Settling In

It's been a few months now since we made the big move and we're starting to settle in a bit. Overall the move has been fantastic. The house is right, the location is right, the weather is right, etc. The one fly in the ointment has been the job situation. We keep plugging away; hopefully that will work itself out soon enough.

Below are a few pictures in no particular order of what we've been up to recently.

 We went up to Bangor to celebrate a family wedding. As you can see both kids are fully mobile now so it keeps us on our toes. The wedding was great and the massive storm held off just long enough to get the last guests under the tent before the sky opened up.  Good timing.

 We have made a few trips to the Children's Museum in Portland. The place is great. One of the exhibits they have is a fire truck, complete with firefighter gear for the kids.

Our basement is basically one giant kids room. Wesley is getting to an age where he can actually interact with Molly and play with her (or in this case color with her). We've spend many a day down there just letting the kids enjoy themselves.

 We've also started back up with the Baby Signing Times for Wesley. He's picked up signing quite easily and can say "water", "more", food", and "dog". Molly has also gotten back into the signing and has been watching Signing Times. They both keep us on our toes.

There have been multiple walks in the woods on the different trails nearby. Here is Wes at the Maine Audubon Society's headquarters.

 It's also apple picking time.  About a month ago we went to a local orchard to pick apples.  Molly was a huge "help" and picked a fair number of the apples herself.

 Wes also got to pick a few.

 One of the best things about the move is the ability to have the kids outside during the day. We don't have to worry about air quality alerts here and it's not un-God-ly hot and humid. Molly especially has been taking advantage of this by dancing, dancing, dancing.

Harry has also been enjoying the fresh air. We finally have room for him to run around. Even though he just celebrated his 9th birthday, he still loves to run and play.

One drawback for Harry has been the lack of hundreds of other dogs around for him to smell, etc. on walks. On the plus side there's a whole new world of "nature" smells for him. Like the ocean cove just down the street from us (shown here at low-tide).

What would a move to Maine be without a few trips to L.L.Bean?

 We've also had a fair number of visitors. Grandpa Pete is reading Molly a book about steam engines after having just gone on the narrow gauge train in Portland.

Molly has also taken to reading by herself. She has good taste in books so far (Calvin & Hobbes and a book saying how yucky Mommy's coffee is, among others).

All in all, while it has been a hectic, trying, and somewhat scary process at times, the decision was the right one.