It's still Cold, but let's throw a birthday and mini-vacations in the mix...

So while the rest of the nation frolics around outside in their Spring-like temps, Facebook's about the awesome warmth of their sun, Instagrams pictures of their feet in flip-flops and begin to "thaw" themselves out from the "harshness" of Winter, we are still stuck in an Iced- over world.  The reason I put quotes around the word harshness is because all of my North Western family members and friends seem to think their Winters are "harsh." HA.  That's laughable to me now.  For 27 years I lived in places where, I too, thought Winters were harsh. HAHAHAHA.  No way.  Not til you've spent a Winter in New England.  Not even my Winter spent in NJ was this cold.  This, my friends, must be what Hell would feel like when it freezes over.  Miserable and achy and uncomfortable for what seems like eternity.  I mean, the air is so cold that I swear, you feel like someone is peeling the skin off of your face.  It is SO incredibly painful. You think I'm exaggerating? Come out here and feel for yourself!  You don't know cold 'til you've lived here.  Clearly I hate it.  And I am a Winter girl.  I usually LOVE snow.  Not anymore.  I just want to die most days.....When we found out we were moving here, I actually had a good attitude about Winter because I just had NO IDEA how cold it could really get.  I thought "bring it on, Winter- I'm ready and EXCITED for you!"  But I was just an ignorant North West girl.  When it is 10 degrees in CDA, it feels like 10 degrees (cold, but somewhat bearable).  When it is 10 degrees here, it feel like -15 because of the ice cold humidity hanging in the air.  The pain is excruciating. So it was really nice to get away the last week of January and then again the first week of February to go to Portland, ME for a few days with the girls and Shawn.  He had work there so we were more than happy to get out of the house, soak in a hot-tub until I thought I'd faint from the heat (it seriously felt SO good to overheat my body) and crank up the hotel's thermostat until we started to sweat.  If we were gonna be stuck inside, I'd rather be stuck in a place where I didn't have to worry about my heating bill for a few days.  My heating bill, by the way, could send Lucy and Piper to a year of college, but that's New England heating for you- you pay a couple thousands of dollars for oil, then you pay a couple thousand to burn that oil, but that doesn't heat the house enough.  You also have to buy multiple cords of wood which are a few hundred dollars each.  If you can't tell by now, I'm extremely bitter about our Winters.  GRRRR.

So, now that my rant is over, I will get on with my blog and write about our 2 short trips to Portland.  The first one I didn't take many pictures other than our seafood dinner one night where we ate more lobster and Mussels than ever before and both of my girls tried them (Lucy didn't like them but P did!).  Temps were in the 20's during the day (warm enough to venture out!) so I took the girls out to a few stores downtown.  We LOVE Portland and always try to explore different parts of that city when we go.  Downtown is just so neat.  But other than that, we mostly just warmed our bones.

Next was Shawn's 31st birthday on February 4th.  We went back to Portland and wanted to do something fun as a family so we went bowling!  I am an awful bowler, but it doesn't matter.  It's still one of the most fun things to do- in my opinion.  It was a pretty cool bowling alley with a restaurant inside, so we bowled and filled our tummies at the same time :)  The girls had just as much fun as I did!  I made Shawn a "Camo" birthday cake cause he is just so into Camoflauge these days.  It wasn't impressive, but it was funny.

We ate the most delicious meals and got our "Seafood fix."  We always try to go to seafood restaurants while we are there since it's so fresh.  Portland is right on the water and is famous for their lobsters so we are able to get Lobster, clams, mussels, etc. ANYWHERE we eat.  It's pretty cool.  And delish.  We bring Maisy with us too!  Not to the restaurants, but to the hotels.  We just find a Pet Friendly hotel and we are good to go!  She's a  great traveler.  She is seriously the best puppy.  She just hangs out in the car or we leave her in the hotel room when we're out and about and she never whines or gets into stuff.  She's so well-behaved! 

Anyway, Maine has so much snow!  I tried to get a few pictures while we drove, but honestly, you can't see the vast majority of it all and it was in the negatives this time around so I wasn't in the mood to venture out to take good pictures.  Imagine 10+ feet of snow for as long as you can see.  There were some snow piles that towered 30 feet high!  All the sidewalks that get plowed become tunnels for the pedestrians and people have to dig out mailboxes and doors daily.  It doesn't snow 10 inches at a time, it snows 10 feet!  It's incredible and beautiful and plain crazy all at once.  I've only been out here for 6 months and I've already witnessed SO many crazy-huge differences in this part of the country!

 One of the 2 days we've been able to play outside in almost 3 months.  Finally got to go sledding!

 Trying to keep the girls entertained inside everyday requires Halloween costumes as outfits some days.

 Every time we get to a hotel Lucy says "We get to do all the Hotel Fun Stuff!"  And promptly starts jumping on the bed before begging to go swimming :)

 Hitting up beautiful downtown Portland and window shopping at stores I'll NEVER be able to afford!

 Some Seafood yummy's.

 Day 2 of playing outside this month: snow angels, snowballs and catching snowflakes.

Love this Pi Baby!

 Deep Snow!

Maisy is literally in the air right above Lucy in this shot.....needless to say, the snow angel was ruined....

Indoor Golfing for the ladies (and Shawn).

Shawn's 31st Birthday.  Breakfast in bed, then after work- bowling!

Will her ball knock anything down???

YAY! IT DID! :)

31 candles for the Birthday Boy

 Looking at fishies!

A picture of me in Shawn's Camo sunglasses.  I don't know why, but they make me laugh.  He doesn't see the humor in them....

 Some serious crafts going on.  Yep, that's Lucy painting completely naked.

The next few pictures are showing how high the snow was in Maine.  I'm really bummed that they don't look like much, but in real life you'd be shocked!

Up to the Stop signs

Frozen lakes EVERYWHERE!  We see people ice fishing all over the place out here. They drive their huge trucks right out to the middle of the lake and set up camp. Way too scary if you ask me, but it's very common out here. Above is a frozen/snow-covered lake, below is the first unfrozen lake we've seen in a long time.

 If you can see the tiny little cars on the side of this pile, you'd realize that it's about 20 feet of snow.

 This pile under the bridge was maybe 30 feet high!

 Snow up to and covering the street signs everywhere.

Well, that's Maine for ya.

So here I sit, ending my blog while listening to the weather man tell me we have yet another Winter Storm Advisory (it's Marcus this week) that started last night and will last until Tuesday night.  14-20 inches of snow will fall, they say.  Winds will kill you, most likely.  In a few days, our HIGH for the day will be -4.  Basically what I'm hearing is, stay inside and die a slow, painful death..... UGH.