Maine: the Mother of All Posts.

This always ends up being the biggest post of the year, partly because this is our longest vacation and also because it is just so darn photogenic.  

After we spent some time in Boston, we headed north.  And north.  And north.

 

Alastair was so excited to go fishing that he grabbed the red life jacket we bought him on the way up and ran to the dock.  Trouble is that he only thought he had the right one; he was actually wearing the one Emery outgrew from last year.  In his enthusiasm, I don't think he even noticed it was too small. 
 

Hiking is also a favorite activity.

Emery is ready to hike Bald Mountain under her own power for the first time. 

Someone else was in "her" pack, after all.

On the way.

Emery takes a break but Daddy does not. 

Hansel and Gretel.

Almost there!

Made it!

It was very buggy this year at Camp.  Both kids are wearing Deet coated bandanas to keep the bugs from biting their heads.  If you notice the puffy eye, Alastair was bitten right on the corner of his eye a few days before this hike and woke up with a real shiner.  Several rounds of Benadryl brought it down to this.

Checking out all the way she hiked from the fire tower.

This kid is an old pro.

Waiting at the Pine Tree Frosty for our victory ice cream.   Family tradition.  In fact, most of our Maine family traditions involve ice cream in one capacity or another.  Great hike?  Ice cream, please!  Fireworks?  Ice cream!  Rainy day?  You guessed it:  ice cream!

We had lazy days and mornings too.

Nothing inspires "cuddles" like sharing the family iPad.  Until the fighting begins, that is.

 
Nell in her usual spot with toys in front, the couch supporting her from behind and pillows on either side to catch her should she tip.


She really perfected sitting up in Maine.  Thankfully she was not crawling yet.

On rainy days, we had to get a little creative.  One day we went shopping in North Conway, NH, where the outlet stores are awesome and there is no sales tax.  Another day, we did inside stuff like: 

Painting hot rocks with crayons.  Thank you Pinterest.


  And Bowling.  This is the first ever Bowling family bowling trip.  It was fun.

Sometimes we drove around trying to spot the neighbors.  They aren't very chatty, but they will occasionally pause long enough for a picture.

Thankfully, we enjoyed nice weather for most of the trip.

The kids enjoyed watching the ducks (while eating ice cream).

They really enjoyed catching minnows.

Got some!

Poor little victims.  I made Emery and Alastair set them loose after a bit.  

Of course there were water sports.

Kayaking.

Kneeboarding.

Kim and I also went out wakeboarding several times on our own.  The water seemed really cold (it always does) and our last night, we decided to turn on the fish finder to see what the temperature really was.  Sixty-two degrees.  I think I was better off before I knew that.

In Rangeley, we celebrate the fourth of July on the third of July.  Cantankerous yankees.  This year the kids participated in the doll carriage parade.  As it turns out, there is nothing "doll carriage" about this parade.  There were paper mache bears as big as a smart car, covered wagons pulled by pony sized stuffed horses, and some seriously professional looking floats.  Alastair pulled his sisters in a (comparatively) ghetto wagon festooned with patriotic bunting and sparkly streamers.  However, we did have super cute girls and a real life baby.  I overhead one woman say, "Is that a real baby?" while we walked by.  Yes ma'am.  We strive for authenticity around here.  I put her in her little highchair, all buckled in under her dress and big brother was under strict orders to "BE GENTLE."  This was a real Kodak moment, however, on our rush to get out the door (we had to take both girls to the health clinic to check out coughs before the parade) we forgot my good camera.  Drat.

 
Check out all those people way up the street.  Next time we'll bring candy to throw and possibly Mardi Gras beads, since we seem to have a parade's worth on our own around here.  I have been trying to figure out a craft to make with them but perhaps this is just what I have been waiting for!


 
Yes, she's real.
 

The actual Fourth of July was pretty rainy.  Eleanor in her "my first Fourth" shirt.

 

The evening cleared off and I was able to get a few shots of Alastair on the dock.

What a beautiful night.  It is so nice that Alastair has outgrown his camera shy faze.  Emery, however, has just entered it.

We did plenty of other cool things. 

The library put on a magic show to kick off their summer reading programs.  Magic is a big draw at our house right now.

Alastair had a delightful time with his grandparents.

Papa taught him lathe safety and let him try turning on his own.

He made a pen and a practice spindle.

He even got to go shooting. 

Papa and Grammie bought two Red Ryder BB guns at one of their Ducks Unlimited banquets a few years ago and have been waiting impatiently for him to grow up.  That means Emery has one to grow into in a few years as well.  Papa gave him the safety talk just like it was a real gun.

It is a super fun little gun to shoot and Alastair is mighty proud of the target he brought home.  I actually think it was my target, but I'll take one for the team this time.

Eleanor's big adventure was trying new foods.

It turns out she doesn't do well with bananas.  We learned this just after we ordered dinner in town one night.  Why is it always me that gets barfed on?  I ate several meals out of styrofoam boxes on this trip.

My goal for next year is to eat a lobster roll on a real plate while the french fries are still hot.

 Open water?  No problem.

The big theme throughout our vacation this year was triathlon training, which really turned into the summer's theme.  This was the period during which I really cranked up my swimming and biking effort to match all the running I had been doing.  We started with a 750 meter swim in open water to kick things off.  I was delighted to be able to swim that without a problem, but unhappy to learn that I really freaked out putting my face in the water because:  a.  I couldn't see very far and b.  I was scared of what I might see.  That was a surprise. I did my distance through a mix of backstroke and breaststroke.  Here is Kim on his swim, which he did freestyle with his face in the water.  Show off.  While attempting to take this picture (whining baby in my lap not pictured), he kept veering left (although he claims he wasn't going in the direction I thought he was) and I kept clunking into him.  I thought it really added an additional challenge to his training and he could have been more appreciative of my effort to make him tougher.

We took Alastair on his first real hike while Emery got a little one on one time with the Grands.

Aziscohos Mountain.  He rocked it.
 

Kim and I were both really surprised that Alastair bounded up the mountain as well as he did.  Five hours roundtrip with 1500 vertical rise?  No problem for this kid.

 

It was really muddy.  As for my new Merrell Goretex hiking boots, five stars all the way!  I was the only one with clean socks at the end.

A few parting shots from my annual "torture the family" photo shoot:

 

 How cute are they?

 Thanks Grammie and Papa for letting us run ramshod over Camp.

Awesome trip as always.  Next year Kim and I want to go back in the fall without the kids for a few days.  Hiking in the fall is always so much fun.  Let's get real here:  fall is fun.  Texas really should look into having one sometime.