Camden Windjammer Festival

Last Saturday, in pictures:

The crowd starts to gather for the Lobster Trap Race

Would you let your children race across these?

25 traps, strung together with rope...

Standing by, in case he was needed!

Most kids ended up like this, about 4 traps in.

Now THIS kid...made it look SO easy. He literally flew! He was last years winner, running 2500 traps before he gave out. He won this year, too, but I'm unsure of the total count. He was AMAZING. And just 6 years old!

Ryan wanted to run.  I actually think he has a good build for it.  But I can’t imagine ever giving my “ok” for him to do anything like this!

The boys found some shade under a temporary gazebo during our picnic

and then they somersaulted up and down the hill at the park. over and over again!

We were able to tour the sailboats. Jack thought we were actually going to sail, and was seriously distressed that it was just a "tour". He and Ry were able to "steer" in place on the Mary Day, which made up for the disappointment a little bit!

We wrapped up our Camden visit with a sailboat cupcake from Boynton McKay, before heading on to Linconville to let the boys play at the beach. Oh ya'll...I'm not ready for summer to end! How about you?

Vacation Part Two, and Back to Reality

As nice as it is to come home…it’s hard, also. To come back to messy houses and responsibility. To work, and changing diapers. Although it was wonderful to see Ry and Jack! We’ve never had 3 days and 2 nights away from them. Doesn’t sound like much, but it was to us!

We had grand plans of visiting Boston and venturing a little further south to visit Ikea. But they didn’t pan out; this ended up being more of a relaxing vacation, which was exactly what we wanted. It was so refreshing; our Inn was right in downtown Newburyport, MA, so we walked everywhere. Such a nice break from Motel 6in’ it every time we get away! (Which isn’t that often, really). It was hot as blazes while we were gone, so we spent a good part of our time in our room, becoming totally addicted to the Food Network. I took a few pictures; not really that many. But here we go:

our home for 2 nights

our 8 dollar lunch from Edible Arrangements...fruit salad totally fit the bill in that heat!

rooftop dining from the 3rd floor...a majority of the following pictures came from up here.

the bay

Chim Chiminey Chim Chiminey Chim Chim Cherooooo....

Erick's middle name is Lee. This boat cracked us up. It's probably "Erica", because boats usually have girlie names, but still!

the boardwalk in the evening

fun signage

The following sign caught our attention right away…is that not Ryan and Jack?! Skinny Ry with his blond hair, and little Jack with his wild mop of dark hair? We couldn’t believe it! You can actually get these signs personalized, so I think we’ll do it. Too good to pass up!

Anyway, it was wonderful to just immerse ourselves in one another for a few days. A “must-do” for all marriages. Oh, and when we came home yesterday, this shirt was waiting for me. I bought it from Union 28…because he absolutely does!

Vacation Part One

Erick and I are currently on a little trip in Newburyport, Mass.  It’s hot as blazes outside, so we are  hangin’ out in our air conditioned room right now; thought I’d use the time to blog a little bit about the trip we just took with the kids!

They’ve been so good this summer, what with our bouncing around from house to house, and the endless work everything has entailed.  We figured they deserved a little treat, so we took them to meet this guy:

For non-parents, that is Thomas the Tank Engine, hero of those ridiculously overpriced train toys.

It was a great surprise for them…we didn’t tell them what we were doing until we arrived.  We were able to take a ride on the train and partake in the various other activities that were offered, including chomping down on 3 dollar corn dogs for lunch.  ($3!!!!)

train ride

We also camped out and had a blast taking an evening dip in the ocean, and then one in the morning around 7:30 am.  The water was warm. In Maine.  We took off without our rain fly, which was actually great because rain wasn’t on the horizon, and we drifted off staring at the stars.  Threw some roasted hot dogs and smores in for good measure.

isn't this what camping should look like?

view from inside the tent. cute kid included.

water baby

deeper and deeper...

sunset swim

silly daddy

we had the beach to ourselves in the morning!

they were offering me gifts of seaweed. awww.

sandy toes. the sand came home with us and ended up trailing it's way through the house...

home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Well, we are getting ready to go find a place to eat, then take a stroll on the boardwalk.  Hopefully it’s cooled down a bit out there.  Good night!

Escape from the Ordinary

The school year begins in a week and a half (NO!) but even though this summer took turns we weren’t prepared for, and has been chock full of labor, we have managed to escape here and there (MINUS my husband, who has had no choice but to be a workhorse, bless his heart, but whose Master’s Class ended yesterday, so there is a little break, and whose Summer School ends this week, so next week we are takin’ a vacation, baby, because he Deserves Rest!)

Last week we zoomed down to Belfast around 10 or so and returned a little after 3. It was an extra-humid day, but the breeze off the water was glorious. The boys started throwing rocks, then dipped their feet in, THEN went all out and soaked their little bodies once they saw some Big Boys jumping off a dock and swimming around. After they had been in awhile, we saw some clouds approaching and heard a rumble of thunder, so I said “time to get out!” and before they were on the shore, the rain started falling. It was wonderful and hilarious. We ran under a tree (I know that is a no-no, but this wasn’t a lightening kind of storm, and we had no choice of another place to dry off). They were stripped down, rubbed dry and clothed again, then we made a mad dash to the car and made our way home. Absolutely lovely day.

Nonnie wading with the boys, Papa looking on

The boys, a few years from now!

Practicing our swimming strokes

A few days later, while Grammy kept the boys, Dad, Mom and I headed to the Maine Boat, Home and Harbor Show in Rockland. I have to admit, the “Home” part is what hooked me, because we don’t have a boat. Although, my parents DID, along with another couple, own two different sailboats in New Mexico (how is THAT for irony?! Sailboat ownership in the midst of the desert?) Dad and I were discussing our sailing adventures at Ute Lake which brought back pretty funny memories; I do believe that is when we deemed ourselves the Dork Family. Completely novice sailors owning sailboats…can you guess how many times we capsized and had near catastrophes? (But it was fun!) Anyway, once we arrived in Rockland I was completely taken with the boats. Oh My Word. And the Yachts…I have to admit that I’ve always though of yachters as a bit high falutin’. After seeing the yachts, up close and personal…I’m pretty sure I would high-falut myself if we were in that particular tax bracket!

flags on the dock

good eats!

I'll take this for my porch, please!

well-worn and colorful

Below; craftmanship at it’s finest!

The weather was stunning, although around lunchtime a summer squall swept through and dumped gallons. But it was over quick as it came, and the Windjammers were able to sail in! They came right up by us in full sail; even seasoned sailors were impressed with their skills. Check out this beauty!

and this one;

One of my favorite aspects of the day was listening to the entertainment. After hearing this group, I am totally tempted to move to Machias and take up the ukulele. They were SO FABULOUS! They sang their hearts out and knew absolutely every song the audience requested. They were full of joy, and spread that joy around. It was contagious.

groovin'

look at the fun he's having! he was my favorite.

Well, ya tired of boats? I guess I’ll wrap it up here. I have quite a bit of cleaning to do this morning, then I’m headed to our house in Dexter to get some work finished there. Stay tuned; I’ll share a bit about our new place next post!

Tired, Tired, Bo-Bired

Banana-nana-fo-fired.  Me-my-mo-mired….tired!

Jack came home the other day and fell asleep standing up.  Just draped himself over the chair-he didn’t even have enough energy to climb up.  I think that is what we all feel like this summer!

Erick has the most on his plate; as soon as the school year ended, he had to do some major wrap-up work with a particular program he is involved with there.  He is now into the 3rd week of an incredibly intense Master’s course, and one week before this course ends, he’ll start teaching summer school.

All the while, we are

1. trying to get our house in sell-able condition
2. living at mom and dad’s house, and
3. cleaning up the house we are going to be moving into.

All preferably before the school year starts again.  Eek.  I dunno…

Last week we also had VBS at church, and it was a first for the boys.  Erick and I accompanied them every night, minus one for me when I went to pick up mom and dad from the airport.  Wonderful!  And Exhausting!  The hilarious thing?  Tuesday morning of VBS, the very first thing out of Ry’s mouth is “When I finish my crafts, will you post them on your blog?”  Ha!  So here they are, and a few others from the week.  The boys had a “build a bear workshop”, but it was focused on the Armor of God.  It was a great success.

A few others, from game and craft and snack time:

The last one cracks me up.

To end the week, we had a good ol’ fashioned church softball game on Sunday afternoon.  I love church softball-it was a staple growing up. What southern town doesn’t have church softball leagues?  While Maine doesn’t, we had a few men get together and decide it was about time to do something about it!  A church from Auburn drove up, and we spent the afternoon playing softball, a little bit of kickball, then ending the whole she-bang with a cookout.  And 25 apple pies.  25!  Needless to say, quite a few of us got to take a pie home.  Which was not a problem.

I have to tell you-Erick was thrilled.  He grew up playing baseball and hasn’t had much of a chance to fool around with it since high school.  Well, first up to bat…very first, mind you, and he smacks a homerun.  Yay honey!

It was a good end to the week, and I, for one, actually slept well last night.

Here’s to another 7 days!  Erick is currently knocking some projects out up at our place, mom and dad are cleaning over at our, prayerfully, soon-to-be place, and I’m blogging while the boys are blessedly napping.  Then maybe I’ll catch a snooze or two before the evening work begins.

Happy Monday!

Is that SUN I see?

Sun outside?  Goodbye four walls!  Hello outdoors!  Seeing as though it appears you may hide behind the clouds the next few days again…we’d be crazy not to take advantage of the free Vitamin D we are so desperately  in need of.

Sooo…excuse the load of pictures, but I went a little camera happy today.  We drove to Moose Point State Park and enjoyed the coast; I love the fact that the woods meet the water.  Seems to be everyone else had the same idea-it was the busiest I have EVER seen this place.  Not even turning my head, using tunnel vision, I counted about 16 sailboats in my line of sight.  Are we all a little stir crazy?  I think so! Oh Happy Day!

Our hike:

The playground:

The water; tide was out…major tide pools to investigate!

And to wrap things up; a good ol’ game of catch.  I love these pictures-Ryan had been bonked in the nose  with the ball, and Erick had him laughing about getting hit in the “schnoz”…

still laughing…

Other than a bonk in the schnoz and a minor scrape for Jack in which he cries out “Go Away Boo Boo!  Go Away Now!” it was a mighty successful trip!  Thank You Jesus for small blessings.  We love the sun.  :-)

 

 

Last Saturday

Mom and Dad are off today for a couple of weeks in CO and NM, so last Saturday we took the day to travel a bit, while Erick and the boys had an amazing day at Uncle Joe’s house, doing fun lake-house things like some good ol’ catch and release, paddle-boating, and s’more eating!

(what was good for this momma’s heart to hear is that they did, indeed, find Jack a smaller life jacket than the one in this picture!)

The boys, in fact, still smell like a camp-fire.  We’ll have to visit you again soon, Uncle Joe!

As for mom and dad and I, we had decided at the last minute to head up the Stonington way, but were jabbering so much that we completely missed the turnoff!  So off to Belfast we went, with a stop at one of our favorite stores, The Cherished Home.  Then downtown…where we decided we’d stay all day, only to change our minds; Freeport was kicking off it’s free summer concert series with Madeline Peyroux that evening.  Inbetween Belfast and Freeport, we made stops at Boothbay Harbor and Wiscassett, taking pictures right and left.  What a DAY!  We covered some good ground and had a spectacular time.  And the weather actually cooperated!

(This last one cracks me up-they are a couple of boys that were at the concert.  Eagerly ran up to one another and then just stood there, checking each other out.  Made me miss my boys; I think we’ll bring them to one soon; Patty Loveless will be playing on the July 4th weekend, and Blue’s Travelers won’t be far behind…thank you, LL Bean!)

Today, Grammy is coming over and we are all heading to Portland to pick up Uncle Josh’s car and mom and dad’s car at the airport.  Should be quite the caravan home!  We are making a stop at Chuckie Cheeses; we’ve been there once, in March of ‘08, and these boys haven’t forgotten about it.  Should be another day to remember!

Have a great week, ya’ll.

More Family!

What a great June this has been!  My bro and sis-in-law were here earlier, of course, and now my bro-in-law and his sweetie Erin are here from California.  We’ve had a ball with them so far; yesterday Nonnie and Papa took Ry and Jack, and the rest of us (mom, Josh, Erin, Erick and I) took off for Bar Harbor on the most beautiful day we’ve had in awhile.

The fog parted on top of Cadillac Mountain, which gave us breath-taking views of the islands like those below-I must have taken 30 pictures just like this:

Gorgeous!  It was nice and warm on top of the mountain, and there were scads of people there.  Yay for tourists!

We ate down on the pier, did some window shopping, watched the bros play football, and took in a movie at the end of the day.  It was fantastic.  And Erin, we LOVE you!  You have our official stamp of approval, haha!

My Good Friday

Last Friday was a Good Friday for more than one reason for this gal!

Erick had a conference in Northport at the Point Lookout Retreat and Conference Center; I know, without a doubt, that we have driven by this amazing place hundreds of times…and yet I never knew it was there!  And WHAT a find, ya’ll!  When I dropped him off, I was tempted to stay and take pictures all day.  I took quite a few in the morning, but these shots do not begin to capture the beauty.  Simply, absolutely, amazingly stunning.  Foggy mornings in Maine, from the top of a mountain overlooking an island dotted ocean…

I finally took my leave and hit up the Willow Bake Shop in Rockland.  Last year I discovered some wonderful pastry there; this year I settled on their homemade donuts.  Oh, but it wasn’t just settling.  It was cloud nine cinnamon sugary delight.

I munched away at the Breakwater… the sun was shining for the first day in ages, so I then decided to tackle the mile-long walk out to the lighthouse.  (Had to burn a few donut calories, ya know…although I don’t know how many calories I burned by taking 2 steps, snapping a picture…taking 3 steps, snapping a picture…)  Although it doesn’t at first appear that the walk out to the lighthouse is a mile, once you are out there, you feel it might be a wee bit more!  Especially on the return trip, when the breeze picks up and freezes your nose.  I kept having this crazy thought that my keys would unhook themselves from my jeans and fall through the cracks…we would of been in a bad way then!

After my exercise, I returned to the car…and it didn’t start.   Back to it’s old tricks!  So I read for an hour, in a wonderfully warm car, and truly had the most delightful time.  It eventually started (thank you Jesus!) and fairly limped along to Camden, where I parked and read some more, the hit the shops for some browsing and ended up sitting on a bench by the bay.

(I love this girl…gazing at the water, holding a good book)

It was truly lovely.  I picked up Erick at 3; we arrived home to lasange made by Grammy who had entertained the boys all day and topped it off with a homemade meal.  I’d say that was a good Friday.

Oh Sunny Day!

We did it!  We got out of dodge, made our way to the water, enjoying the warmth of the…car.    It really wasn’t too bad outside-50’s in Maine this time of year is flat-out wonderful.  But it did eventually get a bit chilly on the beach, so I had to usher a couple of very reluctant boys back into the car.  Here is how our day panned out…

Completely by chance, we drove near Bucksport just in time to  see what all the fuss was about (there were so many people out and about!)  Any little boy would be delighted to see this:

Excuse my technical terms, but Cianbro built about 50 of these massive thingamajigs that, I believe, have something to do with oil pumping or something, and I think they are going by sea to Texas.  Heh.  I saw the news report a few weeks ago and my memory is incredibly fuzzy.  All I know is that it was a mighty big contraption and they’ll be taking quite a few of these trips to get them all to their final destination!  It was a big hit today; there were crowds of people all up and down the coast watching it go by.  Pretty interesting.

After that stop, we made our way to Searsport, and the kiddos played on the playground (first time this year!) and threw the obligatory rocks in the water.  Then momma’s ears started to freeze, so it was time to pack up and go.  But what fun it was!

We made it back home around 1:30; it was a full morning but absolutely wonderful.

A few minutes ago I finally put pictures in my frames, and I changed up my kitchen walls a bit.  This is what it was before, but it bugged me; our kitchen has no symmetry at all, which makes decorating difficult, but I hope this looks a wee bit better.

(Sorry so dim! Flash or no, I couldn’t get it lighter. Just to give you an idea…)

The daisies are from my mom, and they have absolutely convinced me to keep fresh flowers in our house non-stop this year!

Off to pick up Erick, and then to go to my painting class; hopefully I’ll have a masterpiece to share with you soon!