New England Adventures - Day 2 :)

Day 2 of our New England Adventure took us on a leisurely drive along the coast through the charming little towns of York, Ogunquit and Kennebunkport... finally making our way up to Portland, Maine :) 

It was MORE picturesque than we could've ever imagined...even as menacing looking rain clouds moved overhead.  It somehow seemed perfectly fitting that this was an overcast and unusually cold and windy day in June.. it fit the New England atmosphere and our experience along the coast perfectly. 

Cold and a bit drizzly... but still sooooo, sooooo BEAUTIFUL!

Seeing an opportunity for a pit stop... Chad and I found a beautiful park leading down to the water. 

And just like that... the rain clouds disappeared as we reached the town of York.

12 miles north of York, just off the Coastal Route 1A..

Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine

Our final lighthouse stop for the day in Portland, Maine :)

New England Adventures - Day 1

There are always two major factors to any Kelley Family Getaway...

#1.  Chad Kelley ALWAYS books our flights at the BUTT crack of dawn (why I continue to let him make our flight plans, I'll never really know..;) Actually, I take that back... I DO know why he does it.  He likes to get to our destination as soon as humanly possible to begin our adventure...which I actually appreciate...except not at FOUR in the morning when my stomach and baby belly absolutely DO NOT want to cooperate with the early morning wake up call. 

and #2.  Plans and itineraries are merely suggestions of what we'd like to accomplish during our trip.  How we get there and in which order things are done is all left to chance.  Chance, and a good pair of walking shoes, that is. :)

After a "SOMEWHAT" interesting start to our trip.. (read: I almost went rogue, pregnant, Mexican on this self righteous, SHAMELESS couple and their family of FIVE for trying to CUT in front of at least 150 people waiting to get through the security checkpoint at DFW airport...justifying their bad examples by simply saying "they were running late... and that I was a "bad Christian" for not letting them cut in front of us".  Seriously?!?!?!  We were ALL late and had somewhere to be... that line was RIDICULOUS!!  Basically, words were exchanged..(I was BEYOND livid by this point, showing my apparently "non-christian" colors and was ready to go down swingin'...) when they FINALLY went to the back of the line, where they should've started all along... 

Determined to NOT let this crazy, too-early-for-confrontation, confrontation stand in my way of a great trip, we refocused on the task at hand.  NEW ENGLAND!! First up, our pre-dawn flight took us to Boston to pick up our rental car... where we took to the road and headed north to Salem, Massachusetts. 

Quaint little street in Salem

On our way to the Salem Witch Museum

Creepy entry stones into the local cemetery...

One of the memorial stones for those involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692

There is something creepy, yet intriguing about old cemeteries like this...

Next stop:  Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Our home base for the next three days :) 

On the road again... :)

Right in time for dinner, and with our list of restaurant suggestions from our cute little inn keeper, we headed to downtown Portsmouth to feed the baby belly at River House :)

Dinner with a great view of the water front :) 

With daylight still upon us, we took to the road again to check out the island near by:

New Castle, New Hampshire

back to our cute little hotel for the night.  The Port Inn

Next Up:  We head NORTH to Portland, Maine along the coast

Nursery Room PIN-spiration :)

It's funny what people are interested in when they find out you're about to have a baby. Some people ask about your stroller selection or what type of crib you've purchased, while others ask about the nursery. What's your "theme"?? they ask.  Have you thought about how you're going to decorate?? While this is obviously the most fun question people have asked me...I think I've disappointed more than a few by saying that we don't actually plan to change much in our guest room, slash, nursery. Already a beautiful, calming shade of blue/green (or at least one wall is).. Chad and I have decided that we want to make what's existing work (keeping that room a guest room) and just try to incorporate some new "nursery-like" colors into the mix. I'm thinking a dark, saturated coral or magenta color to add to the teal and brown thing we have going...or maybe some bright mustard yellows or heck... ALL of the ABOVE! 

There will obviously be the addition of a crib.. (which we are actually having custom made to fit perfectly into one of the two side by side closets we have in the room). One of the closets will remain a closet..which we plan to retrofit with either a chest of drawers at the bottom and hanging bars above... or a closet system of some sort. And on the other side..A baby in a closet you say?? Not really.. I like to think that she'll be tucked neatly into her own little nook. It's only 30" deep so the crib won't actually be completely INSIDE the closet. With the doors removed and a cute valence and mobile added into the nook, our daughter will have a cute little crib space to call her very own. :)

Taken very quickly on a cloudy day (so the picture on my Iphone isn't that great)... here's the wall color we have in the Guest Room now. 

And some cute little wall flowers on one corner (in front of the elliptical...which will stay)...

And here's our "crib-in-the-closet" inspiration on my Pinterest Board.. :) 

Source: aliceindesignland.com via Yvette on Pinterest

I have to say thank goodness for Pinterest for bringing ideas to life!  When I first started talking about wanting to convert one of the closets into a crib nook, Chad looked at me like I was crazy.  A few google searches later, and I had found my inspiration!  I knew what I wanted, I just couldn't get Chad to "see" what I was talking about.. that is of course, until he actually SAW what I was talking about.  Ha! 

Again, excuse the crappy Iphone-ness..but the picture below is the 2 closet set-up we have going on right now.. The right side will be where the crib will go (current doors removed of course) ... The left side will remain a functional closet. 

Kinda like this one :)

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Yvette on Pinterest

Source: jennrocket.blogspot.com via Yvette on Pinterest

Source: olioboard.com via Yvette on Pinterest

Source: minigaga.com via Yvette on Pinterest

Source: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com via Yvette on Pinterest