Matt and Krista's Epic Adventure Part 3: New Brunswick & PEI

 

Ok, bear with me. This is going to be a really long post. So go grab a cup of coffee, tea, whatever you like and then come back and join me.

 

After Salem, we knew we had a big of a trek to Prince Edward Island. So we planned to take 2 days to get there so that it wasn't crazy stressful to get there. We drove 8 hours through Vermont and Maine all the way to Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. A few hours after we left Salem, the scenery started to change. It looked more northern, more woodsy and green. Once we were into Maine, we started to see signs on the highway to beware of moose! Which, I must admit, got me a little excited! Then, once we crossed back into Canada into New Brunswick we noticed all the fences along the highway to keep the moose away from traffic. There must be a lot of them. I was hoping to spot one sometime while we were driving, but we never did get to see one unfortunately. We did spot a baby black bear though running along the highway all cute and bouncy-like. He was almost waving at traffic like "Welcome to Canada."  Momma bear must have been nearby.

 

 

Smallest border crossing ever. Only one lane. The other
was Nexus. It was great, no lineup!

 

Matt was super excited to get his Timmies again once we got back into Canada haha :)

 

 

Watch out for Moose!

 

 

 

A cool video of the scenery in New Brunswick. Watch until the end, there's a cool view :) This is one of my favorite videos of the trip.

 

 

For my Game of Thrones fans, we saw signs for Kings Landing in New Brunswick ;)

 

 

We didn't get to do a lot in New Brunswick because we were only there for the night, but I would love to have seen the Bay of Fundy where they have the massive tides come and go. We did do Magnetic Hill though, where your car goes up a hill all by itself. It was pretty cool!

 

We grabbed a hotel for the night in Moncton, NB and the next day, we were only a few hours from Prince Edward Island!

 

To get to PEI, you either need to take a ferry or cross on Confederation Bridge, which is huge. It's almost 13km long.  We took the bridge. Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous crossing this bad boy because of its sheer size. It was a pretty cool experience though! Once we got high up on the bridge you could get a good look at PEI and see what it's known for, that gorgeous red dirt. It's also known for the potatoes. In Canada, everyone knows that PEI is famous for growing potatoes.



Confederation Bridge



Finally driving onto PEI and seeing the red sandy beaches.



My husband is a lobster. Good lord, I just love him.

 

When we first crossed onto PEI, there was this sort of welcome village that was so clean, colorful, and almost resembled something out of Pleasantville. It was so stinking cute! So we had lunch and shopped. Matt had his first lobster roll there and was in heaven.

 

Here is a video of driving into our hotel. It was called The Rodd Crowbush Beach Resort. The hotel was awesome and I would highly recommend to anyone going to PEI. Matt surprised me with a cottage when I thought we had a hotel room. Heck, I was just as excited for a hotel room at a beach resort let alone a small cottage! What am I going to do with him? What a sweetheart.

 

 

 

 Here is a picture of the beach at the resort.

 

 

Here is a video of the beach at the hotel that I'm sure most of our friends and family have seen because we sent it to them when we got there to show them where we were on our trip! The resort was so neat that you could just call down to the front desk, then they will come pick you up in this 6 person golf cart and drive you down to the beach because it was a bit of a hike. Then, they will come back for you whenever you tell them too. I felt so spoiled like we were some fancy schmancy couple. It was great! They also told us that they would set up a fire on the beach at night at our request if we wanted too. How awesome.

 

 

 

Matt barbequing a pizza at our cottage.

Matt's fancy lobster dinner at the resort. They gave him a bib and all. I can't eat it because I'm allergic, but I must say I think I had just as much fun watching him devour it as he did eating it. It was whole lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, potatoes, and corn on the cob all boiled together. It looked freaking awesome!

I don't know why but we got a kick out of this sign.

 

Driving around PEI. You can see the potato fields in the background. They were everywhere.

 

Lighthouse

Basin Head Beach - Where you can leap off that bridge into the water and it's know for it's singing sands.

Basin Head Beach

The bridge at Basin Head Beach that you can jump off of.

Here are a few short videos I took at Basin Head Beach. It was gorgeous there. Water was too cold to swim when we were there, but I guess it does get warmer in July and August. Also, I had heard about the "singing sands" there and when we first got there the sand was a bit wet because of the rain the night before so it wasn't making any noise. I was thinking the "singing sands" were a joke, but sure enough once the sun came out for a few hours, just walking on them you could hear more like a squeak sound that sounded really funny. Someone told Matt that I guess when it's really windy you can hear the "singing sands" from a distance. It was so cool. I could have stayed at that beach a long time.

 

Pretty Beach

 

Gorgeous Red Rocks on the Beach

 

 

 Singing Sands :)

 

 

 We loved Prince Edward Island. It's a place where you don't have to drive far to find a beach access. They are everywhere. The island is absolutely beautiful with the almost neon green landscape, the vibrant red dirt, rolling hills, the endless potato fields, and the deep blue ocean. Pictures and videos really don't do it justice.  I know we will go back one day.

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos and videos from our trip!

 



Matt & Krista's Epic Adventure Part 2: SALEM

 

I've been really excited to write these blog posts about our trip because we really did have such a great time and I wanted to share it with everyone and while seeing pictures posted on Facebook is neat, there is something more personal about sharing the stories and experiences in a blog post. So here we go!

 

Our first major stop on our roadtrip was Salem, MA.

 

I was always fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials, so this was a place I had wanted to go for a very long time. So much history is here.

 

Now getting to Salem was not so straight forward. Being so close to Boston, traffic was horrendous about an hour from it. (I'm a country girl, traffic is not my favorite.) Also, we were lucky to have GPS with us because  since Salem is such an old town and streets were built pretty narrow (I'm talking our side mirrors were a few inches from the parked cars on the side of the street), everything is one-way. So it got interesting, but I just took it all in and loved every minute.

 

 I googled the best places to stay in Salem and the hotels were booked seeing as it was last minute and all (well there weren't many hotels in Salem), but there were several B&Bs. The top rated one on Trip Advisor was Morning Glory so we decided to give it a try.  It was such a charming place to stay. The owner who ran it put so much work and effort into the place and you could really tell. From the  Ferrero Rocher chocolates left on our table, the amazing breakfast with pancakes, berries, walnuts, & maple syrup (which were delicious), to the way the host printed us off directions when we left for the easiest way out of town (still complicated haha.) He really thought of everything to make your stay memorable. The location was great too! There were lots of places within walking distance, which is great! There was even a rooftop deck to  sit on that had an amazing view. We sat up there at night during the sunsets with a  few drinks and watched as the night sky came.

 

Salem was certainly a magical place. The waterfront town was filled with so many old New England style houses, buildings, history, and yes, even real modern day witches. Driving through the small downtown area, some people were dressed in spooky costumes and you could see people from all walks of life. Several museums were there, and by museum I mean reinactment more like a theatre show. We made that mistake thinking "The Witch Museum" was an artifact type museum. 

 

 

Here are some pictures of Morning Glory.

 

 

 

Rooftop deck

 

Here is a quick video of the rooftop deck. You can see how close together the old houses are and how cool they look. Also how rooftop decks are a bit of a thing which is neat. Don't mind my camera skills, I never promised I  had talent in the video department! Also love Matt's nice reaction; you can really tell I had been taking pictures all day haha!

 

 

 

 

This is the Friendship of Salem - 5 minute walk from our B&B. Tours were free I believe.

 

 

Right around the corner from our B&B was a few bars, restaurant, and ice cream shop. This was the "Pig's Eye" which was a bar/restaurant that had anything pig related decorated everywhere. It was next door to the "Witch's Brew" which was an awesome restaurant that sadly I didn't get any pics of! Cool name though and great food though.

 

 

Matt was super excited to get his chocolate ice cream cones both days at Captain Dusty's while we were there because it was conveniently located around the corner from the B&B.

 

Essex Street Pedestrian Mall which was loaded with gift shops, restaurants, reinactments of the witch trials, and even real witch stores to buy magic candles & spells (which I totally did because "when in Salem..")

 

Here is a picture of a magic pregnancy candle I bought at a witch shop called Omen. Sounds spooky! I figured it wouldn't hurt to try magic candle at this point. The witch shops were really interesting and smelled like really strong incense.

 

 

 

This was the liquor store in Salem. Awesome name. And yes we did have to buy liquor from a store called Bunghole Liquors. It totally happened.

 

This is the Witch House. This is the only building in Salem with actual ties to the witch trials. It was the house of one of the judges, Jonathan Corwin, and we were told that he took depositions for the trial in the house. We took a tour. It was so neat to see everything. The house is from the 1600s and was considered a mansion in those days.

 

 

Copies of documents from the Witch Trials.

 

Fireplace in the house. There were two huge walk in fireplaces on each level.

 

Here is a quick video of some of the neat architecture on a side street in Salem. One of the few wide streets in Salem. I loved how the houses looked! I wish I took more pictures of it and again I apologize for my camera skills  - I was too busy looking myself!

 

 

 

We had a pretty nice time in Salem and I would love to go back in the fall sometime because I bet its beautiful. Side note : I had the best Mexican food in Salem at a place called The Howling Wolf. If you ever go it's a must!

 

After 2 nights in Salem, we were back on the road! Next stop, Moncton, New Brunswick, then PEI!

Matt and Krista's Epic Adventure Part 1 : Planning

So Matt and I went on a little trip.. okay not so little trip. Before I dive into the actual trip, let me tell you all about our crazy vacation planning. We had said for years we wanted to do a big vacation, like national lampoon style, before we had kids. Now years came and went, no huge vacation or kids either, but now that we know we could be adopting anytime, it's crunch time. Also, everything I've read about adopting, and believe me when I say I've read A LOT, says to take that one last vacation just the two of you because your life is about to get crazy and you will wish you had. So we decided that was something we really wanted to make an effort to do.

Well, now that we own & operate our own company (it's still relatively new), summer is definitely our busiest time and you know that old saying "you gotta bail hay while the sun shines?" So needless to say, we've been working really hard and been very busy this summer so far and that's great for business! However, it leaves little time for downtime. I know I know, first world problems, but this was something really important to us to do before our next epic adventure, having kids.

One day, Matt came to me and said that he had a week that might be free at the end of June for a possible trip. The only problem? That week he mentioned was the following week. How do I plan an epic adventure in a week.. last minute?!? This might be a bit of a challenge, but you better believe I was going to find us something great!

So off I went hunting for a vacation. Last minute deals, last minute cruises, pretty much anything I could find within a reasonable budget.  After several days of hunting, calling places, and I was pretty well defeated so we had to think outside the box. We wanted to do something we had never done before and go places we had never seen before. Why not take an epic roadtrip? We decided to head out to the east coast. Neither of us had been there before. We wanted to drive as far as Prince Edward Island, which is pretty dang far and it's supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I had always wanted to see Salem, MA as I was just fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials so that became a stop as well. So we booked a few places, packed up our minivan and away we went!


Matt and Krista's Roadtrip 2014: Off to PEI!

Story Of Our Playset

A few months ago, Matt was on a job doing some excavating for a nice family in town and they got talking about us and how we were going through the adoption process. He said that they were so interested, supportive of adoption, and explained how they had one child who was getting too old for the playset that they had in their yard. So, after hearing about our plans to adopt they kindly offered to give us the playset for free if we would like it.

Now, funny thing was, that week I was hunting high and low for something similar to put in our backyard just to be ready for when we have kids and Matt knew it. He told them, "Wow, thank you! You just made my wife's day!" He text me a picture of this cute playset and I was ecstatic!

So a few weeks later, a group of friends helped us take apart and move this playset to our house. Matt put it back together and I ended up giving the nice family that so sweetly gave us the playset  a discount on the work we did there because those kind acts don't go unnoticed by us and I wanted to do a little something in return.

It's kind acts like this that really move me. When we first started the process, classes educated us on how some people don't understand adoption, may tell your children that we aren't their "real" parents, and that there would be obstacles. And while I'm sure that there will be hurdles and times that people will get under my skin, throughout this whole process so far we've been met with nothing but love and support for adoption.  From our customers donating a beautiful playset to even the regular lady at the grocery store checkout asking us if we've heard anything yet, we have only received kindness and for that I am extremely grateful.  You guys melt my heart!

So I just wanted to share this lovely story with everyone because it makes me so happy and thankful for all the support we have received!! I have nothing but gratitude :)

Here are some pictures of the awesome playset :) (Taken a few months ago.)

 

 Matt putting it back together

 

 

Tobey was curious too!

 

Matt trying out the rock wall haha.

 

 

 I was really trying to get Tobey to go down the slide and this was his look like "Mom, you won't be happy until I go down this silly slide will you?"

 

 

 

 

 

Tobey giving the slide a go!

 

 

 

 

Tobey and his "cousin" Andy trying out the slide :)

 

 

 

We love and it and can't wait to share it with our future family! But until then, Tobey is making good use of the slide :)

 

 

XO

 

 

Am I Nesting?

So lately I've been getting the feeling that we might get THE CALL soon. That call that will change our lives forever. It make me excited, anxious, and feeling as though I have a major to-do list growing to get done before our kiddos are here!

For days, I've been obsessing a little about buying stuff for our future kids, getting the house in order (we need to put a fence around the pool and finish trim in the bedrooms), and some weird urges to just gut everything out of the rooms so they can really get cleaned. Now, I am not a clean freak by any means, lord knows. So these constant, almost obsessive, urges caught me off guard. Like what is wrong with me??  Why am I this crazy person? The only conclusion I have come to is that I must be nesting.

Now, I didn't really know how nesting worked for adoptive parents. I think I was just always under the assumption that it was more for pregnant women like some hormonal thing. I mean, surely even though I was adopting I would want to get my house in order and get things ready for our kids, which I guess you could call nesting, but I really didn't know it would effect me on this level. Seriously, this week it has just taken over my life. Any and all of my down time has been focused on this and anything to do with it.

For months, years too, the adoption just feels as though its never going to happen. Like it's in the far off distance somewhere. We know it's coming and it will happen, but it never felt real. Until lately. Somehow, someway I just got this feeling like oh boy you better ready because it could happen anytime. And it could. It could be next week. It could still be months from now. We have no control over it. And if it is still months from now, I feel sorry for my hubby and the crazy lady he has to put up with until then.

Now, the only problem is that since we don't know the ages, gender, or if we will have one or multiples it is extremely hard to buy things in advance. Our adoption criteria is siblings under 4 years old. So we can't buy a crib yet unless we know we even need one or maybe two. We have two twin beds already though. We can't buy clothing, bottles, or most toys until we know what ages they are. So it's so hard. Yesterday however, I did go a little overboard buying children's books. One of my very best friends told me the best places to buy children's books were at second hand stores because not only are they cheap but there were lots in excellent condition. So off I went. I was like a madwoman on a mission. I hit a few stores and stocked up on books. These books were in pristine condition as well! That was the only thing I could think of that would cover all the bases of age and gender. Children's books. 

I also called my mother and asked her if she would be willing to make a couple blankets for the kids because I want the blankets to be my first gift to them during the transition process (when they are still living at the foster home, but we are visiting daily.) That way they can sleep with them at night. I read somewhere that it was good for adoptive parents to sleep with the blanket you plan to give your child for a couple nights before you give it to them, that way the child becomes familiar with your scent. So that is something I want to do. Anything to make the transition easier for them. And bonus, the blanket will be made from their grandmother and it's something they can keep forever.

So my dear friends, if you have any suggestions at all of what I could do in advance please please feel free to tell me. I am all ears!

 

 

Here is a photo of my book collection so far. Side note : I bought 80% of them yesterday and only spent $16! What a steal! So at least now I have a small library for my future kids!