After hearing about our weekend up in Maine Brooke wanted us to take her to see some lighthouses too. Jen and I have also decided it would be a fun project to try and eventually see all the lighthouses on the Maine Coast. We figure it can be a longer term project and will give us another option for something fun and different to do on our days or afternoons off with the girls. Most of the lighthouses have either nice little parks, beaches, old forts and/or walking trails also so it should be a good thing for family trips. So with that in mind last Sunday we took the girls for a ride to Portland and saw 5 more lighthouses along the way, three of which we explored on the shore and two were visible on islands offshore. That gives us 9 in the last few weeks and gets us off to a good start towards our project of seeing the 60+ lights in the state. If you want to join us on any of the trips let us know. If it sounds like fun to anyone other than us there's a few good sites for information on them here. Lighthousefriends.com/me , mainelighthousetrail.com and visitmaine.com/attractions/sightseeing_tours/lighthouse/ .

Also, with some help from Brooke, we also had an anniversary dinner for my parents at home last weekend where we cooked a five course meal and served it to them. I paired the different courses each with a different wine and we joined them after the cooking for dinner and dessert. Brooke took their orders "diner" style, as in "What you like?! OK, What else?" and wrote out the menus. She also helped Jen serve some of it. We had a lot of fun doing it and I think they enjoyed it a lot also.

We also went apple and pumpkin picking, which is all new to Emily, and Jen took Brooke along with Chelsea and Evy to all get their nails done for Evy's birthday. I can't tell you how much fun Brooke had doing it and how excited she is to show everyone her nails whenever she sees them. Today we helped decorate the yard for Halloween. There's a few pictures of everything here if you're interested in seeing them. Trick or Treat is coming up and Brooke insists we all dress up. Hopefully if we get a nice afternoon or day off sometime we'll squeeze in another hike with the girls before it gets too cold for Em or maybe go visit another lighthouse or two. Whatever happens there will be another update and pictures coming in a little while so check back with us soon. That's all for now! 

Five Year Anniversary

Usually this blog is all about our girls, our family and what we've all been up to. This one is just about Jen and I. Friday the 7th was our 5th anniversary. Our families both have lots of strong marriages, from our parents, to our grandparents, to aunts, uncles and more. There are dozens that have lasted years, decades and even lifetimes, so our little 5 year mark kind of pales in comparison to many of those and might not be a real big deal to many people, but to us it was. Raising 2 wonderful daughters, 5 great years of marriage, working hard towards getting our very own house, 10 years of memories together and a lifetime more to come. We love what we've got and to me that's something to celebrate! 

We decided to do just that by going away for a night, just the two of us. Something we haven't done in a long time. We occasionally go out to dinner or off for a day trip by ourselves or even get to have a great weekend like we did for Jason's wedding without the girls but it's never just us. There's always kids, family, friends etc around, which is the way we like it, but we decided we should have a night every 5 years for just us so I surprised Jen with a night away at the Samoset Resort up in Rockland, Maine. The unseasonable record warmth almost made it feel like a summer weekend, even on the ocean. We had a nice ride up with the windows and sunroof open on a beautiful day, a great stay with amazing scenery and food at the hotel and then took our time returning home and looking for lighthouses along the way, even though after about 24 hours away we were really missing the girls and just wanted to get home. It really was a perfect weekend for us.

A little bit on each lighthouse we visited can be found by clicking the name here. The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was the one right outside the hotel. The Owls Head Lighthouse is apparently the most haunted lighthouse either in Maine or the US, not sure which. We didn't know that at the time and everything went just fine. Marshall Point Lighthouse was the third stop and you might recognize it if you've ever seen Forrest Gump. I guess it's the one he ends his cross country run at, although I don't remember it. Now I'll have to watch the movie again. Our final stop was Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, which is the one depicted on the Maine state quarter and is one of the most famous/visited lighthouses in New England. 

That said, if you want to see some pictures from this little trip you can click right here. If you don't, check back soon. There will be updated pictures of Emily's TWO teeth and her new and improved crawling video. Brooke is loving her dance classes and Jen likes her job, although there won't be many pictures of that. We need to go pumpkin and apple picking, the weather is great for hiking and Halloween is just around the corner so there are plenty of photo ops coming up. But for today it's just Jen and I, so check it out or check back soon. Bye for now!