Living My Life Vicariously Through My Loved Ones...

I have no problem recognizing when the lives of others may be more exciting than my own. So when those near and dear to me get to experience adventures without me, I've decided that it's only right for me to blog about them. Especially when such loved ones don't have blogs of their own to do justice to the memories of their adventures.


So please humor me as I narrate two adventures that people whom I love have recently had.


Adventure Number One: The Trip to Maine

I appreciate how my parents, Rick and Gail, follow the Biblical mandate to "honor your mother and father" by the ways they respect and love my grandparents. A great example of this is the trip they just took with my grandparents on my mom's side (Mama Ann and Pampa) to Maine. When I was growing up I always knew that Mama Ann grew up in Maine. I've learned tidbits about Maine culture through childrens' books my mom read to me when I was little that were either set in Maine or featured characters who were from Maine like Blueberries for Sal , One Morning in Maine , and Sarah, Plain and Tall. I knew that a lot of the foods Mama Ann made or liked were very "Maine" like pudding with "hard sauce" and I also knew that my mom spent some of her childhood there. So I was just really tickled that my parents took a special trip with Mama Ann and Pampa to visit the places where Mama Ann grew up and visit with extended family there. Among other things I hear that they got to visit some beautiful spots on the coast, eat lobster at an authentic "lobster pound" and see the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin). Here's a few shots they shared with me:

Adventure Number Two: The Alpaca Farm

Darin has been out of town this weekend because he was invited to speak at his parents' church about world missions. This is a trip I orginally intended to make with him, but other responsibilities prevented it. After Darin gave his presentation (which went beautifully, I hear) Darin and his parents went above the call of duty by visiting an alpaca farm that was featured in their local news all to honor me and my love of knitting with alpaca yarn! I was doing some shopping in Target when Darin called me and held his phone up to the alpacas so I could hear them humming! When he told the alpaca farmers that his wife works at a yarn shop, they got so excited, they gave him some yarn samples to bring back for the store!

Check out these pictures from the excursion:

I suppose this is the next best thing to being there!