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!

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!

Old Orchard Beach

After we all got up and ready Saturday morning we got in the car for any easy drive throbbing NH and up the Maine coast. I wanted to stop at Old Orchard Beach since I had never been and thought the kids would enjoy the beach. We got to the beach, found parking and headed out to find a spot on the sand.

The weather was great, warm with a really nice cool breeze coming off the water. Roo loved the ocean and had a blast collecting shells and dodging the cold water.

Bug was a little slower to warm up to the beach and sat in my lap for a bit but eventually played on the sand on his own.

A hot air balloon took off from near the boardwalk and Bug loved watching it and saying balloon. This was a really fun and relaxing stop for all of us.

Vacation is Good!

We just returned from a week long vacation in OBX.  We had a blast!  The house we stayed at had a private pool, which was great.  Roo was so excited to go swimming and all we heard him say all week was 'Roo all wet!'  Roo was pretty careful around the pool and a bit timid in the pool but after a week of swim lessons from dada and grandma he got a lot more comfortable in the pool.  Silly Roo was so careful around the pool, but proved he was related to mommy when he was pushing his truck around the pool and wasn't looking and fell right in.  We kept a close eye on him anytime he was around the pool, he quickly grabbed his truck and kicked his feet so he was able to float and dada scooped him right out of the pool.  Roo thought falling into the pool was pretty scary.  

Love Bug also loved the pool.  We put him in his little swimmer float thing and he just loved it. He kicked his feet around and just floated all around the pool as happy as could be.  We were thinking he'd do great even without the floaty thing but we decided not to test the theory out. Why mess with happiness!

The weather was spectacular all week.  It didn't get warmer than the mid-80's a single day. Dada went golfing with Grandpa a couple of times and grandma and I watched the boys while they were out.  We had nice family dinners outside on the deck at the house each night and discovered that Roo loves corn on the cob!  

One morning while it was still early we headed out to the 4x4 beaches toward Carova.  We headed just about a mile up, parked the car and played by the water for just a little bit.  As beautiful as it was, the 4x4 beach is really like a highway on sand and definitely not the safest place for little ones.  That was really the only time we went to the beach though, Roo pretty much stayed in the pool all day long!

And, what would be a family vacation without......teething!  That's right, it looks like Love Bug has at least 2 teeth coming in; one on top and one on the bottom; he doesn't have any yet. When we went on our first vacation with Roo he got a double ear infection from teething two of his incisors....that was fun! And when we went to Maine last year, Roo was teething molars.  If only teething made the boys happy instead of grumpy!

Roo couldn't wait to get home and tickle Baxter.  I think it's safe to say, the whole family was exhausted and happy to see their beds tonight....especially Love Bug who slept in our closet all week (it was a big closet).  We had so much fun we're already looking up OBX rentals for next summer!

Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures of Roo at the beach at Westomoreland State Park last weekend.

He had a blast filling his bucket with water and pouring it into a hole daddy dug.

He also didn't mind when daddy would dump bucket after bucket of water on him.

Time to buy a season pass to the park. Good fun for the whole family!

The Beach

The last two Sundays we've taken little drives around the area and checked out a couple of beaches. Last Sunday we went to Colonial Beach and took Roo into the water. He loved it! You'd never know that he's actually afraid of the swimming pool.

Though the beach at Colonial Beach is kind of a rocky sand, the water was warm and shallow. Roo and daddy played and played and you'd think Roo had been going to the beach forever. This Sunday we took a drive into Westmoreland County and went to Westmoreland State Park. The park is beautiful and we found our way down to the water. This beach was even better than Colonial Beach. The sand was much softer under foot which made it much more fun for all of us. The water was nice and warm, though a bit deeper, but Roo didn't seem to care. Daddy and Roo played in the water for a while and Roo was just as happy as could be.

We're going to find out if they allow dogs at the state park and pack a beach bag and start going on weekend afternoons after Roo naps. Baxter loves the water too so going with the two of them should be fun for the whole family! Oh, and next time mommy promises to bring her camera and get some pictures of the fun.