Party, Painting and Paddles

Hello. Amanda here...

This morning we went to Mandy Pelotte's baby shower. It was held at her sister Sabrina's house up in Strong (which, for you out-of-staters is actually the name of the town). It was a really beautiful morning; the weather has been my favorite recently! I love the hint of autumn in the air. Anyway, it was great to see the Pelottes and also the Jellisons. Mandy is due in about 5 weeks and she looks great! After everyone went home we stayed to visit with Sabrina, Dana and their two kids Patia and Rowan, which was really nice because we've never really spent time with them outside of a party or axis-and-allies gathering. I hope we get to see more of them.

So I don't have any pictures of the breezeway, or what we're now calling the 'mudroom', but I will say that I have finished all of the painting I can do for now. The doors and the walls all have their two coats of paint on, and the ceiling is also done (thanks muffles). So now all we have to do is put up the trim, or the 'finish carpentry' as Jared likes to call it, which I believe Jared is going to attempt tomorrow. After Jared finishes that project, I'll paint the trim and we'll put down the carpet. I'll wash the windows and then we'll be all set! We're hoping to have it done before Krathony and Mum come to visit this weekend.

Around 6 pm we loaded the canoe onto the car and took off for Messalonskee Stream. When I say 'took off' I really mean drove the 7 minutes it takes to get to the 'carry-in only' boat launch. While getting into the canoe I slipped and fell into a big mud hole. That was fun. We did see a great blue heron, a beaver dam, a turtle and a little boy on a bicycle. We also went under a scary bridge where they're doing some construction, probably due to the bridge collapse that happened recently. When we got back I DID NOT fall into the mud hole. The pictures above are from our paddle. Jared doesn't like getting his picture taken while paddling, but I took it anyway.