On Sunday of our trip home we took a day trip to the beach at Jo Mary with some of our family. It was a bittersweet trip b/c this was the first time any of us had been there since it was sold last year. For those of you not familiar with Jo Mary, this is a campground that my grandparents had owned for 40 years. All of us had grown up there and spent most summers of our childhood working making ice cream cones and serving bean suppers. Our family had to sell it when my grandfather passed away in 2007. Although sad, it was nice to be able to be visitors at the campground and not workers:) Noah had a blast playing in the sand with so many people to play with him... Elizabeth buried his legs and made him into a merman, Jacob helped him into some water skis, and Dennis helped him fill his dump truck. His favorite part of the day was the boat ride from Uncle Brian... it was his first and he hasn't stopped talking about it since! James came along too and was a very good sport sleeping in his little tent:)

Summerfest '09

We recently made a trip home to East Millinocket for the town celebration and my class reunion. In the park there were lots of things for Noah to do, but I only got pictures of the horses. He did much better than I thought he would and actually seemed to enjoy himself riding on them! The firemen also sprayed some foam for the kids to play in, but Noah was scared and preferred to watch from his stroller. We were able to be at home for almost a week so although it was exhausting we had a blast spending time with friends and family we don't get to see often!!

Maine Wildlife Park

In an effort to explore the new area and get outside on the few sunny days we have had, I took the kids to the Maine Wildlife Park. Noah really enjoyed the deer and the skunks... he related almost all of the animals to recent Curious George books we have read. The pictures aren't great, but I was by myself and Noah wasn't in the mood for posing:)

July 4th, 2009

Gabe didn't have to be at the hospital until 3 on the 4th so we were able to celebrate some of the 4th activities in the morning. We went north to Freeport for a pancake breakfast and to the parade after... and Noah got to meet the LLBean bear, which, as you can see, he was very excited about:)

James the great gainer!

James is changing and growing so fast I can't believe it!! At birth he weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long... (about 1 pound and 2 inches less than Noah). At his recent 2 week check-up James weighed in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. (as a reference point babies just need to be back to birth weight at 2 weeks to be considered "on track") and 22 inches long!! No feeding concerns with James... I am hoping now that he weighs more than Noah did at this same point he will start sleeping more and eating less at night... I can dream right:)

First Day as a Doctor:)

The top picture is of Gabe with his boys on his first day of residency... still hard to believe that he is really a MD! The other pictures are of our indoor activities since the rain has come non-stop... it is a good thing Noah loves to paint, draw and read!!

James' first days home:)

The top picture is of Gabe and James in the hospital on Gabe's first day of orientation. Nanny and Grampy brought Noah and James a new stroller which Noah was very happy to help put together with his tool belt:) Noah loves to hold James and is still mostly very gentle with him, and James seems to enjoy being held by Noah.

6/13- Gabe's Graduation- Part 2

We were all able to attend Gabe's unofficial medical school graduation called "Class Day" where everyone is recognized and is hooded. It was fun to see everyone in their regalia! Noah did well to stay well dressed during the long ceremony too:)

6/12- Gabe's graduation- Part 1

The awards ceremony was the night before the Class Day celebration. Gabe received the "Saul Blatman Award for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health". Noah and his friend had lots of fun playing with each other's drawing books and toys... he also had fun playing on the tent ropes and most importantly he was a very patient boy through all of the awards.

6/6- Hillary's State Meet

Right after our move we were lucky enough to be able to travel to Bath to see Hillary compete at the state track & field meet... here are just a few pics. Oh and btw she did win first in both javelin and shot put and broke the school record in javelin and got invited to compete in the New England championships the following weekend... love you Hill... Congratulations!!:)

6/4- Cresent Beach

Ok, so there is a chance that I had forgotten how beautiful the coast of Maine can be (don't be fooled, the water was still about 50 degrees). Looking back this may have been the last day we saw the sun here:) It was about 70 degrees with bright sun and no wind, no bugs... Noah has officially gotten over his fear of sand. On this day he was rolling in it, driving his trucks on it and, as you can see building sandcastles... well let me be more specific... Gabe built them and Noah would immediately break them down and laugh.

5/29- Moving

For those of you who may not know Noah likes things to be neat. The first picture is of him trying to clean up his mess after dumping an entire paper bag full of shredded paper onto the floor... he kept repeating "mess, mess, pick up". The second picture is the reason that we were unable to pack anything while he was awake. He would constantly either be taking things out of boxes and putting them back "where they go" or he would get inside any sized box and pretend to nap. The bottom picture is of Noah's new big boy bed. We have yet to put the crib up in the new house, and he has made the transition very well. He was very excited about the bed and to date has only fallen out once. The cutest thing though is that during his nap times we often find him sitting in the rocking chair or lying in bed with one to 5 books "reading" them. What other 2 year old would bypass all of his toys to read books?!?!? It makes it hard to get mad:)

5/21- Last Montshire visit before the move!

I am finally getting caught up on all of the pictures from the last month! Noah just loves the Montshire and will miss it terribly I am sure. Luckily we were able to go for one last outdoor/playing in the water time just after they opened the outdoor part. The middle picture is of him trying to tell me that something is stinky... it wasn't of course:)

Welcome James Louis Civiello!

Over the past 2 and a half weeks we have bought a house, moved back to Maine, Gabe has graduated from Dartmouth and is now a MD, Jen has left her job in Vermont, we had to have Ozzie (our 14 yo cat) put to sleep, and now we have added another member to our family!  I have TONS of pictures from the past few weeks, but I thought I should get these up for everyone to meet James!  He was born on June 17th at 4:44am in Portland... 7lbs. 4oz. and 20 inches long.  Noah has been a very happy and loving big brother so far:)  We will post more pics of everything soon!!

Noah & Daddy Time:)

Gabe is officially done all of his course work for medical school!  As a result, his job over the past few weeks has been to play "Mr. Mom" as he calls it... watching Noah while I am at work.  They have been both LOVING their time together!  It has been really neat to watch their relationship change over the past few weeks:) I am very greatful that they area able to spend this time together before the big move, the new baby and Gabe starting his residency.

Noah has also really improved his speech in the past few weeks.  He is finally starting to initiate conversations with words we can somewhat understand... of course with that he now has strong opinions about what he wants and he has learned the word "NO"... I realize that we were lucky it took this long, but the time has come:)  Now that he is "talking" a bit more it is amazing to see how much he really does know... We read LOTS of books during the day (and I mean actual story books) and he can finish most of the sentences in them!  

The top 2 pics are of Noah and Gabe shaving... Noah with his "razor" is really fascinated with the whole process... the second picture is what we get these days when we ask Noah to smile... oh well.  The last picture is of Noah and Gabe pretending to take a nap.  It is so cute with Noah pretends to nap and closes his eyes:)

We close on our house 2 weeks from today!  Maine here we come!  Stay tuned...