Pop tasting

While Heather's visiting her friend Kim in Des Moines, the boys and I had a pop tasting. Kind of like the Great American Beer Festival that I went to in Denver a couple weeks ago but with orange, grape, strawberry and black cherry pop. Henry and I prefer orange and Jack's favorite was grape. No one liked the black cherry too much. We had some.good discussions about mouthfeel, aroma, and flavor profiles.

And earlier this afternoon, Henry decided, with a lot of prodding from Jack, that he was big enough to do the monkey bars on his own.  Here's the link to the video...you may need to copy and paste it into your browser. 

http://youtu.be/jL3kRN8Ddr0

Maine Vacation

Nathan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in August with a trip to Maine. It was an awesome trip – perfect weather, beautiful scenery, cute little town and lots of stuff to do outside. That is pretty much our perfect vacation.

The boys had a blast in Lebanon with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill and we headed to Portland, Maine. We stayed the first night in Portland and ate at a great place called Duck Fat. The next morning we headed up the scenic highway to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We stopped for lunch in a cute little town about halfway there and then made our way to Bar Harbor. It’s the biggest town on Mt. Desert Island and is so cute. There are a few other tiny towns, but it’s pretty much Bar Harbor and the national park. We stayed in an awesome bed and breakfast within walking distance of downtown and very close to Acadia. After we checked in at the bed and breakfast, we headed to the park and drove the loop road. Acadia is much, much smaller than other national parks we’ve been to. We were able to drive the whole park in a couple of hours.

The next day we went hiked in the morning and then went sea kayaking in the afternoon. It was awesome and we got to see a bunch of seals and birds while we were on the water.

The next day the weather was a little rainy, but it turned out to be a good day because the park wasn’t crowded at all. We rented bikes and rode about 20 miles on the carriage roads in the park. This was probably my favorite thing we did on the trip. The carriage roads were built years ago by the Rockefellers and are wide and somewhat flat. No cars are allowed on them – just bikes and horse-drawn carriages.

One of the most famous places in the park is Jordan Park Pond. We stopped here and got a blueberry soda and a Moxie soda. We had never heard of Moxie so we tried it – I thought it tasted like cough syrup!

The last day we did another hike in the park and then headed back to Portland. We didn’t fly out until the evening the next day, so we had time to visit the lighthouse in St. Elizabeth. It’s the most famous lighthouse in Maine and very beautiful.

We would love to go back to Bar Harbor. It would be really fun to take the boys in a few years when they are big (and tall) enough to do some of the outdoor activities like the kayaking and biking. Maine is my new favorite place, in America at least. I don’t think anything will beat Riomaggiore in Cinque Terra or Hydra in Greece!

Fall Fun

It’s beginning to feel like fall. We got the boys’ Halloween costumes this week. Jack is a ninja and Henry is a squirrel. Henry’s costume is my very favorite Halloween costume ever. He has loved squirrels since he was a baby. He would sit in his high chair at breakfast and watch them out on the deck. He was just starting to talk and he named the squirrels Emma. So, it doesn’t matter which squirrel it is or if it’s is even in our backyard. If it’s a squirrel, its name is Emma. Which is why his costume is awesome. He even has a tail!

We’ve also done lots and lots of playing outside.

A couple of weeks ago the Turveys were in town, so we had a get together with them and the Jones’s. Lots of little boys. Josie, the only girl, didn’t want to be in the picture.

We’ve also been reading our Halloween books and yesterday we decorated fall sugar cookies.

Ryan and Arielle’s Wedding

The big wedding was about a month ago, so I’d better post the rest of the pictures. We had a great weekend in St. Louis with the whole family and the boys had a great time being in the wedding. Some of the highlights include lunch at some winery I can’t remember the name of with the whole family. It had an awesome deck with a beautiful view and we had a great time catching up with everyone. The rehearsal dinner was lots of fun; the boys got Sprites! And the wedding day was great too. Jack and Henry did an awesome job pushing the airplane (and baby!) down the aisle and the wedding was beautiful.

And here they are in action, during the wedding!

More Colorado Pictures

Here are more pictures from our Estes Park trip in June (from Tara’s camera). Looking at the pictures makes me want to go back!

Here’s the only group picture we took – this is at the top of our last hike, Gem Lake. It was everyone’s favorite (except Henry), pretty steep but worth it once we got to the top. Henry fell and hurt his elbow at the beginning of this hike so we carried him up. But he perked up at the top and played with everyone and hiked down.

More from throughout the week. It was such a great trip! And it’s a good thing Tara was there and we wouldn’t have any family pictures. She brought her nice camera on all our hikes.