The Maine Event

Last month I did something crazy: I went to Maine! Why would anyone go to Maine in February, you may ask? I went with my supervisor Maryanne for training so we could become Certified Interpretive Trainers through the National Association for Interpretation. It was FREEZING COLD while we were there, but it was absolutely beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing a new part of the country.

We flew into Boston, which looked really beautiful at sunset. We then got our rental car and headed north for Maine.

We stopped for dinner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at a cool restaurant right on the ocean called the Oar House. I had some AMAZING fresh Atlantic haddock, and when they say "fresh" on the coast, they mean FRESH. Little did we know that our food adventures were just beginning.... We then finished our drive to the town of Wells, Maine.
 

On Monday morning we got up bright and early--it felt especially early because we were on Eastern time--and headed to our first day of training at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm. I had no idea what an estuarine reserve was, but apparently Wells is known for its coastal tide pools, which house some unique marine wildlife that people come and study. All marine wildlife was, however, frozen while we were there :) Our training schedule was very hardcore--we had class from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. everyday, but thankfully they left time for us to eat!

Our first Maine food adventure was lunch on Monday at the Bull and Claw Restaurant. I saw a "Lobster Roll" on the menu, which sounded good, and when I asked the waitress what exactly a lobster roll is, she looked at me like I was crazy. She said, "A lobstah roll has lobstah on it." (I had figured that!) But it turned out that a lobster roll is basically just a po' boy-style sandwich stuffed full of lobstah. It was quite lobstery!
 

On Monday after class, Maryanne and I wanted to go see the ocean. Wells is cool because it is situated next to this marshy lake area with one road that goes out over the marsh and leads to another strip of land (Wells Beach) that borders the Atlantic Ocean. This is the view from Wells Beach looking back to the west toward mainland Wells...
 

..

...and this is the view of the Atlantic, looking east from Wells Beach. It was awesome! 

 

For lunch on Tuesday (and Wednesday) we ate at the Maine Diner, featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives." You can check it out by clicking here. I had some DE-LISH clam chowder both days. For dinner on Tuesday, Maryanne and I tried some lobster pizza at Alfredo's...also DE-LISH!

 

After class on Wednesday, we went to the cool town of Kennebunkport with our classmates and instructors for a group dinner. I just couldn't get over how picturesque Kennebunkport was!

We had another amazing meal, this time at Allison's Restaurant. I had LOBSTER mac 'n' cheese!
 

On Thursday, we only had a half-day of class so that we would have time to work on our Friday presentations (required for our certification). But Maryanne and I decided to put off presentation prep until that night--because we knew that this would be our best chance to see the countryside. We started out by going back to quaint Kennebunkport to see this beautiful town in the daylight. 

There was a picture of this fun sign in my hotel room in Wells, and I found the actual sign in Kennebunkport! Such a fun place...

And, of course, lunch was also amazing. We ate at David's on the waterfront, and this time I had a crab roll. It was so tasty! Maryanne and I then headed up towards Portland, Maine, and stopped at a fun antique shop along the way.

Our final destination was the Portland Head Light lighthouse. One word pretty much sums up the Portland Head Light: AWESOME!!!! It was such a beautiful, historic, cool place. It was here that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem "The Lighthouse," because he was friends with the lighthouse keeper and would frequently visit. It started to snow while the sun was setting, which looked amazing. It was also REALLY cold. I was wearing gloves, but as I was taking pictures, my fingers went totally numb (and it took them about 20 minutes to thaw out after we were back in the car). But it was totally worth it. I think that seeing this lighthouse was my favorite part of the whole trip. We then headed back down to Wells and ate dinner at Billy's Chowder House which is located along that one road going from the mainland out to Wells Beach. I had some tasty shrimp. 

Friday was our last day of class. I gave a successful presentation about tangible resources and intangible concepts, and enjoyed hearing all of the other presentations as well. Our classmates and instructors were wonderful people, and it was fun to meet new friends from all over the world.

At about 5:00 on Friday, Maryanne and I left Wells to head back to Boston. We planned to arrive in the city at around 6:30 and decided that we would eat dinner downtown in historic Boston so that we could see some of the city during our brief time there. Well, we ended up seeing the WHOLE city, but not in the way that we had planned. Most of Boston's roads are tunnels, and unfortunately at least half of the roads, tunnels, and bridges were closed for construction. Our GPS was thoroughly confused because it couldn't get satellite reception in the tunnels, and then the road closures threw it off as well. We kept driving around and around the city, but the traffic was so bad that at around 8:00 we decided to just give up and go find our hotel. To make things more complicated, by this time I really, really needed to find a restroom. In the search for our hotel, we found ourselves driving in circles. At one point we actually passed Faneuil Hall (which had been our original destination for the evening!), but we were already on a road that went the totally opposite direction. I finally reached the critical point where I had to use the bathroom, so we stopped at a seedy-looking bus station. Their bathrooms were CLOSED. I said, "Seriously, is everything in this city CLOSED!" As I ran across the street, across a bridge, and into a ritzy hotel to find a bathroom, I decided that I did not love Boston. After a rest stop, we were able to spend the next hour successfully finding our hotel, where we arrived at about 9:30 p.m. Needless to say, we were both exhausted, so...

...our only taste of Boston was literally some Boston cream pie at our hotel. It was okay, but we were pretty much too worn out to truly enjoy it. We left for the airport early the next morning, anticipating getting lost again, but we actually found it quite easily. It was a fun, educational, wonderful trip, but I was really happy to return home :) And, we left just in time because that evening, Boston and Maine were hit with another big winter storm. I think it's time for spring!

Fantasy Baseball 2014

We're getting ready for another Fantasy Baseball season around here. Rich is joining the league that Greg and I play in with some of our Lincoln Home friends! So, here's Rich's new logo:

 And here is my new and improved Salt Lake Saints logo:

I also just returned from a fun trip to Maine for work, so I'll have a lot of pictures to post soon!

New Year, New Post!

Wow--I can't believe how long I have let it go since I last posted! I guess that things have just been crazy busy . . . but also crazy fun. I guess it took me getting sick to take time to sit down and reflect on the last month and a half. Greg and I have both been down for the count--he with the flu, and me with bronchitis. This morning I went to the doctor, and they made me wear a medical mask because my voice sounded so terrible. It's not a good look for me:

But since it hurts to talk, I feel especially "chatty" in typing, so get ready for the longest post EVER:

We'll start back with Thanksgiving. Look who showed up to the feast at the Taylor's: Cap'n 'Merica!

And what a feast it was!

Over Thanksgiving break, we had a really fun sleepover with Grandpa and Grandma. It was Big Ben's first sleepover, and he did really well. We had a great time!

With the beginning of December came Ben's #3 Birthday! Of course only a super hero party would do, and we had a lot of fun.

It has been quite a snowy winter here already. Early in December I had to go into work on a Saturday for a program we were having. We got hit with a really big snowstorm that same day, so I knew that I had to walk through Temple Square on my way to the train because it was absolutely beautiful!

What was not beautiful, however, was me after digging my car out of a giant snow drift at the train station that night. 

December also meant Camden's terrific band concert . . .

. . . and Mom's and Sid's birthdays! Here are Mom and Dad at the Swedish Julbord we went to at IKEA for Mom's birthday. The food was DELICIOUS, and Mom won a prize in a drawing, which was perfect for her birthday!

The next day we went to see "Frozen" in 3-D to celebrate Sid's birthday. The coolest thing about the movie was that the princesses were Anna and her older sister Elsa--just like Grandma Anna and her older sister Elsa! It was a really cute movie. Because of my eye issues, I can't really see 3-D, so when I'm wearing 3-D glasses, the 3-D movie just looks normal to me. But the 3-D effects must have been pretty cool since Sid was trying to catch the snow flakes coming out of the screen.

The next evening we had a fun party for Mom and Sid. The best gift was from Richard to "Mom and Sid in the Future." It was an Obamacare survival guide!

The next morning I flew to . . . SAN FRANCISCO! I had never been to SF before, and it was a really cool place. I went with a few of my co-workers to meet with the company that is designing our new museum exhibit. We've had our ups and downs with this company, but they sure have an awesome view from their office!

And I had a sweet view from my hotel room!

In the morning I walked down to San Francisco Bay, and it was totally amazing. I got to see the famous San Francisco fog rolling out, and it was just really pretty there by the Bay Bridge.

The bridge looked especially cool when we went back to the bay for dinner that evening.

San Francisco was definitely a cool city, and I would like to go back sometime when I have more time to check stuff out. Our trip was a fun and productive adventure!

December also brought piano recitals--this was Sid's first one, and she, Cam, and Riley all did great!

We got a Santa suit for Big Spike, and it made him all crazy. He started ripping presents open the minute we put him in it!

On Christmas Eve Eve, I thought it would be fun to make Victorian Christmas dolls with kids at the museum. This is me before . . . I did not look this good three hours and 300 kids later :) 

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Taylor family nativity pageant. Here is the cast.

And here are the animal children on Christmas morning. They were feeling pretty bad to the bone.

And Lily was feeling very protective of the pretzels Rich gave us.

We all got together again for New Year's Eve (with Grandma Cathy) for an evening of fun games. I couldn't stay up until midnight, but I definitely woke up at midnight when it sounded like World War III in our backyard (fireworks from the neighbors)!

The first day of work in 2014 was a big one--we deinstalled the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the museum. It was pretty cool to get to hold those priceless/timeless pieces of artwork.

2013 was great, and I am confident that 2014 will be too!

Time Travel

November has been an exciting month! I have traveled across the country and, it has seemed like, through a time warp which began with going off of daylight savings time. Shortly after "falling back" an hour, I went back an additional hour when I switched time zones while traveling to Reno, Nevada for a conference.

I went to Reno with my supervisor Maryanne and the museum's art curator, Laura. We had a great time at the National Association for Interpretation conference and learned a lot of interesting things. Reno was not a place I had ever thought of visiting, but it was actually pretty fun. A few days after returning from Reno, I switched time zones again with Mom, Dad, and Rich when we went to New York to visit Sarah, Joel, and the kids!

One of the most exciting parts of the New York trip was getting to meet Baby Sawyer for the first time! He is such a cute, cuddly guy. He was a little suspicious of Rich and me at first, but we quickly became fast friends.

On Friday we had a fun time touring Sarah and Joel's new town in beautiful upstate New York. On Saturday we visited some of our favorite Church history sites. Sawyer took his job as a tour guide very seriously.  

Here is the crew at the E.B. Grandin printing shop in Palmyra, where the Book of Mormon was first printed.

For lunch we had a picnic at the Sacred Grove. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day--perfect for walking through the leaves and enjoying this peaceful, wonderful place.

Next we climbed the Hill Cumorah.

And that evening we ate at the Coal Tower Restaurant on the banks of the Erie Canal. Sarah and Joel live in such an awesome place!

On Sunday evening, Joel, Sarah, Richard, Eliza and I ventured to the shore of Lake Ontario. It was pretty windy, but absolutely beautiful. The Great Lakes are amazing--they look like the ocean!

On Monday while Eliza was at school, the rest of us ventured to Fayette, New York, and visited the Whitmer farm, where the Church was organized in 1830. On our way there, we passed beautiful Lake Seneca, where our ancestor Parley P. Pratt was baptized. 

For lunch we picked up sandwiches at this great Amish grocery store: Sauder's. If I lived in New York, I would do all of my shopping there! Here I am posing with a 10.03 pound candy bar--too bad it was too big for my carry on bag!

One of Grandpa's and Leo's favorite things to do during our trip was play trains. I can't believe how big Leo and Eliza have gotten . . . 

. . . and how cute little Sawyer is!

Here is Leo with his pals, Grandpa and Grandma, on Tuesday before we flew home.

And Eliza with Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom, waiting for the bus (in the snow!). We had such a fun trip to New York--it was hard to leave!!

This weekend, we got to go waaaaaaaay back in time to celebrate the first Thanksgiving at the appropriately named Thanksgiving Point near our house in Lehi. Mom, Rich, Greg, Camden, and I met up with some of my friends from the museum for our first annual "Eat Like a Pilgrim" event! Camden and I had a great time dressing up in pilgrim armor--but we are glad that we don't have to dress like that every day.

Mom and Cam had a great time playing pilgrim-era games like fox & geese.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast of salad, cider, salted bread, corn pudding, stewed pumpkin, pork, turkey, and berry cobbler. It was a little tricky to eat some things because we didn't have forks!

Miles Standish put Greg in the stocks for failing to eat his stewed pumpkin--because we have to be grateful for all food that we are given!

I ended up in the stocks for failing to wear a petticoat. The funny thing about that is that I actually own a petticoat, but I only wear it with my pioneer outfit at the museum :)

And Miss Cam ended up in the stocks for "showing her hair in public"! Thankfully none of us were publicly shamed like some of the poor folks who ended up in the stocks. We had such a fun evening, and we got our stomachs all warmed up for this week's upcoming Thanksgiving feast! Happy Thanksgiving!