21. Go on a family vacation. Part one: Acadia National Park

It's Sunday evening and yesterday Todd, Peter, and I returned from our first legit family vacation. We were very fortunate to get to spend a week enjoying Acadia National Park, Portland (of the Maine variety), and Boston. We had a wonderful time adventuring, relaxing, and of course eating delicious foods. Tonight, I'll tell the tale of our day in Acadia National Park.

After arriving in Portland and scoping out the area we peaced out to spend a day in Acadia National Park... only a three hour drive up the coast. Since the car rental people lost the keys to the car that we were supposed to rent we got upgraded to a Toyota Avalon. For you non-car-brainiac people out there... it looks like a grandma car but it's actually pretty shnazzy. Sun roof, white leather seats (haha), and the smart phone-connected-to-the-car thing... it was all was pretty sweet and made our drive very enjoyable. Although the car part of the drive was cool, the scenery part was pretty much the same the whole way. Trees, trees, moose crossing signs, and more trees. We didn't see any moose but we did see some other cool things once we got to the park and got exploring around. It all started at Bar Harbor. Initially we drove through Bar Harbor looking for somewhere to get some more cash to get into the park... and oh. my. lands. That place is a tourist-trap-and-a-half. People! Cars! Buses! Tiny roads! It... was a mess. A fun, cute little place with shops and the like... but a mess. We got out of there is a major jiffy and headed into the park regardless of how much cash we had. Upon arrival we rightly so "visited" the visitor's center, got some "what to check out" advice from the nice park ranger peeps and hopped on the bus to once again go into Bar Harbor... because we didn't learn our lesson the first time haha. Don't worry, it's not so bad when you're not the one driving. Upon arrival we were just in time for low tide and got to literally walk across the sea floor to the next island over. Along the way we checked out all of the little tide pools, Peter ate a bunch of sand, and unfortunately we probably squarshed like a hundred snails. Sorry little guys! We also got to hold some neato starfish which was one of many firsts for me this trip.

The triple threat... an urchin, growing on a snail, sliming around on a clam.

I don't know how he knew it was alive... but he did, and he wasn't having any of it.

The big stah-fish... Todd says it's the biggest he's ever seen not at an aquarium. Shweet!

After Bar Harbor we hopped back on the shuttle bus and got off at Sand Beach. Still low tide, we got to check out even more tide pools. To some, seeing a crab in it's natural habitat (plus a little human intervention) is totally normal and unexciting. For me and my Idaho-growing-up-self... it's way exciting! We saw like ten! Just doing their little grape-vine move up and down the beach thing. It was super! 

Our next adventure was hiking the trail along the beach. Occasionally we hopped off the trail and did more tide-pooling and I saw yet another wild-life first... I saw a frog! And maybe some sort of sea-frog... I mean it was swimming pretty well and it was hanging out in a tide pool soooo, hmmm not totally sure what that guy was up to.

Peter loved climbing around (highly supervised) on all of the rocks. He is happy when we let him wiggle around. He has a lot of wiggles these days.

More climbing at Otter Cliff. Lots of cliffs... no otters.

We found this awesome stretch of trail right by our bus-stop that Peter loved. He ran back and forth and we didn't have to worry about him falling off of anything. Win.

He also did well with the buses... again mostly when we were feeding him haha. That kid... always needing to wiggle and eat.

The bus took us back to Bar Harbor, Peter played in one of the fountains at the park (and heaven knows he needed it, he was a dirt-dirt-dirty boy), and we hit up one of the sea food joints for some lobstah rolls. Another first... and boy they were tasty! Before we caught the bus back to our car we hit up Mt. Desert Is. for some butter beer ice-ed cream. Peter was a pretty big fan, as he is with anything that goes in his mouth.

Where's the food??

We were some of the last to leave the park... at least to leave the visitors center parking lot... and our drive back to Portland was graced with a lovely sunset.

Acadia National Park is a great little-ish place with lots of fun things to do and sites to see. Maybe some day we'll get to go back and have a longer trip with some bigger kiddos and get to do the "strenuous" hikes or kayak out to one of the islands. For now, our little day trip was perfect and we all had a fun time.

Next stop: Portland!

I just really like cake, okay!

It's confession time.

I am a devote cake eater.

Mmm! I just love it so much!

Really I am a pretty loyal treat eater in general. Like I eat too many treats, simple as that. Some days I even have multiple treats. I know I know... "But Katelyn, you studied Exercise & Wellness and Nutrition! How can you not have some self control woman?" Well... I don't know... maybe because my brain studied those things... not my taste buds. Maybe? Haha lame reason. Totally lame. Truth is I actually eat quite healthy otherwise, so having a treat every night isn't as bad as it could be. Heck, I could be havin' a glass of hydrogenated oil with my pound of bacon sprinkled donuts for breakfast and lickin' the grills clean at McDonald's for lunch every day! But I don't... therefore I feel okay about eating cake.

So again I say... I just love it so much!

And why shouldn't I?? It's delicious!

Here comes the true confession.

You see... last night Todd made me [I like to pretend that he made it ALL for me] a chocolate sheet cake. It was one of those tasty put-the-frosting-on-while-it's-still-hot sheet cakes. Once the cake had cooled off on the cooling rack... in the dining room... under the fan [just to speed things up haha] we finally got to eat some of it. Now, when it comes to eating treats at our house I try to let Todd serve up first. That way I can see how big of a piece he gets. If I go first and take a big piece I just plain look like a chubber. But if I wait for Todd and his slender self to take a big piece first then I don't feel so lumpy about taking a big piece too. Haha am I the only one that does this?? I hope not... cause it's an awesome strategy!

So. Tonight we served up some more cake, got our glasses of milk, and enjoyed some quite cake-eating time. Todd finished his just before I did and due to biking home from work/sanding wood for our table he saw great need to shower his bodice. Hmm. I feel like bodice is a female exclusive word. Haha anyway. Before going to wash up he put his plate in the sink and I let out [in?] a big ol' sigh of relief in my mind that he didn't take my plate too... because um hello I was going to eat more cake! Aaaaand then of course he didn't surprise me [because he's very thoughtful] and he came back to take my plate to the no-more-cake-for-Katelyn stainless steel prison of sogginess. Bahh!

In my head I'm all like acting out a hostage situation.... "STOP!!! I WANT MORE CAKE!! Please! ahh don't rinse the plate! I can still use it if you don't get it all wet!! Please!"

On the outside I just smiled and said thank you.

Then Todd walked down the hall into the bathroom and did his cleaning up duties.

And what do I do? I wait for the shower to turn on and I hop up to check if my plate was wet, of course!

But let's be real, Todd was in the shower... I didn't need a plate! Pshhh plates are for people with manners and cake-eating self control.

And yep, I ate another piece of cake. Straight out of the pan. While Todd was in the shower. It was delicious. He hasn't noticed yet... but he's going to read this and be all like... "Hey!"

the end.

Beautiful Nauvoo

Our temple trip was extra special last month. We got to meet up with part of Todd's family in Nauvoo and attend the temple while we were there! I had been looking forward to this temple trip for a good decade. As an early teenager my family made the trip out to Nauvoo and my brother and I got to do baptisms for the dead while my parents did a session. Where Marysa and Emily were? I have no idea. I'm sure they just hung out in the hotel room... they weren't that young. I don't remember a ton from the experience that Brennan and I had other than the weather was crazy hot and humid, we had to walk back to the hotel afterwards, there was a cool narrow spiral staircase, and of course... that everything was beautiful. I was reminded again of this temple's beauty a few weeks ago as Todd, my in-laws, and I got to do a session together. Inside and out, this temple is one of the prettiest ones that I've ever seen... probably tied with the Sacramento Temple for prettiest. Now if we're trying to pick out the coolest temple... Nauvoo wins, hands down. Just the fact that they rebuilt the temple after it was burned down in 1848 makes it extra cool and definitely extra special. I also highly associate President Gordon B. Hinckley with the rebuilding of the Nauvoo temple... and I love President Hinckley. He is near and dear to my heart as he was the prophet during most of my childhood and vulnerable teenage years. Anyway...

After enjoying a lovely session we were also blessed with lovely weather to enjoy the temple grounds.

The detailing on the outside of the temple also contributes to it's neato-ness.

The sun stones topped each of the pillar looking things on the outside... I looked up what they mean but no one can seem to agree haha sooo interpret how you will.

The stained glass star windows or the "inverted stars" are a neat Nauvoo-specific feature. I wonder if they debated between calling it the "inverted star" or the "rotated 45 degree star." Hmmm. Either way, I can actually tell you about this one. (: The meaning behind these stars date back to the early Christian church. This star is also known as the "morning star" as found in Revelations 22:16 and it symbolizes Jesus Christ. The reason for the up-side-down-ness is because when the actual morning star (Venus) orbits it makes a perfect inverted five-point star. Pretty neat yea?? I thought so. And just so you know... none of the missionaries that we asked knew this information haha. They told us to go to the gift shop and buy something with the star on it and the cashier would tell us. Huh?? So that's what we did! We got a little ornament for our Christmas tree and sure enough the cashier gave us a little handout explaining the meaning behind the star! Thanks man! (:

And  we can't forget the sweet moon faces on the bottom of the pillars, also a fun detail.

But the coolest part of the temple isn't it's colorful windows, surrounding landscape, or even it's history. The coolest and most wonderful part of this temple as well as all of the temples on this earth are the things that take place inside of them. In the temple, the Logan Utah temple in our case, we were sealed together. Because of our temple marriage Todd and I have the opportunity to be with each other, our children, and our Heavenly Father for eternity. That means forever, not even death can separate us. Isn't that so incredible? I think so. I can't even begin to describe how amazing of a blessing it is... to be with the ones that I love forever. Now that's cool.