Long Island, ME

Maine is one of my favorite states. It is so beautiful there. The weather, the landscape, the people, everything. I took the train up and stayed with my aunt and uncle at their cottage on Long Island.

I love traveling by train. You really get to see the landscape around you. We passed through New York and all the coastal towns in New England. 

{NYC skyline}

The sunsets on the island are breathtaking. 

I learned how to drive a golf cart. woo. 

I spent some quality time with my adorable doggie cousins.

{Tigger}

{Dash}

For the duration of my stay my aunt and I kicked it dorm style.

It was unusually rainy while I was there so I took advantage that time to just relax with some herbal tea, a backlog of blogs to read, and my camera. And when the weather cleared I took a much needed run :)

We went in town to go shopping. Old Port is...you guessed it...the old part of Portland. It also happens to be a lovely collection of stores, boutiques, and restaurants. We hit some fabulous clothing and kitchen stores and ate lunch here:

I love the super vibrant red with yellow and black. It's so striking. We ate out on the back patio since the weather was gorgeous. This is what I ordered:

{sweet potato and kale wrap with a homemade tomato sauce}
[it was wonderful.]

For dessert we headed over to a cute little cupcake store. My cupcake was chocolate with salted caramel frosting.

The cupcake was decent but it was the shop itself that won me over. It was cute and cozy with a vintage sort of feel. 

Riding on the ferry is one of my favorite parts of going to Maine. It takes a bit of time so you can properly relax and enjoy it. 

That Saturday  was the annual wharf street festival. It's a sort of craft festival that they have every year in the community center and my aunt had a table in it this year that I got to help with. 

{the big banner}

{our table}

{a very delicious blueberry white-chocolate chip oatmeal cookie :)}

We went out to half rock to see the seals. It was high tide so we didn't get a chance to see them on the rocks  but we had a good time searching for them in the water and trying to snag pictures. 

{half rock}

{cormorants}

{a wee little seal head :)}

{the endless ocean}

{the perfect shade of blue}

The last day there I took a bike ride around the island and stopped at the beach. It was nice to explore by myself and just be. The ocean is so beautiful and peaceful. 

Later that day we had a little birthday party for my Uncle Craig. It was fun helping my aunt and her sister prep for the party. Lots of good food and lovely people. Debbie and Gary (my other aunt and uncle that live in Portland) came out for the party and brought my cousin's kids (first cousins once removed? haha), Abe and Ezra. They are jems. really. I mean, look at them.

Abe came with my Aunt Debbie to come pick me up at the train station and the first words out of his mouth were: "hey! we have the same haircut". precious. 

At the end of the party I took my aunt and uncle and Abe and Ezra to the dock to catch the ferry home. 

I joined them back in Portland later that night and at the crack of dawn I was on my way home. 

It was a much needed break. 

Life Lately

It's now August and summer is coming to a close. Fortunately for me, I'm a fall kind of girl. Summer has never been my favorite. I enjoy it for the first couple of weeks and then I'm ready for fall. I really enjoy school (especially college), changing trees and cool weather. I like wearing sweaters and scarves, drinking hot chocolate and cuddling ;)

I finished up my summer job a couple weeks ago. I enjoyed working there and it's about as good as it gets as far as summer jobs are concerned, but I sure was glad to be done. They had a lovely little going away party for me, complete with this cake:

{The union jack and a double-decker bus! I almost died}

There have been lots of weddings in the past month. I think like 9 or 10 weddings of people that I know. that are around my age. weird. Some were acquaintances and others were extremely good friends of mine. One I new in my elementary school days, another I have only become close to in the past year. I am so incredibly happy for each of them. They made for some gorgeous brides and handsome grooms.
I was only able to actually attend one of the receptions and it was wonderful to be there to celebrate with them.

{love these guys :)}

Every time I get on Facebook I am bombarded with statuses about BYU and getting back to Provo and it makes me just the tiniest bit sad. I am so excited to go to Paris and London and to travel and learn and grow. But this little part of me almost wishes that I was going back to Utah. RA training was last week and classes start next week and I'm still here feeling like I should be there.

Speaking of Paris and London...I'm leaving in three weeks!!! The only thing that stands between me and my study abroad is...duh Duh DUH...packing...*horrified gasp*. It gets worse. We have been advised to pack light, lighter than we ever have before, ultra ultra light. gah. So basically the next three weeks will be spent packing. I kid you not. I'm sure I will pack and repack and change my mind and pack again. It's a process. a really long process.

And some sad news. My chucks have finally kicked the bucket. They have have been my faithful sole-mates for the past three years but when the hole count reached four and the sole was starting to crack a bit I decided that it was probably time to replace them. So it was with a heavy heart that I went to the mall and picked up a brand spanking new pair of my beloved grey converse low tops.

Because we have a garden I've been doing more vegetable-y cooking. Especially with kale. We have so much kale.

{gnocchi with butternut squash and kale}
[delicious]

{sweet potato, kale, and sausage hash}
[I know, it sounds weird but it was actually pretty good]

I also made these brownies. They're zucchini brownies. Yes, you read that correctly. They were some of the most delicious brownies that I have ever had the privilege of ingesting. They had chocolate icing on top that kind of soaked into the top and made them all gooey and delicious. true story.

And for your viewing pleasure:

How to make a guy like you- Disney Princess style

#5 is my favorite for sure :)

Faster, Higher, Stronger

I'm not much of a TV watcher. Except for during the Olympics. I have watched more TV in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. I just can't help myself.

It's crazy what these athletes are able to accomplish and what our bodies are able to do. After I watch, I always feel inspired to work on myself; to make myself a little bit better. Then, of course, I actually have to do something about it.

I'm really trying to get back into running. I love running, but it's hard. I often forget about that first part and focus on that second part. Many times "it's hard" translates into "I can't". But that is not the case. It may be difficult and painful but I can.  I can run. Every time I feel like I can't I just have to remind myself that I really can, that I have an amazing body that is capable of doing it.

{Sunday was Nike's 'Find Your Greatness' day}

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion:  The potential for greatest lives within each of us. 

– Wilma Rudolph, American 3x gold medal runner

Make goals. Take action. Find Your Greatness

Home

Two weeks ago my family and I were busily packing up our house, getting ready to move. For those of you who don't know, I despise packing. Packing just isn't my thing. I would 10x rather unpack than pack. I thought I disliked packing before, but this move certainly took the cake.  Packing up an entire house is way beyond packing up a 19' x 8' room (and I could barely handle that). So...you can probably imagine how much I enjoyed the week leading up to the move. My schedule= sleep, work, sleep, pack, sleep, repeat. I ended up taking two days off work to help get everything packed up and over to the new house.

The new house is quite different than what we're used to: it's much smaller, old (c.1890ish), and a little dark. But I must admit that I like it better. The house is in dire need of some redecoration (which I'm pretty stoked about) but other than that it's quite lovely. Some of the floors are original wood plank and the floor in the kitchen is brick. I like that it's smaller because we end up being together more as a family (or at least in the same room :P). It sits on a beautiful acre of land.  We have "real" trees. My puppy has plenty of space to run around without being on a leash. There is a garden that the previous owners planted that is bursting with delicious produce. We're going to build a firepit so we can make s'mores  :)

We're still in the process of unpacking boxes and moving things around but it already feels like home to me.

And that is what makes a house a home :)

If I Had Words

I watched Babe the other week and this scene never fails to put a smile on my face.

Farmer Hoggett is the best :)