Friday, August 28, 2009

Back to real life

Now I will have to come up with material from our every day, real life?! I don't think that will be a problem :) Why, just these last 4 days we've had:

  • a trip to the doctor for an infected wound
  • a poison ivy siting in our own back yard
  • 8 dead cucumber plants
  • 1 dead golden finch found under the hood of our car (thank you Honda service man)
  • a very forgetful tooth fairy...going on 7 nights in a row now...oops!



Is this or is this not poison ivy????

Maine bloopers

Too funny to miss!!!

The back of our heads on the Knob


Too many cameras!


Eli's new flying feet



Cuts, bruises, scrapes...



Crab vs. dog...dog won every time...crunch...yum

BG=beautiful girl



You're a true ham, Zeke



Micah calls these "big boobies" :)


Micah thoroughly enjoyed his birthday suit on Spectacle Island



Yep, a ham



Too much dessert!



Siblings ruining your stuff!



Too many necklaces!



Bumpy, windy boat rides



Quick! Somebody grab Eli before he goes overboard!


Enough said!

More Maine Fun

A few other fun adventures:

We hiked to the highest point on the island. A nice trail up big rock for a beautiful view! Here's me and Micah, Zeke, Lauren, Tammy, Eli and Sam.



A boat trip into some serious fog.



Seal sightings!


A trip on a real lobsterman's boat!


Geocaching!



Snuggling and reading with Aunt Lolo


Zeke's first official dive


Relaxing on the deck


Dance Parties


Movie nights



Puzzling



Craft time


Steve's training in preparing lobsters for eating

And our last boat trip on our last day there was to the White Islands for a view of some AWESOME and HUGE waves...we think it was from the hurricane? It rained bucketloads the night before, but ended up being a beautiful day! Thanks to Aunt Paulie for the pic! A perfect ending...


Goodbye, North Haven! See you in 2011 (hopefully)! Thanks mom and John for an amazing time!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Maine, the way life should be

I believe we saw that statement on numerous bumper stickers driving on up to Maine, and it is true! We ended our trip with a fabulous 5 days in North Haven, Maine. Our first activities once off the ferry included running down to the beloved boathouse and searching for crabs amidst the seaweed during low tide. The next day, we ventured to Spectacle Island for a picnic and exploration. We ended the day with a Lobster dinner. And that is what you do in Maine!


On the ferry to North Haven...

The Boathouse



Searching for crabs in the seaweed


On the boat headed to Spectacle...


Sam on vacation...and loving life


Zeke's first attempt at ocean swimming for the year...


Meet Abby's BFF, her cousin Skyler. These two are inseparable. They spend amazing amounts of time together...and never bother each other at all!



The group on Spectacle


After his first attempt, Zeke becomes an avid ocean swimmer! Jumping off the dock into the frigid water was one of his favorite activities this year!


Lobsters before...



And lobsters after!

Don't worry...more to come for Maine another night!

Beautiful New Hampshire

On the second part of our trip, we spent 3 days in New Hampshire with Em's brother, sister-in-law, niece, and sister. We enjoyed hikes, swimming in mountain rivers and lakes, ice cream, introducing Sam to geocaching, a little shopping, and Em's mom and step father's gorgeous house and gardens!



The coolest slug we've ever found. Abby found this one on a walk with daddy, Zeke and Micah. We placed him in the garden when we left.



The kids LOVE their cousin Skyler!



Uncle Sam shows us how to dive into the *freezing* river water.


Em's mom won a bid on a "Nature art class". This fabulous teacher came to her house and had a nice lesson for the kids. They read a story and then each built their own "nature house" for creatures to come and visit. The kids really enjoyed this activity!


We went to White Lake State Park one evening. It was a beautiful lake! Like bath water compared to the river!



Something we RARELY get to do...enjoy a dinner together! Love and miss you, Lolo, Sam, Tammy, and Sky!

Final Day in Boston

We were sad to say good-bye to Boston after having such a great time here. But, this morning we had to clean up, pack up, and head out. After we packed the van, stopped by Mike's Pastry for a whole box of cannolis this time :) we headed across the Charles River to see the USS Constitution. We stopped at a little Paul Revere park on the way and dropped off our first travel bug! Anyway, we got a little lost on our walk to the USS Constitution, but eventually hopped some fences and found our way through the front gate:) It was VERY HOT, but we stood in line for awhile waiting for a tour through the old ship. We are glad we waited. The tour was very neat and it was amazing to be able to step aboard such a part of history.





We were very glad that they explicitly stated that you should NOT pick up the cannon balls and made sure Eli was aware of this rule :) And Micah only tried once....

Unfortunately, we could not stay longer to check out the museum, which I hear is quite cool, because we accidentally swiped the condo keys, not realizing this until we were in line to see the old gal, and had to hustle back to the rental office drop off box. Oh well.

I read about a child-friendly Tavern in Charlestown in one of my Family Fun magazines, so we thought we'd try it out. It was a neat, old little place with some good history. However, as Abby clearly (and loudly) pointed out, it did "stink." Musty urine is what I smelled...but the food was good...
Last stop=Bunker Hill Monument. Steve, Zeke and Abby climbed the 294 steps to the top while mommy occupied Eli and Micah with pennies and acorns. Micah only knocked down one flag pole, which luckily missed a nice statue...I was so flustered I forgot to read who the statue was honoring! I was assured by one nice fellow (NOT one of the National Park Rangers) that he was probably not the only child to do that. That did not make me feel any better. Nice try, though...this was the only time this whole trip that I felt at my wit's end :)





We also had good timing and were there while they performed a musket firing. There were 2 misfires, but apparently that happened a lot. Steve took lots of pics of this, so he must have enjoyed this part, thus it makes the blog cut :)

And that was our farewell to Boston! Thanks to my mom, Marge, Family Fun, and a dozen other on-line resources that helped make our trip AWESOME! New Hampshire, here we come!