Sunday, September 23, 2007

Maine Air Show


Sorry everyone, I am a little behind on our blog. We have just done so many fun things lately that I have a hard time keeping up. Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, we drove up and met Brent and Darcee (my cousin and his wife) in Boston and went with them to a clambake, where we ate lobster and had the best apple cider donuts--I am still dreaming about them. We spent half the day with them and then headed up to Maine. We drove through Kennebunkport, ME which is a quiet little seaside village with fun shops, antique stores, etc. We then drove up to Portland, ME where Eric's friend Tim lives. Tim Pasken is a JAG and is stationed up in Brunswick, ME. The air base had a huge air seats--it was great--THANK YOU TIM!! Anyways, Saturday night we picked up Tim and he showed us around Portland, ME, show that weekend and Tim got us tickets to sit in the VIP area where they had catered food, we had front row which is gorgeous and then we went to eat at the best seafood restaurant ever! This restaurant was out in the middle of nowhere and it was located right on a peninsula--so as we ate, we watched the sunset--it was so pretty. I had the best lobster stew ever and we ate the most delicious bacon-wrapped scallops...you can tell that weeks later I still remember how good it tasted. Anyways, the next day was the air show. Like I said, we had front row seats; from where we sat we watched the planes take off and land and the blue angels were right in front of us. The air show lasted all day and was by far the best air show I had ever been to. They had so many different types of planes, we watched people parachute out of planes, they had a woman that walked on the wings of a plane while it was flying and did other tricks, and then of course the finale was the blue angels which were amazing. Some of those pilots must have very strong stomachs, because they were rolling and twisting their planes all over the place. Ethan even had a great time. We kind of worried that it might be too loud, but he did great!

Exploring Newport, RI




Last weekend, we decided to take a mini vacation. Eric had a class up in Newport all week, so Ethan and I went up and stayed with him on Thursday and Friday in Newport and then Saturday we drove up to Boston for part of the day and then that afternoon we went up to Maine. We spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Maine and came home that night. We had a blast.

Thursday, Ethan and I had to entertain ourselves while Eric was in class. We decided to go see the Green Animals Topiary Garden. It is located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and it contains an extraordinary collection of topiaries, marvelous living sculptures. There are 80 pieces of topiary throughout the gardens, including 21 animals and birds in addition to geometric figures and ornamental designs, sculpted from California privet, yew, and English boxwood. We had a great time wandering around and Ethan had a great time riding his rocking horse! We also walked through a two more mansions in Newport. However, Ethan wanted to be the tour guide and was quite vocal while the tour guide was speaking. He has turned into quite the talker...I think he takes after his grandma Tolman!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

St. Louis-Sept. 2007


September we made another trip out to see my parents. My dad had invited Eric to go hunting with him that weekend, so Ethan and I decided to go along and keep my mom company while the boys were gone. We had a great time. It is always fun to see how excited my parents get when Ethan comes to visit, especially my dad. I don't know who had more fun playing together, my dad or Ethan. In one of the pictures, Ethan and my dad are modeling matching corn t-shirts that he bought for the two of them. While we were back in St. Louis, we had a great time. Over labor dad weekend, we went to the St. Louis Fair and Air Show, which was a lot of fun. Another day, we went to Grant's Farm which is a nature preserve that is home to more than 1,000 animals representing more than 100 different species from six continents. It is really fun, because you take a tram ride around the park and look at all the animals, which we had a hard time getting Ethan to look at. There is a part where you can get a baby bottle and feed baby goats and my mom was brave and took Ethan in. However, she ended up getting mobbed by the goats and came out with little hoofprints all over her pants from where they were jumping on her. I thought it was so funny. Anyways, we had a great time visiting in St. Louis!
This video is proof that I am funny, regardless of what some people may say!