (eventually we got all but nine states!) and finding out just how big the small state of Connecticut is...really I swear we were there all day. When we finally reached Massachusetts we had a nice dinner with Matt's parents, and then spent Sunday just visiting before driving to Maine late at night.

Monday we headed to Drake Island Beach and spent the day sitting in the sun and reading. It was a perfect beach day! The day was so perfect we ended up finishing it off at the pool after coming back from the beach. As great as Monday was, Tuesday left something to be desired. It was a little bit chilly out in the morning, but things warmed up for a few hours in the afternoon. We decided to make it a pool day, but it was short lived. The fog and cold temperatures rolled back in, but we made the best of it and went on an excursion to find lobsters for dinner. We had a tip that a place called Looney Lobster had the best lobsters around. We followed signs and directions, but could not find the place to save our lives. We looked everywhere. You would never guess it would be so hard to buy a lobster in Maine. After stopping at a gas station, and getting all the locals involved, it was determined that the place wasn't open. We got a referral to go see Brenda, after you make a left at the car wash, instead. Turns out Brenda owns the Yodeling Clam Lobster Pound. We enjoyed Brenda's company while she steamed our lobster friends and then headed back to the cottage to eat our lobsters. We also went to the Scoop Deck for ice cream cones that night.

Wednesday we returned to the beach for another perfect day. We had also made reservations at our favorite restaurant in Maine, Joshua's, for that evening. If you ever find yourself in Southern Maine I highly recommend this place. Both Matt and I agree that this is one of the greatest restaurants of all time. Thursday, I went to Congdon's Doughnuts for the first time. Apparently this is the place to be if you are a doughnut lover. For me it wasn't great, but I also don't love doughnuts. We headed to Ogunquit afterwards and walked the Marginal Way. It's a beautiful path along the coast and another must do if you are in the area. Afterwards we headed to the pool for the rest of the day before meeting Matt's parents in Massachusetts for dinner.

Friday was our last day in Maine and we wanted to go back to the beach. As we were packing up the car to head there it started thundering so we decided on just making it a pool day. The rain did hold off for a little but the temperatures dropped into the 60s and it did eventually start pouring down rain on us. Friday night we saw Nice Work If You Can Get It at the Ogunquit playhouse. It was a good show and was pretty funny.

Saturday afternoon was our Massachusetts baby shower. Matt's mom and sister did a fabulous job with the planning. The shower was bee themed and had so many cute little details. The food and desserts were also delicious. It was so nice to celebrate Baby K. with our family and friends in Massachusetts. We received so many nice things, our baby is already very lucky. I'm also happy to report that Matthew survived his first baby shower ever, with some beverages, and (as evidenced below) even participated in gift opening. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Sunday we had to head south. It's always a longer/harder trip coming back, but again it's always nice to be back home. Like I said at the beginning, now it's crunch time before I have to go back to school. There's still a lot to do our our long list of getting ready for a baby, regular life, and prepping for the new school year. That being said, we are also very lucky to have a lot to prepare for and look forward to in the coming months.