Lovin' Summer =)

We are absolutely loving summer this year!  The weather has been HOT HOT HOT!  Some days it has actually been too hot, but all in all it's been nice!  Last Monday we took a ride to my hubby's parents new camp.  What a ride to get there!  It's like 30 miles down a long dirt road, and then you have to get on another road and another road...and well you get the point!  Once there you have to park your car and walk about an 1/8th of a mile in the woods......and then you are finally there!!  And once you are there the view is amazing!  There are very few camps on this lake and it's great!  Emma had such a blast splashing in the water and swimming!

We got her this new chair with an umbrella and she loves it! 

I love spending days like this with my family!  We had a picnic lunch there and just enjoyed spending time on the beach and in the water!  Can't wait to go back again!!

Every once in a while Emma and I take a ride to the University of Maine gardens.  There flowers there are always so beautiful.  Of course I love going there to take photos.  And Miss Emma is my model =)

I really can't believe how she is growing and that she will be starting kindergarten very very soon!

So tonight for dinner I wanted to try a new recipe that I found on another blog!  It's called Cheeseburger Macaroni.  It was super yummy!  It reminded me a lot of hamburger helper...but completely homemade and much much better! 

You start with these ingredients:

Brown 1 lb of lean hamburg and then drain.  Then add these following ingredients:

1 pkg of Taco Seasoning Mix.  2 cups of beef broth.  1 can of Ro*Tel tomatoes with green chils.  And 1 cup of elbow macaroni.  Mix all of those ingredients with the hamburg.  Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 15 minutes.  While that is simmering gather these ingredients to make the sauce:

In a saucepan melt 2 tbsp of butter.  Then add 2 tbsp of flour.  Whisk in the flour and cook while whisking for about 5 minutes until fragrant and light brown in color.

Then add 3/4 cup of milk.  Whisk the milk and bring it to a boil.  Whisk until smooth and thickened.  Remove from the heat and add 1 cup of cheddar cheese.  And then add salt and pepper to taste.  Then pour it over the hamburg mixture!!

And there you have it!  It was really yummy!  The Ro*Tel tomatoes add quite a bit of spice so if your not into spicy foods I'm sure you could substitute it with just regular canned tomatoes! 

I hope everyone had a really great weekend!!! =)

Weekend Getaway - Part 2!!

On our last day of our weekend getaway we spent a good part of the day in the car driving home.  But...we took "the long" way home.  Which meant no interstate..all back roads!  It was actually a really nice drive.  We drove through quite a few towns here in Maine that I had never been too.  Some of them were so quaint and cute!!  Our first stop was Cape Elizabeth, which is in the southern part of the state.  It was absolutely beautiful there!  We had lunch at Two Lights State Park at a lobster place!  Super yummy!

We had crab rolls, onion rings and clam cakes!

The weather was beautiful and made me wish that we lived on the coast of Maine.  Truly beautiful!

Our next stop before getting home was to a small town called Camden.  Camden is really beautiful town.  Neat little shops and it sits right on a gorgeous harbor.  We were walking through a park and found a little boat landing where there were all kind of ducks swimming around.  Emma got right into the water with them and tried feeding them.  They weren't scared at all....and well neither was Emma!



We really had a lot of fun on this trip!  I love going different places with my family! =) 

Looking forward to this weekend...i'm having a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law =)

Weekend Getaway! Part 1

This past weekend Brian and I along with Emma of course took a weekend vacation with my parents!  It was so nice to get away for a bit and relax and have fun.  We drove to New Hampshire which is about a 4ish hour drive from where we live.  We left on Saturday morning from our house and took off on our journey!  There are sooo many awesome outlet stores and such in New Hampshire, and the best part about it is that New Hampshire does not have any sales tax!! WAHOO!!  I was super dissapointed in the stores though.  Emma desperately needed new shorts, and after walking into the stores and finding all of their summer stuff gone and snow-suits and winter boots on out the shelves was super frustrating!  The 4th of July was just last week....how could they possibly be putting out winter stuff already!?!?!  I honestly don't get it...but there were people buying the stuff!  We drove to our hotel that evening...i'm not even sure how to put this but it was the worst hotel I had ever seen.  Dirty and yucky is the only way to describe it.  Needless to say we only stayed one night there and the following day we found a new hotel that was much much better!  Saturday we went to a theme park called Story Land.  I went there as a kid too.  Emma had such an amazing time!  She is such a dare devil when it comes to rides!  She rode just about every ride they have there!  I was super proud of her....much braver than her mommy is! =)

Here are a couple of photos from when I went to Story Land that my mom came across....and from our trip last weekend =)

The first photo is of me from 1986 at Story Land sitting in the same spot as Emma!  The cool thing is in the photo I was 4 years old just like Emma =)

We both rode in the same shoe ride as well =)

And here is Emma riding the same rollar coaster as I rode with my dad again at Story Land in 1986.  I think it's so cool that this park has the same rides still and Emma was able to enjoy them as much as I did! =) 

Seeing how tall she is so we could figure out what rides she could go on!

Brian and I having fun! =)

Miss Emma and Daddy love the tea-cups...mommy not so much!  Can't handle all that spinning..and spinning...and spinning some more!! haha

Driving Nana & BeeBee around on the crazy farm tractors!  She looovesss these!

BeeBee teaching Emma how they used to milk cows back on the "Farm"

It was a perfect day for a slushy on such a hot day! Yummmy! =)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.....well you get the picture =)

Em with the "Old Woman in the shoe"

Leaving Story Land with memories we will cherish forever!!  Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of our weekend getaway!!! =)

Summer!!!

So I haven't been keeping up with this blog like I thought I would!  I am going to do my best to start blogging a lot more!  So lets go back to June for a bit!  Emma graduated from Pre-K!  I cannot believe my baby is going to be going to school fulltime starting in September =(  Exciting but super sad at the same time.  I'm not ready for her to be all grown up yet.  Here are some photos from her graduation picnic at the park with her class!

 

Showing off her diploma!  

 

 Emma with some of her "besties" in her class!

 

 Picnic Time!

And here is the last photo of her entire Pre-K class!  Emma got a letter in the mail the other day from her school telling her who she is getting for a teacher for Kindgergarten!  She was sooo excited.  When we opened the letter all kinds of colorful confetti fell out onto the floor, she was super excited about that =)  

So now onto the 4th of July!  We spend every 4th of July with my family in my hometown.  It's so much fun to be around family with beautiful weather and yummy food! 

Emma and Brian walking to the parade =)

My uncle driving the fire truck in the town parade, with our friends from Georgia riding in it!

Emma and Gracie swimming in my parents pool =)  We were fortunate to be able to have our friends from Georgia up visitng with us over the 4th of July!

The kids getting ready to watch the fireworks!!

Enjoying the fireworks!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their 4th of July with friends & family!  We had an amazing 4th of July this year =)  And someday i'll learn how to photograph fireworks!! haha =)