Farmington, ME

The town Adam was born in and lived in until he left for BYU. It is a very sweet little town an hour or so north of Portland with plenty of nature trails, rivers and little shops to keep one busy. I really loved this place. We were able to hang around Farmington for a week. Adam did a lot of cruisin' down memory lane, where he would drive by this person's house who did this once or that store where this happened or this street where this race was ran or over this bridge that people jumped off of...

The first day we were there, driving through downtown, Adam shakes his head as if trying to wake up from a dream and says, "This is unreal! [pause] I can't believe I am here, driving my own car, with my own family." Adam hasn't been back for 7 years, and that was only for 2 weeks after being away for 3 years! It was fun for me to finally see all these places that I have heard SO much about. It was fun to see Adam on his old stomping ground.

Adam's childhood home. (above)

Where Adam's father taught English courses.

Adam worked at Pike's Farm growing up. The girls are enjoying large, ripe Pike's strawberries here. They ate them like candy! They loved the peas too!

The strawberry fields.

The health food store, where Adam's mom did some shopping.

The movie theater.

Renys! A 3-level dept. store. It is a one-stop shop, trust me. I was amazed at the variety of goods packed in this place! Rakes, rain boots, toys, food, clothing, coolers, fishing gear... you name it.

Bus #39, Adam seems to think that this is the exact bus #39 that he rode on 10+ years ago... We drove around the school yard searching for #39. It was funny.

The fitness center. Where Adam would sneak a visit with his girlfriends. :)

Adam's high school.

Jack's trading post. Just around the corner from Adam's house. The Franson kids got all their treats and sweets here, I believe.

Boston, MA

The second day of our vacation we stopped in Boston (on our way to Maine, our destination) to see a great friend of mine from HS, Kaileen. Kaileen is a grad student at BU and was very deserving of a visit. :)

We went to lunch at the Bell in Hand, a tavern where Paul Revere himself ate back in the day. Then we took a Boston Duck Tour... we rode on a transforming bus/truck around Boston and cruised down the Charles River all in one vehicle with an enthusiastic pirate-wannabe tour guide. Adalin is driving the boat/bus down the Charles in the picture below. It was fun, and pouring rain. I didn't get many good pics b/c of the rain. :(

I have to mention to anyone that reads this not to ever attempt to drive into Downtown Boston. It will most likely produce one of the most stressful events in a marriage, even equipped with 2 GPS's, both of which don't work when the highways spontaneously go underground. It is also very easy to hit pedestrians who jump out in front of your vehicle. Oh yeah, and Bostonians have not a clue how a 4-way stop sign is supposed to function. Besides the driving we did, Boston is a great place.

Palmyra, NY

We were bommin' along on I-90 on our way to Maine after deciding to forgo a side trip to Niagara Falls, which would have set us back 2-3 hours on top of a 500-mile day, when I noticed that Palmyra is only 6 miles north of the Interstate. So we stopped.

Palmyra, NY is a historical site in our church, where the 14-year old Joseph Smith questioned the truthfulness of churches of his day and prayed in these woods pictured below to ask God the truth. There he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, received an answer he did not expect and his life changed forever.

It was a wonderful stop and I am glad we were able to see these sites, even though we didn't take a lot of time there. It is interesting to me, that this event that is second in importance only to Christ's Atonement, is something that one can only know happened for sure by faith. There is no proof, no one took a picture, there is no one alive today that was present to testify that this vision happened. One can only read Joseph Smith's account, maybe go to Palmyra and, most importantly, pray to know if it's true. Let me say though that walking through those woods was magical. Joseph had his vision there. I felt in my heart that he did. There Christ began to restore His true church on the Earth in these last days.

The Smith family's frame home. (above)

The Smith family's log home. (above)

A Little Peanut

Here is Franson Baby #3's first photo. S/he will be here mid-January!

Clover Beach

My friend, Maren, introduced me to this awesome county park in Linden, MI. It has a nice beach on one side of the road and on the other side, an awesome playground. My mom and sister, Lauren, came up for the day to hit up the beach with us. The weather was very warm and humid which demanded water be a vital part of the day. Here are pics of my cute girls enjoying the sun. They are so sweet and happy little creatures who fill my days with joy and laughter (and frustration sometimes too, as children also do.)

Target Balls

I don't know what Kira's obsession is with these things, but whenever we go to a Target with the big red balls outside, she must sit upon one. She is a hoot!

Batteries

I know this is dorky, but I have to tell you all that I got all these batteries for $1.50. They were on sale for 5/$10 and I had $1 off coupons, which were doubled by my awesome Kroger store, so I paid $.06 per pack (tax). Sweet!

No More Mullet!

For those of you that have known Kira all her little life, she has never really had much hair. She is probably at least a year behind where her sister was at her age when it comes to hair growth. So these little piggies are a milestone for us. Up until a week or so ago I was just sticking to one ponytail on top of her head. This was cute except, her mullet was starting to grow back... I didn't want to cut that off again, so I tried pig tails and voila! Her hair was suddenly long enough! (As long as the pig tails are placed just right.) And my goodness, does she look adorable with her little pig tails! No more mullet! Hooray!

Mackinac Island

We took a little trip to Mackinac Island since Adam had this last week off. We thought a little celebration for officially finishing his 3rd year of med-school was very appropriate. We also brought along our nanny (the girls call her Grandma) while Grandpa stayed at our house with our dogs. Thanks Dad!

The weather wasn't all that great, but didn't ruin the trip by any means. It was about 60 and drizzly all day. We never really got wet though, just a bit damp.

For those of you reading this that don't know about Mackinac Island, it sits in the Straits of Mackinac, or the water between Michigan's lower and upper peninsula. There are no motor vehicles on the island at all so people either use horses or bicycles to get around. It was so cool to see stores unloading their shipments off of a horse-drawn cart.

We got to do 2 really fun things when we were there: rent a drive-yourself horse and buggy and ride around the entire island (8 miles) on rented bicycles. Sally was the mare that was so gracious to take us around the island in our very own buggy. Adam drove! That was hilarious. My mom and I rented a tandem bike (don't let her steer, we almost crashed multiple times) and Adam pulled the girls behind him in a Burley bike trailer. The nature views were fantastic and the houses around the island absolutely gorgeous. Did I mention the fudge, peanut brittle and saltwater taffy is all to die for?

Kira's First Shiner

With the attitude she's been throwing around lately I wouldn't doubt that she really did get in a brawl with another neighborhood kid, but that's not how this happened! We went to the Dog Bowl last Saturday with my parents in Frankenmuth, MI where tons of dogs take part in silly competitions like the long and high jump (into water off of a dock), frisbee catching, Weiner dog races, silly tricks... We were watching the doggie long jump and Kira got hit square in the eye by a fly away frisbee. Ouch. Poor girl! It was swollen for 2-3 days, then the dark bruising set in. This is a picture of her eye just the day after the collision. She's been a trooper about it and has also enjoyed the well-deserved attention. :)