Only 3 months since my last post. Not too bad!
When I last wrote we were days from heading to Boston to see our favorite pod-casters, Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette of
UhhYeahDude. We went and it was hilarious. After the show we waited in too long of a line to meet them and get this photo taken:
This photo would ultimately land in the hands of Nic and Sarah, who introduced us to the podcast. 8-18-12 is their wedding date. Jonathan was possibly the sweatiest man I have ever seen.
The rest of July was mainly spent working. Lots of tacos were sold. Lots of booze was sold. Plants were planted, tended and harvested. Things were taken out of boxes and put on shelves. In late July the farm interns hosted a 'Southern Comfort' dinner party. Fried chicken and frito pie were both served. Brought me right back to Texas.
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| Mark in his Southern finery |
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| Me working on some fried chicken |
August 10th began with us waking up super early, dropping Maggie off at the farm and driving to Boston. We made it to Boston in plenty of time and took a cab to the airport to catch our flight to Portland. Alas, as we were waiting for our flight it started storming outside and as the plane we were supposed to get on was landing, it got struck by lightening! They delayed the flight to check for mechanical issues and about an hour later completely canceled the flight. I spent the next 2 hours on the phone trying to get us on a flight to Portland. I finally managed to secure a flight leaving at 6pm the next day. This meant that instead of spending our 5th anniversary in Portland, wandering around the farmers market and eating amazing food, we would instead spend the day wandering around Chelsea, MA. I was pretty cranky about it, but at least the airline put us up in a hotel. We finally made it to Portland at 11:45pm on the 11th. Our friend Rachel was out of town, but she was kind enough to let us stay at her place and pet her cute cat Chloe.
In Portland we walked a ton, ate even more, went to some of our old haunts, saw old friends and generally had a pretty great time.
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| One of my favorite trees on the walk to Mt. Tabor |
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| Our buddy Devin and his super cute daughter Abigale! |
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| Kelley and I outside of Byways. He came to breakfast with Mark, my folks and me. Kelley and I lived next door to each other freshman year of college and it's always a treat to see him! |
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My parents arrived in Portland on Monday night and Mark cooked an awesome Salmon dinner. They stayed at Rachel's with us and then we drove out to the coast to spend a couple days at my dad's cousin's beach house. At the coast we spent a lot of time eating seafood and playing games. We also took a nice, muddy hike on Cape Overlook and went to Oceanside and Manzanita beaches.
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| View of Cape Overlook |
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| Look! We're at the ocean! |
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| Mark planking Cape Overlook |
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| Mark and Peggy at Manzanita beach. |
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| Sunset view from the beach house. |
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| Mmmm....dinner. |
All winter and a good chunk of the summer, a large portion of Mark's downtime was spent embroidering two brown trout as a wedding present for Nic and Sarah. Here is the finished product!
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| Finished product |
After the coast my folks dropped us off at our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties and they spent the next two days on the Southern Coast, hanging out in Sand Dunes National Recreation Area.
On Friday we arrived in Elkton and met up with so many friends! It was the best friend reunion either of us had had in a long time. Most everyone from our Portland days have scattered and all of a sudden we were back together again! Excitement ensued. The rehearsal dinner was a 'boil' which involves boiling sea food and root vegetables in a pot and then dumping it out on newspaper covered tables and just going for it. So good....
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| Sarah and Audrey |
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| Alex and Katie |
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| Elkton Sunset |
Saturday was gorgeous. Not too hot, not too cold. After breakfast at a local diner, Mark and I went to the wedding site to help with lights. In the early afternoon he was whisked away to go get ready with the other groomsmen and I relaxed at the campground (which was really Eric and Randi's (Sarah's best childhood friend) back yard. They were amazingly hospitable and it was so fun having all our friends in the same place). My parents rolled back into town in time for the wedding and we all sat together to watch our wonderful friends tie the knot. Nic and Sarah were the cutest. Sarah had a giant grin on her face during the whole ceremony, while Nic had a more subdued, yet equally ecstatic smile on his. Mark looked handsome in his best man duds and all the bridesmaids were lovely.
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| The Happy Couple |
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| We helped with those lights! |
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| Cute friends! |
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| The handsome best man. |
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| It's official! |
After the ceremony there was wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres on the lower lawn, followed by a super tasty dinner consisting of a whole roasted pig with all the fixings.
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| Mmmmm.....pig roast. |
Their wedding and reception were held at Bradley Vineyards and I can't imagine a lovelier setting for them to be married. After dinner there were speeches, cake, a bonfire and dancing, followed by an after party at the campground. Fun was had by all.
After the post-wedding brunch the next day we said our goodbyes and piled into Katie and Alex's rental car with Rachel and Mikal and road tripped back up to Portland. We stayed at Rachel's for the next few days and had a great time. Lots of walking, eating and drinking happened. The day before we left to head back to Vermont, Nic and Sarah came up to Portland to start their honeymoon and we got to spend a good part of Tuesday with them, again, eating and drinking. If only we all lived closer to each other!
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| Devin, Mark and Mikal on the Hawthorne Bridge |
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On Wednesday we left bright and early in the morning to catch our 6:30 am flight back to Boston. We made it back without a hitch and rolled back into our driveway before 10 pm. Neither the farm nor the co-op fell apart while we were away, so that was a relief and relieved some of the guilt for leaving during such a busy time of year.
Once home, we got fully into the trials and tribulations of trying to buy a house. Right before we left for Oregon we were informed that we had been turned down for a loan, so we left for our trip kind of assuming that we wouldn't be buying a house. Once back, however, our loan officer started pulling some strings and moving some numbers around and after a few weeks of going back and forth between excitement over getting a loan and despair over not getting a loan, we got one! A week after finally being approved, we signed the papers on September 20th to officially own our own house and little piece of land in Walden, VT. Our house is a little 2 bedroom cape built in the 1920's. It's on 3.5 acres. About 1.5 acres are cleared and the rest is a piece of woods that climbs up the hillside and a marshy area just past the lawn.
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| The view from the corner of our yard. |
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| Home Sweet Home! |
It is a great space and we've already hosted an event, 'The new 2nd Annual Hardwick Area Chili Cook-Off!" Seven chilies were entered and right around 30 people came to eat, vote, tour our new place and hang out by the bonfire out back. It was a lovely housewarming event and a nice beginning to our lives in our new home. There is also an awesome cemetery about 1/4 mile down the road. Here's a couple shots from an afternoon walk.
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| Best friends! |
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| Fall in the Kingdom |
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| This grave is tucked way back in the cemetery, right near the woods line. |
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| Hank. This photo has nothing to do with the cemetery. It's just cute. |
A couple weeks ago I finally finished the quilt I had been working on for Johannah Skye. She is the daughter of our good friend Liza and was about the size of Mark's forearm in my last post. Now she is 5 months old and doing all sorts of new exciting things that 5 month old kiddos do. Here are a few shots of the quilt that took up most of my down time from March-October. The piecing went quickly, it was the obsessive hand quilting that took up most of my time.
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| Owl quilt. |
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These are a few of my favorite squares.
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| I especially love this one. |
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| The lucky quilt recipient. She's a whole lot bigger than Mark's forearm now! |
Oh yes, one last adventure was a quick trip to Portland, Maine with our good friends Jon and Amy. The drive over was gorgeous with fall colors in their full glory. Day one was rainy, but perfect for eating tacos and thai food. We spent the night in a KOA Kabin (really, KOA, you have to spell everything with a K?) and the next day was clear so we got to go to the beach and then back to Portland for more wandering and eating. Good times in the "big" city!
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| Maggie found a Halloween costume in a Portland thrift store. |
Just so everyone knows, we have a guest room and can't wait to have visitors! Maybe by the time people make it up here, we'll even have a bed for ya'll to sleep in....
I also have to note that it's October 12th and it's currently snowing. Yikes! Might be an early winter this year...at least it'll be pretty!
