Happy Birthday to the Best Dad Ever!

I truly do have a wonderful father. Sadly, I don't get to be with him and the rest of my family today to celebrate his birthday, so here is a little tribute to my dad and some of the important things I have learned from him.

Great joy can be found on rides in the mountains, especially if you have no idea where the road goes. The bumpier, dirtier, and windier the better. Of course, a picnic along the way makes everything that much better.

It's okay to be silly, especially if someone is trying to take a picture of you. Smiling for photos is overrated.

My dad showed me the kind of husband I should look for.

Never give up, no matter what. Be a survivor.

Egg-dying day and pumpkin-carving day are two of the most important days of the year.  You should be properly prepared by doing research ahead of time on the latest techniques and by getting your power tools ready.  Using a rotozip is a very exciting way to carve a pumpkin.

The beach is the best place to vacation.  By the way, my dad is secretly a ninja.

My dad taught me the importance of hard work and power tools. Both of these things are involved in the crucial task of cutting down the perfect Christmas tree. The more snow you have to crawl through on your belly to cut it down the better.

Thanks for always being there for me, Dad.  I love you!

Exploring Maine=A Fabulous Saturday!

We had planned to spend this weekend in Cape Cod, but after our adventure with the air conditioning last Saturday we decided that driving that far in our decrepit Jetta did not sound like great fun.  Instead, we drove just a few miles from our house to find yet another beautiful part of Maine. We were not at all disappointed that we changed our plans.  Every time we go exploring, we are astounded at the beauty that we discover here. The adventure this weekend was to the end of the peninsula next to ours (the coast of Maine is composed of a bunch of little peninsulas that jut out into the ocean) to Bailey Island, Orr's Island, and Harpswell.  We didn't have any set plans in mind, just turned down random roads that looked interesting.  The pictures really don't do these places justice at all.

I finally got to the Atlantic Ocean.  Bailey Island was so beautiful!

Monument honoring fisherman surrounded by wild roses and lots of poison ivy.

This bridge from Orr's Island to Bailey Island looks really interesting. It is the only granite cribstone bridge in the world.  It is constructed with holes strategically placed to work with the tides.

We got some of the best soft-serve ice cream I have ever tasted at this place. Of course, being in Maine, I had to choose the lobster for the picture.

This cove was one of the coolest places we saw, but the pictures aren't great. Apparently Bailey Island is the most photographed place in Maine.

The little buoys sticking up are all marking lobster traps.

Venturing out on a dock in Harpswell to get a better look at the boats

Love it!

We ended our day with a visit to our favorite pond to feed the ducks our moldy bread.  We found a new group of ducklings, which were adorable.

Kelson thoroughly harassed the frogs.
He was kind enough to let me take a picture of this one before he tried (unsuccessfully) to catch it.

Does it get any better?

We are in the middle of a heat wave, and our house is like an oven, so for dessert we made our own popsicles.

Delicious! Great snack to end our day of exploring.

Our First Trip to the Boston Temple

We finally had a chance last Saturday to visit the beautiful Boston temple, which is a little over two hours south of here.  It was a hot, humid day, and our air conditioner decided to stop working about halfway there. On top of that, the GPS couldn't find the address, so I was left to navigate using a map and some sketchy directions (if you know me, you know that is a recipe for disaster). By the time we got to the temple in Belmont, both of us were thoroughly hot and grumpy. It was amazing how all of the negative feelings just melted away as we walked on to the temple grounds and entered the house of the Lord. We had a beautiful afternoon serving in the temple.

Awesome!

Happy Birthday Kelson!

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband in the world! As of yesterday, we have been married six weeks, and we are loving every minute of it. I am so grateful for Kelson and for this day that I get to celebrate him. 

I think he looks quite dashing in his uniform!

 Kelson is spending his birthday on duty from 7:30 this morning to 7:30 tomorrow morning, so we did most of our celebrating last night. We had a couple of friends over for chicken enchiladas, jello, and strawberry pie-definitely a meal chosen by Kelson.  

Looks pretty decent, huh? The little berries are wild strawberries from our garden. 
Kelson always has strawberry pie for his birthday.  It was delicious!

Since today is actually Kelson's birthday, I had to do something for him today, so I decided to make him a card and take it to him when I delivered his dinner.  There is a slight possibility that I may have gotten a little bit out of control...

Just looks like a nice, unassuming gift box, right?

Bam! Birthday cake in a box!  This is definitely the coolest "card" I have ever made.  It took me all day, but I had fun.

The idea and the SVG file for this card came from here on Denise Hill's blog, Paper Pastime, which is one of my new favorites.  She has awesome videos and tutorials to help with cricut and SCAL if anyone is interested.

Funny Animals

Meet Foxy Loxy (anyone else a fan of Henny Penny?).  He lives in the woods behind our house, and we see him all the time.  Most foxes are nocturnal and skittish, but this guy struts around our neighborhood during the day, which makes us wonder if there is something wrong with him.  I almost ran right into him walking around the corner of our house the other day.  I have been trying to snag a photo of him for weeks. This is the best I've got so far. 

Remember that photo I posted of the picturesque bridge going to the little island that I wanted to have a picnic on?  We went there on Sunday and were greeted by ten ducks swimming up to us in a perfect formation to beg for bread.  They were pretty cute, but we didn't have anything to give them, so we continued across the bridge to the island.

They all got out of the water and followed us, quacking and being generally cute. 

They followed Kelson all the way across the island and surrounded him.  They were so cute!  They were still pretty fuzzy, so I think they must have been ducklings. I really wished my niece, Annie were there.  She would love them!

I DID IT!!!!!

I normally don't answer the phone during dinner, but I am glad that I picked up when Mom called last night, because it was the most exciting phone call I have received in a long time.  My California nursing license showed up at my parents house, which means that I passed NCLEX and I am officially a registered nurse!!  Apparently the blood, sweat, tears, and unending hours of studying and clinicals I have done over the last five years were worth it.  I took the test ten days ago, and I have been on pins and needles waiting for the results.  I was very glad to find out that I can sell/give away/burn my NCLEX study guides.   Now I just have to find a job.  However, I won't be working until we get to San Diego this fall, so I have some time. In the meantime, I am now free to enjoy my summer off and stop worrying about NCLEX.

Our Amazing Fourth of July in America's Birthplace

We started out our Fourth of July weekend on Friday with a visit to the carnival that was in town for Bath Heritage Days.  It was fun walking around and seeing all of the fun things, even though we didn't ride anything. 

We spent our Fourth of July morning at the parade, which is exactly where you should be on the Fourth of July. Kelson was even in the parade, which made it even better.

I am so proud of my Navy boy! Doesn't he look dashing?  Since Kelson was busy marching in the parade,  our friends the Ameses from church invited me to watch with them, and then we joined them for a barbecue after the parade. We were sad not to be with family for the holiday, but we were very grateful to have good friends to spend it with.

Last night, we packed up our picnic basket and headed to Portland (about half an hour away) for their Stars and Stripes Spectacular, which included a symphony concert and fireworks show.  Great view!

I have always loved the Fourth of July and still do. One of my favorite memories is watching Pops Goes the Fourth at my grandparents' house every year. Some kids want to be professional sports players or ballerinas.  I wanted to be in the Boston Pops so I could play the piccolo in Stars and Stripes Forever. I have always dreamed of going to Boston for the Fourth of July, and we are planning on going this year, but it turned out to be a logistical nightmare.  Instead, we had a fabulous time listening to the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  They were awesome.

We ate a delicious picnic while we waited.  Kelson is holding the last bite that we got to eat of the chocolate angel food cake I made. I left most of the cake covered in plastic wrap on our kitchen counter.  When we got home last night, our cake was crawling with thousands of tiny ants.  I hate ants! They are officially public enemy number one at the Mosier house.

Enjoying our picnic and the music. In case you can't tell, my hair is not a big fan of the humidity here.

The fireworks were incredible! We were so close that the ash was actually falling on us.  They started during  the last two minutes of the 1812 Overture, just like they do in Boston, and lasted for almost an hour.  They played music through the whole thing, including 5 Sousa marches and other patriotic songs and ending with the Stars and Stripes Forever.  I was in heaven.  As I laid there with Kelson watching the fireworks and singing God Bless America, I was reminded of why we are making the sacrifices we are to be in the Navy. It is because America is something worth fighting for. A lot of people have made sacrifices much greater than ours to provide us with the freedoms we have today, and it is necessary that good people continue to be willing to fight for our country if we are going to keep those freedoms. We are honored to make that sacrifice for our country. Now, when I have days when I am tired of the Navy and wish that Kelson had a normal job, I will think of those fireworks and be a little more grateful.  As we walked back to our car after the show ended, Kelson commented that we may have just ruined our future Independence Days by setting the standard too high. It was a great day, and it was neat to celebrate it here in New England where it all began.