Wednesday

This morning found us heading to Reid State Park. In all the years we have been coming to this area, we have not visited this park and after we arrived, we wondered why in the world we have missed out on this great spot!

We were meeting a friend that I had met on-line through an adoption yahoogroup. Felicity and John are waiting to bring home their precious little girl from the Philippines.

Me and Felicity

The day was very foggy and a bit cool, but this did not deter our group. The kids couldn’t wait to hit the water. The tide was going out and the waves were great. Bessie went right in riding the waves back and forth. She was so thrilled. The younger set enjoyed having the waves chase them up the beach.

Rachel and Gabe love the waves

The bigger kids brave the surf

Bri trying to get some sand out of his water shoes

Dan and Fern

The kids lost one of the sand pails in the surf. We thought it might come back up, but it went further and further away. I’m not sure where the tides will take it. Dorothy, keep a lookout of an orange sand pail. It might be washing up on a beach near you!

Dan, Fern and Randy

We had a picnic lunch and a wonderful visit. It was so nice to chat about their upcoming adoption and get her impressions of the Littles after a year. Sometimes we are too close to the situation and don’t always see the improvements they have made.

Dan and Hannah enjoy their lunch

Gabe and Dan making sand angels

We arrived back and the campground and everyone needed a good hosing off. I took some of the kids down to the showers to speed things up and Brian kept Dan and the camper and gave him a shower.

We had a quick snack and then went down to Boothbay Harbor. I was missing one color for my stitching block and I’m almost done! We also went to the greenhouse in town, which has a nice selection of perennials. I picked out of few nice varieties.

We are having a great camping vacation and I’m sure everyone will be sad to see it end.

Tuesday Afternoon

We arrived back at the campground around 4:30 and we decided to have a quick snack and go out to Ocean Point. Bessie was really antsy to get into the water and I must admit that I was needing an ocean fix. The tide was coming in fast and the kids had a blast. Bessie got right in and Gabe even went under. I didn’t put bathing suits on the Littles, as I didn’t think they would go in. They got soaked! Dan kept running out into the water and then back up on the rocks. They giggled and had a great time. Of course, Gracie the dog enjoyed her nice swim. She loves the water.

I made sure to give a wave to Dorothy in England. I wasn’t sure of the exact direction, so I’ll bring a compass when we go to Pemaquid Point and make sure I’m waving at England and not Spain or Africa! I also collected quite a bit of beach glass. Gabe found several really nice pieces of blue for me. He loves to find interesting colors and is so pleased to give them to me for my collection.

Brian lets Gracie take a swim

We love the ocean!
Dan and Hannah enjoying the waves

All the kids needed a change of clothes in the van. We stopped for pizza on the way home…pepperoni and onion and mushroom…yum, yum. I gave everyone a shower to get off the salt water and the Littles went to bed. Gabe and Bessie stayed up for a bit longer and I ran down to the office to check my messages. Brian and I are enjoying lots of hours for reading and stitching in the evenings.

Tuesday Morning

We woke to another cloudy day, but the weatherman assured us that the chance of rain was less today.

I called Lisa Berry first thing and set up a time to meet them at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray. The kids were excited about going to the park and I was glad to be able to visit with Lisa. We made it to the park around 12:45pm. We ate lunch in the van on the way there. It took about 1.15 hours to get there which wasn’t bad at all. The clouds had burned off and the sky was blue and the sun nice and warm.

The park was fun and it was nice to see so many native animals of Maine. It does make me somewhat sad to see all these wonderful animals in cages, but I have to remind myself that they are animals that have either been injured or have been in captivity in other places prior to coming to the park. It looked like they were doing a lot of work on different habitats and are trying to make them more natural looking.

The kids had a great time. Gabe and Ben especially hit it off, talking and compare their park maps about which way to go next. Gabe was beside himself taking pictures of all the animals. He did a great job and got some very good shots. He enjoys doing the photography.

Gabe enjoying his new camera

One of the rangers was feeding the birds of prey when we walked through that area; serving up little white mice and rabbit pieces. It was very cool to watch the birds snatch up the tasty morsels. The Raven particularly was fun to watch as he took the mice and hit them around his enclosure and marked the spots with a rock. They are such intelligent birds.

Look at all those kids!

Lisa and me

(We remembered to take a picture this year!)

The Maine Marine Resourse Aquarium

The Aquarium was our next stop. The kids always love going here. There is a nice big touch tank where you can touch and hold many sea creatures. Last year the Littles were very reluctant to do much touching, but this year they eagerly took turns holding the lobsters, crabs, seastars and snails.

Bri shows Dan a Sea Scallop

Dan was brave enough to hold one himself
Gabe holds a Horseshoe Crab Rachel and Gabe enjoy petting the Dogfish sharksThere was a large tank with several Dogfish Sharks in it. You can pet them. The Sharks seem to enjoy it as they continue to swim around and poke there noses out of the water. Either that or they are waiting for a finger or two to taste, although the attendants assure us they they would not bite. Hannah and Dan did not want to take the chance.

By the time we got back to the campground, it was pouring again. The kids did some coloring and played with their new toys. They even spent some time outside under the awning. I think I'll have a load of wet clothes to dry.

It was a good first day of our vacation.

Boothbay Harbor

It was a wet, rainy day today, so we decided to do our inside activities. We headed down to Boothbay Harbor to hit some of our favorite shops and visit the Maine Aquarium.

There are some fun shops in town. One of our favorites is Sherman's Bookstore. They have so many fun things and of course, tons of books. Each of the kids picked out a small toy. Bessie wanted to go to a store that had some fun clothes and usually has something on sale. She found a nice shirt.

Watching the Taffy Pulling Machine We had lunch down near the walkway across Boothbay Harbor. The rain had stopped long enough to enjoy the scenery.
The Harbor

Camping in Maine

We got a good start this morning leaving at 6:30am. This is about 2.5-3 hours sooner than usual.

The traffic was extremely light and it was so nice to zoom along. We didn’t hit any appreciable traffic until around Nashua, NH. The southbound lane was very busy and backed up for miles at the tollbooths. I sure was glad we were in the northbound lane which was a bit heavy, but moving right along.

We stopped twice, once for breakfast around 9am and again a few hours later to get gas.

We arrived at our destination at 1:20pm. It had become quite overcast and there were light sprinkles.

We did a quick set up and fed the kids lunch. Everyone was glad to be here, although I think it is all very confusing to Dan and Hannah. Rachel seems to understand what is going on, but I’m not sure the younger ones remember last year. Dan kept asking if we were going home and I told him we were going camping, but that didn’t seem to register to him, so I told him we were going to our “little home”…the camper. He thought that was pretty funny and kept saying “little home” and making the sign he makes for little.

We set the tent up for Bessie. This year she is going to sleep in the tent. I think the crowded conditions in the camper are getting to her. I think she will enjoy the space to herself and it does free up space in the camper.

After dinner, we took a couple of loops around the campground and stopped for ice at the little store. The kids played outside for a while. Brian had to free up the gray water valve, as it wasn’t opening. That will have to be replaced.

Enjoying a Walk Around the LoopAfter the kids were in bed, we had a nice quiet evening of stitching and reading.

Summer Clean Up Challenge

Lisa posted a Summer Clean Up Challenge on her blog yesterday. I wanted to do this challenge but was feeling pretty embarrassed about how messy some of the rooms in our house are, but maybe this will spur me on to clean up some of the messier areas.

Anyway, I've chosen our bedroom which is the catch all for the house. Right now we have way more stuff than will fit in the house. We are working on storage areas and also getting rid of stuff.

This will also tie in nicely with Cynthia's Scrapbook Challenge as my scrapbooking area is in our bedroom!

So...here it is in all it's messiness...our bedroom.

Did I mention that Gabe shares our room. That is his bed between the windows!

This is a little alcove that I've been using for my scrapbooking area. It also has my serger there. We are hoping to move things around so Gabe can use this little cubby for his area.

Garden Place

Saturday afternoon we went to one of our favorite garden places. It is a bit of a drive so we usually only go once a summer. They specialize in water gardens but also have a nice selection of perennials.

There is a lovely woodland path behind the main plant area that meanders through the woods. There are several little ponds with fish and lots of shade plants. It is great.

We were the only ones there so the owner took a special interest in the kids. He let them feed the fish, which was a big hit! The kids weren't sure, but he assured them they wouldn't bite. There was lots of giggles and smiles as the fish took the food out of their hands.

It was a fun outing for everyone...the kids had fun and I picked up a few more perennials and a new plant for my water garden.

Front Yard

Liz started a new blog challenge after Chris posted a picture of her dry parched yard. Liz's yard was flooded.

So, here is our front yard, neither parched or flooded....just right! If the weather is dry, our front yard, which is quite gravelly, will get brown, but we have had a nice mix of sun and rain this summer so it is staying nice and green.

2007 Scrapbook Challenge

Cynthia at Life is Good, has started a 2007 scrapbook challenge. I haven't scrapbooked in months and months and need to get going.

My thoughts on scrapbooking are in a transition phase and I'm still not sure how I'll resolve it, but maybe this challenge will help me at least do something.

Organize something is the first challenge. Wow, what an open challenge. I have so many areas of my scrapbooking that need to be organized. I might start with the backlog of pictures that I have or maybe tackle my extensive collection of "stuff" that I've collected over the years. I guess it doesn't matter as long as I start somewhere. Anything done is better than nothing.

Thanks for this challenge, Cynthia!