Happy New Year

Hello there! I hope you all enjoyed a Very Merry Christmas this December! I thought I had better get on here and share some pictures since it has been all of five months since I have posted! {For that you have my deepest apologies...}

A little more than a week ago, we made our traditional gingerbread houses! Well, that is, most of us went traditional.... Beth saw a new idea on Pinterest and decided to try it - a teepee! It turned out very cute, complete with an open fire and some plastic Indian figures. Maybe next year we should bring out the cowboys too. =P

Two weeks ago all we girls from church got together for a Christmas party that Amber hosted! We had a great time of fellowship and games around egg nog and delicious food!

This was the church's Christmas dinner. We used only light from lanterns and the fireplace! We had great evening and sang Christmas carols a cappella. (For those of you who have experienced the acoustic effects in the church basement, you know how awesome that sounds!)

Another tidbit of news around here .... Andrew and Melinda got a puppy! A little chocolate lab who they dubbed Toffee.

He is adorable!!

Toffee and Bear get along quite well, though it took us a few days to figure out that all the growling was playful, and Bear wasn't going to bite Toffee's head off!

They love to frolic and carry on and chase each other, but despite the size difference, I'm not sure who gets the raw end of the deal!

We are all currently enjoying the break from school! Bethany and Daniel will start back up on Monday, and I get into my second semester of college next Wednesday. All has been going well, but busy as always. =)

We are hoping for some more winter-like weather in the near future. Somehow it doesn't feel like Christmas when it is 75 degrees outside and we're running the AC! We have also been getting buckets of rain, leaving the yard a muddy mess. Not a very festive scenery.... Dreary as the weather may be, however, we can rejoice in the gift of eternal life and the blessing of a New Year!

Maine

Several days ago, we got back from a week-long vacation in northern Maine, where we stayed with some dear friends... well, almost more like family! We kids call them "Grammy and Pappy Washburn".  It's a trip we had been tentatively planning for almost a year. We hadn't seen the Washburns since Melinda's wedding, and their lodge on Upper Dobsis Lake has to be the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth! 

{At the Maine Welcome Center.. You could smell the pines the
minute we left the car. Delicious.}

Our little signs in the back car windows =P

Unfortunately, this was the only moose we saw all week... 

LOL

We stopped for breakfast in southern Maine to visit with this dear couple, old
friends who we hadn't seen in many, many years.

                       Almost to our final destination... the Washburn's "Cedar Wood Lodge" is seven and a half miles back this dirt road...

Forty-five minutes to the nearest only grocery store in town, house run by a generator, no internet, no cell phone reception.

Inconvenience? Yes.

Awesome? Absolutely!!

We got up most of the mornings to watch the sunrise with Pappy Washburn (who is always up to watch it). We'd sip our coffee, listen to his stories, watch the rays peep over ridge, and snap dozens of pictures.

One morning, the loon and her baby came out and paraded
across the sunbean on the water several times. It was
picture perfect!

{the whole family}

We enjoyed watching and listening to the loons all week:

  We fished every day. Pappy Washburn allowed us full use of the canoes, rowboats, and motorboat tied to the dock. 

Success is sweet!

Daniel got the biggest catch of the week with a small-mouthed bass that was just under five pounds.

He kept saying, "That's the biggest fish I've ever caught!!"

We drove this four-wheeler around the dirt roads surrounding the lake.

Mom and Grammy Washburn

Nate and Andrew played "Taps" before bed.
{notice Daniel.. lol}

We roasted marshmellows and sang around the bonfire

   Saturday, we had a traditional New England meal -- bean-hole beans and red hot dogs. Delicious.  Bean-hole beans are baked for about 10 hours (??... if I remember correctly) in a cast iron kettle buried in a hole of coals. And they are the best beans you will ever taste!

Digging them out Friday night

 Time to taste-test! Yum!

It was very sad to leave. The Washburns kept trying to talk us into staying another week.  We told them it was now their turn to come down here! =) 

A lot of memories are in this special place with it's special people. A place you can hardly to describe to those who have never seen it. You just have to be there...