ARE WE THERE YET???????

These words were repeated very often on our four hour drive to North Conway New Hampshire this weekend with the grands.  We left early Friday morning loaded with their favorite pillows, a cooler full of fruit and drinks and several movies for the dvd player!  What a wonderful invention for long trips with active kiddos along.

We got to North Conway and then it was another hour to Six Gun City only because of the traffic in downtown Conway.  It took us close to a half hour to get through a three or four mile stretch and then it was beautiful driving the rest of the way.  The mountains around us were just gorgeous and I can only imagine them in the fall when all the leaves have changed into their fall orange, yellow, brown, red and rust hues.

We arrived at Six Gun City which is a small theme park that's been around since our son went when he was five years old.

The little roller coaster was the hit of the day as far as Mr D was concerned.  They rode it over and over as there weren't that many people there, they didn't even have to get off and get in line again they just stayed on.

Paddling was fun, but I stayed on dry land in case of a tip over!  

There were horses to see and ride, go-carts, flume ride, plus lots of other things but we were ready to head back to the hotel as it had been a long day.

The next day we went to Santa's Village.  It was a bit further then the day before but we left early and didn't run into any traffic.  It is a wonderful little theme park, very clean, lots and lots of gorgeous flowers everywhere, shows, rides, you name it.

The grands had never been there before so were just so excited about everything that there was to see.  The reindeer were a big hit with them and ME!  :o)  

The flowers were gorgeous~and everywhere, I just kept snapping pictures but I'll only put a few in this post.  Don't want anyone nodding off........  :o)

Of course there was the obligatory roller coaster, of which I am not too fond, but, you do things for your grand kids that you normally wouldn't do so I went on it twice!  Do I look a bit apprehensive in this shot?

Well Blogger has decided that I have put in enough pictures for one day.  It just keeps saying that it 'failed'. Sigh....  Well, that will give me something to write about the next time.  :o)


To say we had a blast with the kiddos would be an understatement.  These are precious years and will go by all too quickly.  We try to spend a lot of time with them and are very hands on grandparents as I know a lot of you are.  We had requested adjoining rooms so that we could have the door open between them but they didn't have any left when we got there so it turned into the 'boys' room and the 'girls' room.  We wanted to put a sign on our door NO BOYS ALLOWED but we didn't.......we were nice.   When I saw Miss T this morning I told her that I missed my roommate and she giggled.  Then Mr. D came over to get a stick of butter and had his stuffed toy with him that he got at Santa's Village.  I was glad he liked it and was carrying it around.  It was a round frog.  We are already planning next years trip, there is one thing that we did that they want to do AGAIN soon!  It involves a chairlift going up the mountain and a sled to come down on.......Yikkkkeeeessss!

Flowers in the Garden

As fall is fast approaching I felt I should get outside and take some pictures of my flowers.  Lots have gone by already but there are still tons of them to look at and enjoy.  Here are some cone flowers that have overtaken my veggie garden spot.  They self seed and I have been moving them to other places, given them away, anything but pull them out and throw them on the compost pile.  I don't have the heart to do that.......yet.

Can you see the bee on this one?  They are loaded with bees all the time.

This butterfly is enjoying himself on one of my hydrangea bushes, there is also a bee to the right.

Don't you love the darker pink that is near the center?

Several different colors of cleome, they look so pretty with the rail fence as the backdrop.

Yellow cone flowers.

Had to sneak a picture of my barn in too.   :o)

LOVE Brown Eyed Susan's!

White flox, it smells sooooooooo good!

More flox.

More hydrangea

Can't remember what these are called.

There are more but Mr. D is here and is anxious to get doing something exciting.  We are taking him and Miss T on a little trip this coming weekend to New Hampshire so should have some good pictures from that.  It's funny how we as bloggers think of everything in terms of pictures for our blogs.........  :o)

I smell like a horse.......

It's cool and sunny here today, a nice relief from the hot and humid weather that we have had all summer.  It was 57* when Dad and I went on our walk this morning.  Had to walk right along to keep warm.  I like it though, I have so much more energy when it's cool.

My gardens are doing well, at least my flower gardens.  My veggie garden is pathetic but we are getting a few things out of it for dinner each evening.

Lisa, Miss T's riding instructor was here yesterday and they had a nice ride.  Miss T is loving riding Lil' Bud and he is getting some good exercise.

Don't know why but Blogger won't let me make these pictures smaller...........

Lisa is riding Nick and he is coming along really well.  He is getting back into shape after all of his surgery last winter and being on so much stall rest.  His back seems fine, no more soreness and his spine has healed.  He gets running out in the pasture and just flies!  It is so pretty to watch, it must be the part Thoroughbred in him.  He leaves poor little chubby Kipper and old Lil' Bud in the dust!

I rode yesterday too and took Kip along with me and Bud to give him some exercise too.  He can trot as fast as Bud canters, no wonder ponies are uncomfortable to ride! :o)  We were going along and I noticed a hole in the ground, not good when you have horses that could step in them and break a leg.  It was filled with wasps, I think they must have taken up residence in an abandoned groundhog home.  I marked it with a big stick and will have to get the Hubs to kill the wasps and fill in the hole.  Don't like to kill anything but can't take a chance of one of my horses stepping in it.

Did about three hours of mowing yesterday too.  My sister was here and thought my mowing outfit was something else....... Don't you love the cap and the earmuffs?  If I don't wear a cap the metal part of the earmuffs that goes over my head gets really hot in the sun and burns my head. I think it looks like Princess Lea's hair in Star Wars!

She caught me mowing too.  I love to mow but it makes my ears ring even though I have ear plugs in under the ear muffs!

Well Miss T and I just got back from a long trail ride and it was beautiful out there.  We checked out how the new carriage road is coming and it's going to be great, all shady and nice!  We watched the contractor bring his HUGE dump truck up and deposit a big load of earth which will be replaced with gravel.  It's going to add another couple of miles to our rides which will be nice.

All of the horses were ridden today, Miss T rode Kip and Nick and I rode Bud.  I love it when all of my horses get worked and stay nice and fit.  Now we are back at the house and have had lunch and I am finishing this up and she is having some ice cream.  It's Weight Watchers ice cream and is soooooo good.  You'd never know the difference if no one told you.

Hope you all have a good weekend.  We are headed to the lake as it's supposed to be really nice this weekend, not too hot but hot enough to be in swimming and such.  It sure is the count down on summer so we are making the most of every day.  Take care!!

Getting the tractor stuck and other stuff.

Just so you don't think it is all glamorous (snicker, snort!) here on the Range I will show you what I have been doing today.  The scent of diesel fuel was wafting through the air as I was out bush hogging the area where we are having some work done in the next couple of weeks on a new road.

I love being outside no matter what I am doing but I didn't enjoy getting stuck and having to walk a couple of miles back to the house!  I went down in a ditch and didn't have the tractor in four wheel drive so was just setting there spinning my wheels!  The Hubs went out and immediately got it out by pushing the four wheel drive button.......DUH!


I continued on and Son came along in his Rhino and asked me if I wanted to take a ride around the loop so I hopped off one machine onto another and off we went.  We saw several deer that were just beautiful in their coppery summer coats.  Didn't see any fawns this time but it was fun seeing the adults.  The ride was really bumpy but we made it through all of the mud and water.  We stopped to look at the huge beaver house that is along the way.  It's huge!  Didn't see the beaver but could hear the big bull frogs making their deep har-rump sound.  The kids like to go out there and catch them but of course let them go!  :o)





Mr. D was here this morning with me.  He likes to play on my computer and had company this time.  Notice he still has his helmet on from the bike ride over!  Noodles loves to lay on the computer table when someone is using it.

Friday night we celebrated The Hubs birthday with the kids.  I had steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, tossed salad, yeast rolls and of course cake and ice cream.  I bought just a small cake at the store as we are all trying to cut down on sweets and I didn't want any leftover.  There was just enough with the last piece going next door to FIL.  :o)  


Now the Hubs and I are the same age.  I am from April to August older then he is.  I am the older woman for six months.  We are now both 59, when did that happen?  He was 19 and I was 20 when we got married 39 years ago, when I think of kids now getting married that young I can't imagine it!  His mother had to sign for him to get married as he wasn't yet 20, isn't that a hoot!   We remind him of that occasionally!  :o)


Son came along five years later much to our delight but there were to be no more babies for us unfortunately.  I always thought I would have a big family but sometimes it just isn't meant to be and you have to be content and happy with what you have and we were.  Now with two grands to spoil I make up for lost time!   Son weighed 10 lbs. 5 oz. when he was born!  Yikes! He looked two months old in that baby nursery with the other 6 and 7 pounders!  A teenager in baby world.


In those days when you had a C section you stayed in the hospital ten days.  That was the longest ten days of my life, I just wanted to go home with my great big baby who couldn't fit into his newborn clothes! He was such a good baby and started eating rice cereal at two weeks as I just couldn't fill him up.  He started sleeping through the night soon after starting on cereal too.  Now they say don't give it to them that young.  What did we know back then?  All I know is he was a happy, healthy baby!


We're headed to the lake tomorrow after church.  The summer is going by so quickly I don't want to miss a weekend being there at least one of the days.  It was a bit cool today but supposed to be warmer tomorrow. I loved the weather today though, just perfect for working outside, cool, breezy, no bugs, no humidity. P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Just right for doing some good ole' bush hogging!

Summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime!

Oh my, has it been a week since I last posted anything?  I honestly don't know where the time goes in the summer.  It seems like each and every minute there is something to do or somewhere to go.  We spent this weekend at the lake again and it was just glorious there! Well, a minor situation occurred but it didn't really bother us too much.  More about that later. Rant coming on.  Prepare yourselves.


The Hubs and I left home and took a bunch of stuff to the lake including more plants for my garden that goes along the edge of the driveway by the retaining wall.  I am hoping that they really grow some nice long roots before cold weather as this is a bit late to be putting them in.  I tried very hard to get 'deer resistant' plants as they ate 17 of my hostas one year!  Now that is what I call biting the hand that feeds you..........


Anyhow, I digress.......  We decided to take a side trip to the Jordon Pond House before the grands arrived at the lake for the weekend with us.  As I have written about before, the Pond House is famous for their popovers and strawberry jam, both things that rate high on my list of favorite things.    We had yummy salads with greens, pecans, cranberries, feta cheese and a zesty citrus dressing along with the popovers.  The salad was a meal in itself and the popovers were as good as a dessert!  I bought a couple packages of their mix to have at the lake and made them today and they were so good, not as good as the Pond House but good!  The directions said to make the batter the night before which I did but I didn't have a popover pan so had to make them in a cupcake pan.  I WILL buy the real pan for next time as they weren't as tall as they should have been but there was not a crumb left so no one was complaining!

We drove down through Bar Harbor on our way home and it was packed with tourists.  We have many cruise ships that come there and the store keepers love that!  I was looking for the store that sells Fresh Produce Sportswear but couldn't remember exactly where it was so we kept going.  Should have things on sale now with summer going by so quickly.  


Met up with the kids and Miss T and D came back to the lake with us.  Of course the first thing they wanted to do was to go fishing so out we went.  The kids were pulling them in hand over fist but no big bass this time.

We came in and had dinner and then played Pictionary until dark.  We had picked up some sparklers for the kids while in Bar Harbor and they were itching to use them.  They were so pretty, we lit them out on the end of the dock, wish I could've gotten a picture but I didn't think it would come out.  After that we all went to bed but not for long as there were some loud booms that sounded just like gunfire!!!  Actually it was some people renting a cottage two down from us and they had come to party!  They forget about the many people that live there in the summer and have to get up and go to work.  They set off firecrackers at 9 PM, 2 AM and 4 AM!!!!  YIKES!  I felt badly for my BIL and SIL who are right beside them.  She said it woke them up every time. I hope this doesn't go on all week, maybe they used up all of their fireworks that first night. Guess I'd better stop ranting about it but you must admit it's pretty inconsiderate.


The next day the kids had friends come down plus cousin K.  It's always fun to have a houseful although they didn't spend much time inside.  Once again they wanted to go fishing so The Hubs and Son took them out while I made some chocolate cookies to be ready for them when they came in.  Next they wanted to go tubing.  I passed on that one this time, the ole' bladder just can't take the bumps........ahem.......  (note to self, get some Depends before going on that tube again,,,,,)

Again the kids wanted to go to the rock slide so we loaded everyone in and off we went.  It's about three miles down a bumpy dirt road but worth the trip as it is something so different.  I guess I have posted about it before but it just intrigues me to see the formation of the biggest rock and the way the water has come down over it for so many years that it is smooth.

We are back home again.  I would like to have stayed a few more nights at the lake.  As I said before summer is fast fleeting.  FYI it was 38* in northern Maine one morning last week!!!!!


The boys are fine, Dad and Funsize take care of them for me while I am gone.  Oh, here's a nice picture of Funsize in the boat today.  She had to leave early as she was playing the piano in the evening service at our church tonight.

Well I guess I should fold the load of towels that I brought home from the lake today to wash.  I have a washer and dryer there but never leave the dryer going when we aren't there so brought them home as the kiddos used them right to the end.  I didn't even get in the water this weekend but sure had fun with everything else that we did.  There's nothing like family time is there?  Just before we left my niece and her son Nick drove in and they live two hours away!  They had been up this way visiting my parents so took a chance that we were still at the lake!  We got in a quick visit and they got to see the new digs.  Love those kind of surprises!!!