Congratulations, Daniel!

For the past two years Daniel has been working toward the completion of his Master's Degree in Public Administration. On Saturday, he submitted his final capstone paper! He is officially done! It's hard to believe! Daniel says that its surreal. He is so used to turning in a final paper for a class and in a few weeks getting the syllabus for the next class. It may take a while for the reality to sink in. To celebrate Daniel's huge accomplishment, I took him to Richardson's for ice cream cones. I'm very proud of him!

Lobstah

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Old Orchard Beach - part 2

Sunday morning turned out to be cooler and cloudier than Saturday. After breakfast at the hotel, Daniel and I drove down to Old Orchard Beach to enjoy our morning by the ocean before heading home. We spent a little time visiting some of the local shops as we made our way to the beach, sampling fudge in a candy store and picking out a magnet for a suvenier of our trip. On the sandy beach we spread our blanket and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the ocean. Daniel and I spent the time writing in a journal, recording the events of our first anniversary trip, listing the memorable events of the past year, and looking to the coming year and what it may bring. The drive home went much faster than the drive up, since we left Old Orchard Beach around noon. We stopped in Wells at Wonder Mountain to play a round of miniature golf. It was a beautiful course with waterfalls, ponds, and wildflowers. We had a great time and I beat Daniel by one point! It was a very close game. Daniel and I finished our First Anniversary weekend with dinner at Bob Lobster for a wonderful seafood meal. We sat outside on a picnic table overlooking the Merrimack River. Daniel had fish and chips and I had lobster. After dinner we returned home and finished writing about our day in the journal. It was a fantastic, relaxing weekend celebrating our first anniversary. I am very blessed to have Daniel in my life. This past year has been wonderful and I look forward to what the future holds for us.

Old Orchard Beach - part 1

Daniel and I chose to spend our First Anniversary at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. We had wanted to go to Maine for our honeymoon, but weren't able. It was the perfect choice for our anniversary now that we live in New England. We chose to take the scenic route up the coast Saturday morning. What we didn't consider was what the traffic would be like on the two lane road as opposed to the freeway. What should have taken less than two hours, took us over four hours! We finally made it to our hotel in Saco where we dropped off our stuff and made our way to Old Orchard Beach. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we were excited to spend some time at the beach. We checked out the busy pier, which consisted of suvenier shops and restaurants, before heading down to the water. As you can imagine, the sandy beach was definitely crowded! Daniel and I took a nice walk hand-in-hand along the water's edge, ocassionally getting splashed by a bigger wave. It was a wonderful time of reflecting on our first year of marriage. We finished the evening with dinner on the pier and homemade ice cream from one of the shops along the beachfront.

Burlington

Last week Daniel and I drove up to Burlington, VT. Daniel had another training class to attend for work. It was nice to get away for a few days. We enjoyed an evening by Lake Champlain, eating out at great restaurants, and Dakin Farm's fantastic maple soft serve frozen yogurt cones. Dakin Farm is located south of Burlington. They make all kinds of foods, from maple syrup and cheeses to jams and jellies. They also give out free samples of many of their products. The best product by far is the frozen yogurt. At first, you may think that maple flavored frozen yogurt sounds terrible. But, it actually is very good! It's a good thing we don't live near this store because we'd be there every day.


One of the highlights of our trip occurred on the drive up to Burlington. We saw a moose lumbering along in the median of the highway! We were going too fast to get a picture, but it was fun to see it.

The Fourth of July

I had been excited about the fourth of July weekend for a while. I was looking forward to having a few days to spend with Daniel, maybe go to the beach or something. Unfortunately life does not always turn out the way we want. Because the Lawrence office was scheduled to open the following monday, Daniel needed to put in a little over time and help get the new office set up. He worked the whole day on Friday and had agreed to work Saturday morning as well. I was happy to at least have Daniel to myself the rest of the day to celebrate the Fourth. After Daniel left for work on Saturday, I decided to do a little grocery shopping. I wanted to surprise Daniel with a rhubarb cream cake, one of his favorite desserts. So, I headed to the nearest grocery store to pick up some ingredients for the cake. I was really excited to do a little baking. When I got home, I chopped up the rhubarb and mixed up the cake mix. I was getting ready to put the rhubarb and cream over the cake, but I couldn't find the pint of whipping cream that I had bought. I wondered if I had left that bag in the car so I ran out to the parking lot to check. No whipping cream! It was listed on the receipt so I knew I had gotten it. The bagger had not bagged it for me! I had to leave the cake to head back to the store. At least it was the closest store! I rushed back home and finished putting the cake together and got it in the oven. I was disappointed because it didn't turn out as well as it should since the cake batter had to sit for a while instead of going into the oven right away. The rhubarb didn't sink to the bottom of the pan like it's supposed to. I was worried that it wouldn't tasted good. Daniel was thrilled to see the cake cooling on the stove when he got home. It tasted a lot better than it looked!

Saturday evening, Daniel and I went out for dinner before heading to the park to watch fireworks. We decided not to spend $10 each to get into West Beach, so we thought if we were at Lynch park, down the coast, we could watch the fireworks from a distance. We also knew that Marblehead and Salem were shooting their fireworks off the same night, just across the bay. We had a great vantage point at the park! We watched all three displays from our spot, and they weren't too far away. When we got home we caught the end of the Boston Pops concert and fireworks on TV.

Berry Picking

Just before Daniel's parents left, we took them up to New Hampshire to go strawberry picking. Daniel found a great farm in Londonderry that grows a variety of fruits. The strawberry plants looked great and the berries were very sweet and juicy. We picked so many berries! We had plenty of strawberries, so we cut some up to freeze and I also made jam. Daniel and I definitely plan to return in a few weeks for raspberries and blueberries.