Friday Favorites: Daily Highlights of October

 October started out with the second 1/2 of our weekend away in Maine and was filled with lots of great hikes!  We had so much fun watching the trees and their colorful turn of leaves this year.  

1.  We were up bright and early and out hiking at Plummer point enjoying some bayside views.  We stopped for lunch in Wiscasset at Red's Eats before heading out on another hike around Oven's Mouth Preserve (my FAVORITE hike of the whole trip!) then getting some ice cream and hot chocolate chip cookies for "dinner."  17,205 steps!

2.  Sunday morning we decided to head to Mt. Battie in Camden, Maine, stopping along the way to eat breakfast at Moody's Diner.  The views from the top of Mt. Battie were incredible! We then walked around Camden and ate lunch at Sea Dog Brewing Company before heading back to our hotel and napping. We only left long enough to get some more ice cream for dinner before calling it an early night.  11,723 steps. 

3. We were woken by a burning smell in our room around 4 am-- turns out it the was heater so we vacated the hotel by 5!  We headed to Freeport where we went to breakfast at the Sunrise Café and then shopped LL Bean and a few other outlets before getting back on the road to the Maine Diner for lunch. We were home with a car full of groceries by 3:30 and had a lovely family meal with the boys. 7,027 steps. 

4. A rainy day where Evan and I worked on his schooling, did LOTS of laundry, cooking, blogging, and food prep. 4,293 steps.

5. Another rainy day. After schooling I worked on making my card exchange for the month.  We lost power in the middle of the night for several hours. 3,576 steps. 

6. With the sun shining once again (and our power restored!) Evan and I settled in to work through his schoolwork quickly so we could head out hiking.  It was really wet and muddy so we cut our hike short and headed to the apple orchard instead. 10,100 steps. 

7. We met up with our hiking group for a Friday hike in the warm sunshine.  We found a beautiful new trail at Bigelow Hollow to check out! 11,369 steps.

Sorry it's so blurry; I didn't realize that until the next day (I did swap out flip flops for hiking shoes when we went hiking)

I found time to do my nails in the morning too and am loving this design!

8. I spent my morning running errands-- post office, Target, Kay Jewelers, etc. and my afternoon reading, blogging, scrapbooking and watching TV.  We ended our night grocery shopping. 7,941 steps.

9. Evan talked me into going hiking after all my "morning chores" were done (laundry, cooking, making salad, etc.) and we hiked up to Ross' Cliff. It was a beautiful fall day and we stopped at Kohl's so I could pick up shirts for the boys' fall photos too.  10,532 steps. 

10. With Alec not having any school the younger boys and I worked on cleaning the upstairs and making our annual apple pies.  We made 3 again this year and froze 2.  3,957 steps. 

11. Evan and I flew through his schoolwork and hit the trails; we went back to the Midstate trails waterfall loop and this time there was actually water coming over the falls.  We had a wonderful day; until Alec came home from school with a 102 fever... 16,037 steps. 

12. I spent my morning getting a haircut and picking up a grocery order at Bj's then taking Alec to urgent care at his doctor's office's request; they thought he might have strep throat but they had zero appointments left for the day.  2 Hours later we left with a negative rapid strep and promises of future results in 2 days. 4,801 steps. 

13. It poured so I was more than happy to stay in the house for the day; doing a bit of school with Evan and taking care of Alec. 3, 676 steps. 

14.  Another rainy day working on school with Evan and waiting for Alec's test results (which were negative). I finished my wild Friday afternoon doing grocery shopping. 5,263 steps. 

15. Evan asked me to go hiking as soon as I finished making salad and we hiked for nearly an hour a half.  We found a "new" trail to explore; really we parked in a new spot and stumbled our way into one of our favorite trails (the coffeehouse loop trail).  14,946 steps. 

16. I spent my morning baking and cooking and preparing food then stopped by the apple orchard for some fresh apples and painted my nails. 3,365 steps. 

17. Evan talked me into hiking before tackling his schoolwork and good thing he did as we barely made it home before it began to rain. We hiked for nearly an hour at the Thompson Dam then did all his schoolwork, ate lunch, and cleaned the downstairs. 11,630 steps.

18. It rained all morning so Evan and I settled in to work on his schooling then I finished cleaning the downstairs before heading out after lunch to return items to Target, Kohl's, and to visit with my mom.  I got to hear all about her trip down to see my two sisters. 5,101steps. 

19. Knowing the power company was coming for a mandatory home energy audit (that would take 3-4 hours!) for our new solar panels, Evan and I settled into schoolwork early and I gave up all hope of any sort of hiking this day too!  7,020 steps. 

20. Evan and I flew through his schoolwork and headed out on a hike at Sprague Farm land trust; we didn't even last an hour though as it was quite cold and windy! I also made some caramel apples for dessert.  10,673 steps. 

Though, sadly, the caramel did not stick to the apples!

21. Evan and I headed out early to meet our hiking group at Fenton Ruby; we had 10 families on our hike and we hiked for just over an hour.  It was a beautiful day! 10,994 steps. 

Alec came home from school with some subtle red highlights in his hair (one of his closest friends is in the hairdressing shop so they worked it out during the school day to get this done)

22. I was determined to finish my book on Saturday and spent much of my day reading. 5,141 steps.

23. It was a rainy, dreary Sunday where my husband and oldest son went deep sea fishing so I spent my day at the craft table catching up on scrapbooking then ran with the younger boys to Panera for dinner. 2,196 steps.

I'll have a full post up later this month with ALL my latest scrapbooking layouts and pages

A photo of Ian with one of the guys they went fishing with; they filled the cooler and that entire burlap bag with fish. 

24. It was another rainy day so after Evan and I finished up his schoolwork I worked on cleaning my car, cleaning the house, getting caught up on laundry, and making a quick trip to the library. 5,967 steps.

I prepared some freshly caught Pollock for dinner

25. Evan and I went on a foggy hike after completing his schoolwork.  I know I reached 10,000 steps before bed but I don't remember the exact #.

I swapped out the cardigan for a sweatshirt and the flip flop for hiking boots while hiking

26.  Alec had no school but he did have his first day of work at the Vanilla Bean so my mom, Evan, and I had plans to eat lunch there and peek in on him.  We ended up staying for 3 hours eating lunch and afternoon snack there!  We had a great time catching up with one another and it was such a rainy and miserable day that it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon. The sun finally came out around 4:30 or so just as I came down to make Alec dinner before karate.  3,789 steps. 

27.  I started my day at the grocery store and picked up some flowers for myself.  I prepped all our food while Evan worked on schooling then we headed out for errands and a quick walk along the Air Line trails.  11,743 steps. 

28. We met our hiking group at the Thompson Dam and walked out to the "new bridge." It was beautiful out and we had a good 8 families show up; we all decided we'd like to tackle the full loop trail next time!  In the afternoon I made my latest card for the card exchange. 11,684 steps. 

29. I spent a portion of my day working on scrapbooking pages and then my husband and I enjoyed a date night out to Texas Roadhouse and Home Depot.  7,673 steps. 

My date night outfit

30. I read my books and worked on my new puzzle most of the morning and helped stack wood in the afternoon before heading out the ER with Ian (where they tested the heck out of him to try and figure out what was causing his rash-- 4 hours later we left with no better idea!).  3,628 steps. 

I read more than 1/2 my book in just that one sitting. 

31. A quiet Monday stuck at home with all of us waiting on Ian's test results; though Evan and I did take a hike after lunch to the nearby state park and hiked the deserted trails. Thankfully Ian was feeling much, much better.  7,969 steps. 

Linking up with: On the Edge,