Lighthouse and a Food Truck

As I mentioned, on Saturday before we picked up Uncle Matt we visited the Portland Head Lighthouse and have delicious lobster rolls from a food truck. All in a days work in Maine!

Fly in the Future?

We have finally arrived in Maine. Traffic was heavy almost the entire way from VA. We didn't really hit any real traffic jams but we never got in a real groove either. We made it from VA to our stop in MA in 10 hours. That's not bad but it's not as good as last year either. It stormed on the way driving through Hartford and that was when the boys were on their best behavior for the ride. Thank goodness, because it was really hard to see. Later at the hotel the storm caught back up to us and we weren't able to take the boys swimming, which was a bummer. I had made food before the trip, so we were able to enjoy a nice dinner in the room that evening and avoid going out in the storm.

The next day the boys were up super early. 0445 for Bug and 0500 for Roo. After letting them play for a few minutes I decided that they weren't really allowed to be up so I put Roo back to sleep and crawled in bed and coaxed him back to sleep and we finally woke back up around 0900!!! We got dressed and re-packed the truck and enjoyed the breakfast buffet and finally hit the road again a little after 1000.

Our first stop once we got to Maine was Old Orchard Beach. The boys had fun on the playground and even more fun on the beach.  Old Orchard Beach is a lot like Ocean City, MD. We left and headed to Portland and went to the Portland Head Lighthouse. I think the best part of the lighthouse was the food truck! They had a lobster roll food truck and the lobster rolls were really good, the good bread makes such a difference!

After that, we headed over to the Jetport to pickup Uncle Matt. We figured out that it's only an hour and twenty minute flight from BWI and one less hotel stay and just such a huge time save that it may be worth flying in the future!

They had great parking where there's a little lot you can park in for free while you wait for the planes arrival as long as someone stays in the car. Bug and I went in and waited for Uncle Matt. We walked up the stairs and went down the escalator and did that over and over again!

We squeezed Uncle Matt into the truck and off we went. We stopped at Red's Eats for lobster rolls and then finally got to Owls Head at 6pm. We got everything unloaded, visited with Grammy and PopPop ate our lobster rolls, got the kids to bed and then went grocery shopping and relaxed.

The weather is calling for a lot of rain, I'm hoping doing the anti-rain dance in my head prevents a rainy vacation week!

Vacation Really Was Wonderful

We had so much fun while we were on vacation that I just asked Daddy if we could go to Maine again this fall. He asked me if I was crazy. It is a really long ride and we're also considering a job change so maybe I am a bit crazy. Regardless, vacation was awesome and the beach house we stayed in was great. We'll probably want to stay there again. What we really like about it was it was decorated in a very relaxing style just like our house and it was right on a beautiful sandy beach. These kinds of beaches are hard to find in Maine. We had to walk down over rocks to get to the beach, but during low tide you could actually play in the sand and relax in a beach chair or even enjoy the ocean without worrying about a strong under toe or the kids going out too far since it was shallow for quite a distance.

The location was great too because it was fairly easy for family to visit. We had a great visit on Thursday from Michelle and her daughter Allison and her daughter's best friend Eva. The kids had a blast playing together on the beach, enjoyed a yummy lunch together and then played in the house. Roo and Allison got along great and Bug loved giving Eva kisses. It was great catching up with Michele and we can't wait to see them this winter in our neck of the woods!

In all, it was really a wonderful vacation, we got to relax, eat lobster and see family and friends, and it was a much needed break from the craziness of work. And the kids enjoyed every moment of it!

Fever Me a Vacation

The title pretty much sums it up. We went to see Owl's Head Light on Friday morning and after we got home Bug just started crying in the car. I laid down with him on the couch and could feel him getting warmer and warmer. We both dozed off a bit and I have to say it was amazing dozing off with a great ocean view. When we woke up he was burning up and had a fever. We gave him Motrin and later that day when he woke up from his nap his fever was 104.3. Nice! So we called the ped's office that we saw in Rockland earlier that week and they saw us immediately. Shocker, no other symptoms but the fever. The doc was great though, said to give him a call anytime, day or night, if we needed anything. We alternated Tylenol and Motrin through the night and he woke up fever free the next morning. We have an idea that this is similar to last year when he got high fevers every 6 weeks or so which seemed to go away a few months after Baxter moving out. We're going to follow-up with his ped this week. For as bad as he was feeling, he did really well on the trip home!

Roo Feels No Cold...Except When He Does

Roo loved playing in the water on vacation. And yes it was Maine and yes it was cold....but it wasn't so bad if you didn't put your whole body in. So Roo had a blast until Daddy came along and dumped him in the water. Daddy learned very quickly that though Roo feels no cold, Roo definitely felt frozen after a full body dip in the water. In fact, Roo was so cold that he took a warm shower and fell asleep for a few hours to warm up!

Early Morning Walk--Owl's Head Light

Bug really enjoyed going on rides this vacation. We decided to go on a morning ride on free donut day and on the way back stopped at the Owl's Head Light. We figured that since we're staying on Owl's Head we should go to the park there and see the lighthouse. It was a good morning walk and though a bit chilly it was a fun time with the boys. The views from these lighthouses have been amazing and the weather really couldn't be better!

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

For another day trip we decided to head south and go to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. How amazing this place was! The rock formations coming up from the ocean were like nothing we've seen before. Just beautiful. And the ocean crashing so far below you was awesome. The boys had a lot of fun walking around on the rocks and watching the ocean, it was a great day!

Blown Away at Acadia National Park

Holy wind! We took a day trip to Acadia National Park with plans to also walk around Bar Harbor, but it was crazy windy as a storm front was coming in. Luckily, we did everything we wanted in the park before the storm came in.

At the top of Cadillac Mtn., it was super windy...so windy I could barely open my car door. This picture is funny because the kids are all cozied into us and we're smiling. When I asked the gentleman to take our picture, I had to yell over towards him because it was so windy you couldn't hear the person next to you.

After Cadillac Mtn., we went to Sand Beach, which is always so beautiful. Roo had a bit of fun there but it was still too windy for Bug to enjoy it.

Finally, we went to Thunder Hole, which we thought would be roaring considering a storm was coming it. But it wasn't...there was probably more thunder in the sky than the hole.

I've also added some pics of the storm front coming in...some amazing cloud formations...good reason to get a DSLR camera.

It was a great day trip and though it was windy, the kids had a good time and enjoyed seeing everything!

Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse and Beachcombing

Yesterday we decided to take a short drive into Rockland and go to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.

The boys get up early but probably too early to take them out on the beach and then high tide comes in, so we need to find things to do until about lunch time. We remembered from past visits how cool the walk is out to the lighthouse. There is very long flat jetty that you walk along to get to the lighthouse.

Roo held my hand so I could make sure that he didn't fall in any of the holes and Bug rode on Daddy's shoulders. It probably took under a half hour each way and the kids really enjoyed it. Roo sang all sorts of songs and gave me random kisses as we were going along. Bug had moments where he decided that he must also walk like the rest of us but would then come upon a hole and decide that Daddy's shoulders were much safer. It was beautiful out and we got to see lots of boats and even an airplane the flew by a few times.

After we got back we walked along the beach and found a ton of great shells.

I think the boys have stolen all of my shells. We took a few steps in the water and it was a bit cold but still fun. All in all it was a great morning and really fun for the boys to see the lighthouse.

Newport Playground

Ok, so the Newport Playground is a ton of fun but OH MY COW that slide and climbing wall are so totally dangerous! The original playground that was made of cedar was torn down a few years ago and replaced with a modern style playground. I was kind of sad to see the cedar one go since Daddy and his family actually helped build it. When we got to the playground I immediately noticed the climbing wall. It's actually a really awesome climbing wall, it just goes pretty high and Roo did great with it; well enough that we didn't have to stand under him each time. Daddy said the Bug climbed it as well which is pretty crazy. And then there's that slide. It's fast and it has a big curve it in. We had to help catch Roo the first few times until he got used to it's speed. Bug went down a few times and we definitely had to catch him at the end. He's really little and goes super fast on it. We all climbed the wall and went down the slide and the boys had a blast playing there for the few days we were in Newport.

Family Reunion

On Sunday we went to the annual family reunion. This was the first year we've been able to go and we had a really nice time. The boys had fun playing with their cousins and we enjoyed catching up with family that we hadn't seen in a while. The weather was warm and a bit humid and there were a ton of black flies. I really don't like black flies. But other then those pesky creatures, we all had a really good time!

Sebasticook Lake

We spent the afternoon on Sunday at Daddy's family friend's house on Sebasticook Lake. I always like hanging out with Donnie and Cheryl because they tell wonderful stories of how well behaved Daddy was as a kid. They've know Daddy since around the time he was born so they definitely know all the stories!

The boys had a ton of fun playing in the lake. It was cold but they didn't care. It was a beautiful afternoon and we sat by the lake and enjoyed the breeze. The breeze is great not just because it's relaxing but also because it carries the black flies away. Man, those black flies are pesky, I've got a few good bites behind both of my ears, ouch!

The boys got soaked and we had a really enjoyable afternoon relaxing and sharing stories.

**i've got more pics we need to get from our phones

Other Vacation Tidbits

As I'm sitting here updating the blog with all the pictures to go along with the stories, I'm thinking of all the other little things that happened on vacation.

Bug had a word explosion. He is talking up a storm and will repeat words right after you say them. He's even putting some 4 to 5 word sentences together. What's great is that he's able to tell us what he wants and is a lot less frustrated than Roo was at this age.

The best laugh looking back is probably when Roo hit the panic button on the alarm system in the house. He was walking down the stairs and the keypad to the alarm is right at the bottom of the stairs, easily within reach of a curious 3 year old. We heard him hit the button but didn't think much of it. That is of course until the alarm company called, the house lady called and when the very nice police officer showed up. Roo spoke with the police officer and didn't touch the alarm again. I still laugh when I think about this.

On one of the more dreary days, I let the boys have some popcorn. You can see from the picture that they're really enjoying it!

I taught the boys how to roll down a hill. This was so much fun. By the end of the 2 weeks, Bug had figured out how to do it as well. It's a bit different when you are not a kid anymore though, makes you a little dizzy!

There was a nice entrance sign to Rackliff Island. Just beyond it was a man and dog made out of lobster buoys. The dog was not always standing in the same place.

Daddy took Roo to visit Grammy at work one day and then visited Les, Sandy and Logan at the campground they were at for the week. Roo had a ton of fun playing with a little girl named Abby. She was also 3. Daddy said that they had very similar personalities and got along great.

I took Roo to drop Uncle Matt off at the airport with me; he enjoyed 4 popsicles along the way. He didn't want to see the airplanes but was in a great mood and wanted to get candy for everyone. After the airport we went to Freeport and he got to see the big boot at LL Bean. He really wanted to jump in the water in the store that had the trout in it. It's hard to shop with Roo so we wandered for a bit and he wanted pizza for lunch so we had pizza at a great little pizza place in Freeport. On the way home I stopped with him to get some starfish that would last a bit longer than the ones he was catching. He loved that stop and found the greatest thing of all, a giant pine cone.

We enjoyed so much of what Maine has to offer, lobster, clams, whoopie pies, blueberry beer; it was all wicked good. And lets not forget the beautiful view of the ocean, waking up to the birds and lobster boats and the salt water breezes.

And we loved having all of the family in and out over the 2 weeks. When everyone was gone it was really quiet and just wasn't the same. We were really grateful for everyone who watched the kids so we could go on a few dates, that was awesome!

What a wonderful vacation. It was so much fun and we enjoyed all of it. We miss everyone already!

If I've missed any stories or that sort of thing, let me know, I can easily add them to this post.

Men Versus Crab

The title says it all. Daddy and Uncle Matt spent hours at how tide trying to get a big crab from the rocks. Crab wins!