Saturday, April 12, 2014

Long time no see!

I have heard from a few of you through email and I think you were wondering where I'd got to. Well it's been a combination of life things.  Mainly I just haven't got around to blogging for a while, but here I am now and we'll see how we go.

Our stay in Maine was wonderful.  We originally had planned to leave Ottawa on Thursday and stay in Vermont overnight before arriving in Maine on the Friday for three nights.  Well, as it happened, Vermont was due for a huge snowstorm on the Wednesday (18 inches to be precise!) so not wanting to drive through that, we decided to leave on the Tuesday and get ahead of it.  We stayed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in a Marriott hotel in Concord , New Hampshire.  Our church has a temple in Boston which is only a little over an hour from Concord, so we went there on the Wednesday and when the storm hit Concord (not nearly as badly as it hit Vermont) on Thursday we hit the exercise room, and hot tub and played board games all day while the snow fell.  It was very relaxing.  When we arrived,our fridge wasn't working so they upgraded us to a deluxe room with a jacuzzi tub right in the room.  That was nice.

Friday we left for Maine and below is the view from our balcony.



We had our own private hot tub outside on our balcony and it was wonderful.



We lay in it nice and warm while the temperature outside was slightly cooler to say the least!


It was so good to see our litle town in winter at last!


Even more deserted than the Fall.


My sweetie putting the milk away.


And the view from our bedroom balcony and window.


It was a much needed break for both of us and we ended up staying an extra night. so a short vacation that started out as Thursday to Monday became a week as we came home on Tuesday.  The pace was slow and we drank it all in, walking on the beach every day and loving every minute!
The Billowhouse puts fresh cookies in your room every day and when we arrived, Judi had left this little message for us - it truly is our second home!


Our little Norah celebrated her second birthday in March and Adam & Alicia came down for the celebration.




She was a lot more interested in her presents this year!


The hit of the day was a litttle "Dora the explorer" She carried it around with her the whole time.




Life will be busy for the next few weeks as we are involved in our annual Broadway show at church in June and rehearsals are just beginning.  Wendell & Rebekah are Jean Valjean and Cosette in the finale of Les Miserables and Myself, Andrew & Kelsi are in the chorus.  It is always fun to be involved.  Don't think I posted photos last year, but Rebekah & I were in the finale which was "You can't stop the beat" from Hairspray.  We danced and sang and had an absolute blast!
This was taken in the dressing room just after our performance

 And this was after the show with "Alpheba" and Mark Mitchell who is the genius behind the show.  He writes the music arrangements and conducts the orchestra and pretty much puts his life on hold each year for a few months to do this.



So that's life in a nutshell for now. Hope life is treating you all well and you are enjoying Spring.  I feel like I come alive every year at this time of year1

8 comments:

  1. I love the look (and outlook) of you holiday home.
    And don't you look glamorous?!
    Gill

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    1. A "little" more makeup than I'm used to wearing that's for sure Gill!!

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  2. Lovely to see that you have been doing lovely things!! Your holiday visit looks as though it was lovely, what a beautiful view you have from there. I hope that your show goes well, it is a lot of work isn't it to put something like that on. Lots of fun though!! Great to have you back again. xx

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    1. Thanks for your comments Amy. We are sure looking forward to the show. It is always a lot of fun (plus hard work) to do this, but well worth the effort!

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  3. Amazing photos Julie. Sounds like you had a wonderful relaxing time away. Just what we all need. I think it must have been wonderful to see your favourite holiday place out of season and the snow just gives a different perspective to its beauty.
    Loved the photos of your performance last year. Sadly I cant sing for toffee so would never be singing in public! I will reply to your email hopefully later in the week.Take care XX

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    1. HI Anne. It was lovely to see the beach in winter. I am glad we went when we did though, and not is February, as it wasn't as cold. Mind you, we prepared for every eventuality and had some warm outerwear with us (as well as thermal underwear too!)

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  4. What a beautiful spot for a break. Maine looks absolutely lovely, I'm glad you had such a good time. How exciting to be involved in a show, I do hope it goes well.

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  5. Thanks CJ. Maine is beautiful any time of year. We go again for two weeks at the end of August. Two of our children and their families join us for the first week. It really is a little piece of Heaven on earth to us!

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