Santa's Village 2015

We now have another successful trip to Santa's Village in the books! The kids spent Sunday morning making birthday cupcakes for Nannie.  Sunday afternoon we packed up and headed for Jefferson.  Thankfully, my mom took lots of pictures because, maybe 3 of these were mine... Maybe keeping track of the kids is all my brain can handle at this point;)  Ben was tall enough to go on everything this year and Noah was tall enough to go on everything alone. So, we only had a breakdown from Audrey when she realized she couldn't go on the bumper cars... hey, it's progress:)  All in all it was a great trip!

Summer Fun!

This past week, we actually had a few days at home!  Gabe, my dad and a few friends got in a round of golf at Sugarloaf on a gorgeous day.  We were able to get quite a few things checked off our summer bucket list including: playing with chalk and dancing in the rain.  We had to find just the right balance of warmth and rain without thunder, which can be challenging at this time of year.  One evening it worked out perfectly and the kids (and Gabe) had an absolutely fantastic time!

Friday we traveled to Portland for a day at the beach with friends followed by picking up our registration packets for the Beach to Beacon 10K. The next morning Gabe and I participated in (and finished) our first 10K.  There was a time last winter and this spring that I was a better runner than Gabe. I had been consistently running and he occasionally had a hard time keeping up with me over a distance.  We both signed up for the Beach to Beacon. During the race I kept us on pace and at one point had to tell Gabe to suck it up and get running.  We got to the last mile, I felt great and realized that I probably should have been running at a faster pace, so I started sprinting. I ran through the finish line not knowing where Gabe was, but knowing that he wasn't in front of me.  For the first time in the 16+ years I have known him, I had finally beat him at something... Neither of us said anything about the finish as we visited the booths, had snacks and got on the shuttle buses back to our car.  On the shuttle I checked my email and got my finish time. Then Gabe got his... he finished 1 second BEFORE me!!! When I looked at him he had a huge smile on his face, was laughing and said, "I tried to make it so we finished at exactly the same time. I could barely keep up, I was on the other side." As it turned out I crossed the starting line just before him... So, all is well with the universe, I will just have to try and find something else to best him at;)

In all seriousness, the Beach to Beacon was an exciting and gorgeous race and we would love to do it again!  Saturday afternoon we arrived home to have a BBQ and campfire with Nannie, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Trey, Lily and the Casey's.  Oh, and the FedEx guy who gratefully accepted our s'more offer after he delivered us a package at 7:00pm on a Saturday night:)

The Melman Family Visits

We arrived home from our trip to Belgrade Lakes just in time to host our friends from Connecticut.  We had stopped at their home briefly on our way back from DC last spring and realized that we hadn't seen them for over 2 years!  So, they were kind enough to make the trip to Maine to visit. It was with this trip that I realized that I am just not great at remembering to take pictures this summer... The first picture is of Audrey awaiting their arrival, getting in a little golf:)  We let the kids run wild with the chickens, play in the pool and enjoyed some much overdue visiting.  We did take them on a hike and picnic lunch to one of our favorite spots to enjoy the view of Webb Lake.  Overall we had a great time and will try hard not to let another 2 years go by.  Thanks Melmans!

Belgrade Lakes 2015

For the first time since we have been vacationing in Belgrade Lakes we had, mostly, beautiful weather!  We spent several days boating, kayaking, fishing and visiting with friends.  Noah has become a confident kayaker and all of the kids are becoming experts at jumping out of the canoe/kayak and swimming along side... they thought that this was the coolest thing ever!  One morning we even got in an easy hike with gorgeous views of both lakes.  The top left picture is of Audrey's latest potty training tactic... she desperately wants to stand and pee every time the boys do... oh the plight of being the younger sister with 3 older brothers;) Thanks friends for hosting us, we can't wait to visit again!

Bar Harbor Adventure

 

After leaving Nobleboro we headed to meet friends for a lunch stop in Belfast before continuing onto Bar Harbor for the night.  Coincidentally, Nannie and Grandpa were in the area for the day and got to meet us for lunch too! Our Bar Harbor trip started off in typical fashion when my friend left her wallet in the shopping cart at Target in Augusta... Thankfully someone returned it, but we weren't about to back track for it. As it turns out, when traveling with a large group (2 adults, 6 kids) it is way easier to just have one person pay:)

Our first stop on the island was at the Oceanarium to hear the lobster talk and see the animals.  Audrey even got to put an elastic on the lobster's claw!  After the wallet incident, everything else went surprisingly smoothly... maybe it just felt that way because our expectations were so low;) We managed to take all the kids out to eat at a restaurant and then let them run wild in the tide pools and across the sand bar. After they were exhausted, we bribed them away from the water and up the hill with the promise of ice cream.  I should have known better than to go to Ben and Bills... They aren't really set up to accommodate bigger groups with tired children.  Once we embraced the enormous kids sized ice creams, the fact that it cost more for ice cream than dinner and that I would wear more than Audrey would eat for the sacrifice of keeping her on my back we had lots to laugh about... I am pretty sure anyone seeing our moving group of chaos would have thought we were crazy.

In an effort to be economical on this trip we shared a hotel room... maybe we had an poorly thought out moment of weakness or a grand sense of adventure.  All I can say is that I am so glad that our kids like each other and we discovered that the kids can sleep anywhere.  The sleepover went way better than I had imagined.  Five out of 6 kids slept on the floor and Shannon had the whole bed to herself.  We did take a picture of just how much stuff it took to sleep over for one night... the positive note here was there were no pack'n plays or baby food involved, so things are getting easier:)

The next day was not great for weather, but given the heated pool we had the place to ourselves. Oh, and once again the Holiday Inn probably lost money with their "kids eat free promotion".  All in all it was a fun trip and we made it home just in time to pack for our next adventure!

Nobleboro 2015

Gabe was gone this weekend to his annual family golf tournament, so the kids and I took advantage in the form of a last minute road trip.  Our first stop was to visit our friends and neighbors at their family cottage in Nobleboro.  The kids spent the afternoon laying on the dock telling stories, fishing and using some positive peer pressure to get their friends to jump into the lake;) It was a wonderfully relaxing summer day at the lake.

Then Audrey started to have a bad day... She shared a room with Ben and I, and I could hear her being really restless all night, she was asleep, but constantly moving and talking in her sleep.  So, naturally, I ignored her hoping she would settle down. At 1 am she fell out of bed... she was in a slippery sleeping bag, so I fished her out from between the two beds and when consoling her I noticed she was really hot with a fever (probably why she was so restless in the first place). Luckily, I had packed the ibuprofen, so we snuck out of the bedroom (so we wouldn't wake Ben, although I am not sure how he was still asleep with all of the screaming) and into the bathroom.  In the bathroom I had to turn on the light to find the medication and I was a bit shocked to see a huge back eye on Audrey.  I didn't outwardly react since she had stopped crying, but did ask her if anything hurt... she pointed to her chin... under her chin was an even bigger bruise.  Mercifully, there was no actual broken skin for bleeding and I didn't have to break out my suture glue kit.  I gave her some ibuprofen and put her back to bed. She slept so well that the next morning Ben and I got up and left her sleeping... so, of course, when she woke up and got out of bed she locked herself in the room and couldn't turn the door knob to let herself out... I was just about to climb in through a window when my wonderfully handy friend successfully picked the lock... I am hoping that the rest of our weekend gets better from here:)

Overall, it was a great visit and we can't wait to visit again!  Thanks Abbotts!