Temple Day for Jen

Here's our cute and dedicated Jen, who still goes to the temple before school every Wednesday morning with her friends to do baptisms for the dead.  I'm so proud of you!

Concert night with Daddy

Mike played a symphony concert tonight.  Afterward, we all went out for pie.  Here are Jess and Daddy!

Our Final Day in Maine

Our final morning, we had to take care of one last thing.  Jen had committed to our cute (and world-traveling and adventurous) neighbors that she would try lobster in Maine.  :)  Most of the lobster stands are still closed for the season, but there's a cute little convenience store down the street from my sister's home which brings them in year-round.  The kids jumped on their scooters and bikes, and Care and I walked behind, as we all headed down to pick up a steamed lobster (and a lobster roll, too).  The lobsters here really are fresh, and the meat guy steamed it for us just in time to pick it up.

Jen had already told us she would absolutely NOT even consider eating a lobster anywhere near the water (hard to do around here!) because it would remind her what she's eating, so we took it back to the house for all to taste.  Here she is! She DID taste it...but after several seconds of chewing and thinking, we asked if she liked it.  She promptly responded, "NO!" and ran to the bathroom to spit it out.  Tragic, but I'm so proud of her for trying.  No regrets!

We "big girls", on the other hand (as well as a couple of the boys), happily enjoyed the rest of the giant creature dipped in melted butter!  OH, YEAH!!!!

 Maine, (and our dear folks who live there now,) we'll MISS YOU!!!!  What a wonderful trip!

Wrapping it Up...

Back downtown:

Old Orchard:

("WHAT?!?!?  Winter coats at the beach?  WHAT!?!?!?")

(p.s.  There's one lone surfer behind the kids, just coming out of the water.  He was in a full wetsuit, including gloves and hat!!)

We tried all kinds of other favorite food spots:  Otto's Pizza, Gorgeous Gelato, Starbuck's (for cake pops), Dunkin Donuts, and...(below) DiMillo's (for our last night there, the girl cousins had a "nail and movie night", and the "big girls" went out for fresh seafood on a ship!)

More explorations...

Falmouth:

A little relaxation time downtown...aaaaaahhhhh...

 Boda-a DIVINE Thai restaurant!

More of Beautiful Portland...

Friday through Sunday, we explored around Portland area, trying to take in as much of the local flavor as possible.  We saw lots, we ate TONS, and we truly enjoyed the whole time together!

Portland Head Light:

Downtown Portland:

Freeport:

(Note:  Freeport is full of little shops, all name-brand stores in cute little buildings, as well as the L. L. Bean Flagship store-it's actually a "campus" with many buildings, one for each department!  HUGE!!!)

(And yes, it's actually all about the food!)

Boston

Bwo-ston, where they eat "lobstah" and "chowda'" (and they even spell it that way!)...  LOVE IT!!

We girls took the train (Amtrak's Downeaster) to Boston on Thursday.  THAT is a fun way to travel.  No gas.  No parking (parking is very expensive and inconvenient and hard to find in Maine and Massachusetts).  LOTS of great views.  Blueberry soda.  Plenty of self-imposed entertainment...

We hopped of at the North Station, and walked down the cute little streets to Boston Commons.

Boston Commons:

Downtown:

(Georgetown Cupcakes!)

We took a Duck Tour, which packed in all sorts of fun and LOTS of important Boston sites, including many Freedom Trail sites.

Jen's awesome reaction when our "bus" entered The Charles (river):

 Her cousin even got to steer the boat!

After trying a little of just about every food in Boston (and taking the leftovers with us for the ride), we took the subway back to the train.  The conductor laughed at us about 2/3-way home, saying "You guys have been eating since we left Boston!"  That's how we did it-we had to try everything!  :)