Spider Lake 2011

In August we had a wonderful week up at Grammy and Grampy's 'camp' in Maine. Amazingly enough the entire family made the trek up to camp, from all parts of the country. What a nice way to celebrate the 30th wedding anniversary of Grampy and Grammy!

Rachel and Carson each caught their first fish, right off the dock! Fortunately they have a Grampy that knows those fish pretty well, and knows what they like to eat!

We were blessed with great weather and the conditions were right for a campfire almost every evening. Rachel and Carson learned how to roast marshmallows over a campfire, and they sure loved eating them!

In the tradition of the logging camp, here are the guys doing some lumberjack work. Sounds good, but really they were just helping Grampy move a pile of old logs :) Something about all that fresh air and being in the wilderness makes you want to get outside, roll up your sleeves, and dig into a project.

The other project we enjoyed was picking blueberries. What an amazing year for them, there were TONS! More than we could ever pick in a week! It took a little coercion, but somehow we managed to get Grammy to bake a blueberry pie for us every day (thanks Grammy). They were delicious pies and this crowd had no trouble polishing off the entire  pie for dessert each night.

Our other project was the fire pit. Since we were giving it such heavy use it seemed fitting to spruce it up a bit and beef up the stones at the base of the fire pit. The first photo is the old fire pit, followed by some interim steps, followed by the new fire pit. Thanks to Jonathan for putting the stones together, the rest of us did the grunt work of gathering and hauling stones.

We did find some time to relax and play. Carson showed Pete how to play 'guns' and Star Wars. Rachel and Carson both loved playing with the dogs.

The beauty of this spot in Maine is unsurpassed since it is so far into the woods. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Northern Lights one night while sitting out on the dock. We also saw (and heard) lots of loons, and even saw the bald eagles one day. The rock statue below was done by Jonathan - fitting for the peaceful surrounding.

Pine Lodge 2011

Still catching up on photos from this summer. We had a wonderful vacation at Pine Lodge with Grandad in July. The highlight was a whale watch excursion on a little boat which even had a naturalist on board to tell us all about the whales (and even the names of some of them!). What amazing weather for a whale watch - it was so hot (in the 90s) that being on a boat was the best way to spend the day. We never felt cold, the breeze was wonderful. Maybe the whales felt the same way because we saw TONS of whales. One group of whales came right up to the boat and then swam right under us. Almost made me wonder if maybe they enjoy putting on a little show. At least they have learned not to fear the whale watch boats.

The first part of our vacation was one 'scorcher' after another so we spent almost every day in Slough Pond. The kids are getting better at swimming. Rachel learned to put her face in the water and Carson had lots of fun playing with our new squirt guns in the water.

One day we ventured over to the Audubon Center and hiked their trails all the way down to the bay. We saw lots of fiddler crabs, snails, and even a horseshoe crab shell. The kids were a little worried about walking in the water with all the snails on the bottom, but Grandad showed Rachel that there was nothing to be afraid of.

What vacation would be complete without a visit to Arnold's? The kids enjoyed posing behind the car in the parking lot at Arnold's.

Deb and Jonathan joined us for the last few days at Pine Lodge, along with Shivani. Here is Shivani's first encounter with the ocean!

Another favorite pasttime for the kids is swinging in the hammock. Rachel enjoyed swinging with her little cousin.

Uncle Jonathan showed the kids how to build rock castles at the ocean. Grandad couldn't resist the urge to stretch out in the sun and was soon fast asleep.

Preschool Graduation

We had such a busy summer that I'm just now catching up on the family blog! We had a big month back in June when Rachel graduated from her preschool. It was a wonderful ceremony and she looked so cute in her cap and gown. Grammy came down for a visit to join the festivities. 

Rachel also had her first dance production in June after taking a year of ballet and tap dancing. The show was at a local high school on a big stage and each dance class was in the show. Her class did two dances, one ballet and one tap. The girls did great, I was so proud of her I was in tears by the end of the show.

The tee ball season wrapped up in June and the team showed much improvement after playing about eight games during their short season. What a great experience for the kids to be part of a team. And there was a pool party at the end of the season where each child received a trophy! A first for Rachel and Carson, this was very exciting.

Some other highlights from June - here is Grammy at the 'salon' with Rachel and Carson. She is a good sport! Below that picture is a shot of the kids at a local festival on a motorcycle ride.

 

We also had time for one last visit to the Buttonwood zoo, one of our favorites. It has everything you've ever wanted in a zoo - a train, pony rides, and a carousel!