Maine! It's in my blood!

I posted this just over a year ago. Tomorrow we're going back to MAINE!!!!!

We are beside ourselves excited!!!!!

YIPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!

=)

I can't explain it really. It just came upon me the other day. I am yearning for a trip to Maine! Our family vacationed there every year and since high school I've only been there once and that was 4 years ago.
I can't explain to you what that does to me! I feel it in my bones!
I need a good sniff of that fresh, sweet, salty Maine air.
I need to creep ever so slowly into that frigid water!

I need to walk along the beach collecting beach glass, pretty shells and other treasures.

I need to climb across the huge rocks along the shoreline and explore.

I need to walk out onto the Rockland Breakwater.

I need to lift up some big clods of seaweed during low tide and find some cute little crabs scurry away.

I need to sit on the porch of a cottage and watch sailboats and schooners glide by.

I need to walk along a dirt road and pick wild berries and gobble them up before getting them home.

I need to walk around in Camden (please don't confuse it with Camden, NJ ...so very different!) and stop in all of the fun, cute, quaint little shops.

I need to drive by the Belted Galloways (pretty cows - yes, I said pretty!)

I need to drive across that bridge on my way into Maine and roll down the windows half way across and just breathe deeply and enjoy the air and blast "Portland Town" by Schooner Fare.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, I NEED a big, juicy, home cooked Maine lobster bought right down on the dock and boiled up at home with some cucumber salad and sweet corn on the cob on the side and a nice bowl of melted butter for dipping (no worries about diets when eating Maine lobster!!)

Can you see how much I want to go back to Maine?! We had great times in Maine as kids and I really miss that!!
To those of you family members who're reading this: #1 I apologize because I know what seeing these pictures has done to you. #2 Now when are we going to plan another family trip???!!!

We camp in style!

Our vacation this year was to a really nice cottage in the Mountains of WV (Isn't all of WV mountains? I don't know. That's all I saw anyway! Whatever.) It was called Faith Mountain and it's a retreat place for Pastors and Missionaries (with discounted rates - awesome!!)

It was so beautiful and peaceful (oh wait...it wasn't necessarily peaceful since we had a 3 and 1 yr old boys with us, but I can see where for anyone else it would be extremely peaceful!) 

I loathe putting pictures in posts. I'm either incapable of doing it the right way or it's a terrible system and I prefer to think the latter is true! So this is just a smattering of things that we did and saw. You won't be seeing pictures of the wildlife that visited our cottage (wild turkeys, deer, rabbits and the random bald man - oh never mind. That was just my dad!) because I'm too frustrated with putting pictures and they didn't make the cut.

This is the Cedar House where we stayed. It was totally the best way to camp. By day we had a campfire outside and a pond to fish in, trails to walk on and a beautiful view and by night we had an amazingly beautiful house to stay in complete with a full kitchen (even a dishwasher if that gives you an idea to how nice it was!) 4 large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one with a whirlpool tub!), wood floors - beautiful!! There is seriously no other way to camp in my mind anyway!

This is the earliest stinkin' campfire I've ever seen. This was probably about 6:30pm, but it was fun and delicious (s'mores!!) and the boys were bathed and in bed by 8pm. Doesn't get better than that, sports fans!

Caleb and Pop-pop at the campfire. You'll notice Pop-pop passed him off to me after this picture and when you see the next one you'll know why. Chicken!
Caleb enjoying his first S'more! He was such a sticky, chocolatey mess! And super cute!!

My parents came down the day after us. Dad stayed for 3 nights and Mom stayed the rest of the week with us. It was so fun to have Grammy and Pop-pop with us! We went exploring around the area and discovered there's really nothing to do! 45 minutes away we found Sutton Dam which was super cool. I don't remember ever being to a dam before, but some people are telling me I was at one in high school. I was in my own little silly world doing silly teen things then.  'Nuff said. Anyway, it was impressive and a really fun trip.

This is one of the views from the top of the dam. So pretty! Sammy spotted the playground down there on the left and asked to play for a bit so we drove down there. It's a beautiful park with pavilions for picnics, fishing, etc.

There was a spot for swimming so another day Grammy, Daddy, the boys and I went back. This time we swam with the boys (when I saw "we" I mean "I" because Grammy and Daddy were chicken!) Then we played at the playground and ate a picnic lunch before heading back to the house for naps. It was a great day!

The boys watching a movie. There was no tv, no internet, no phone, not even cell service at the cottage so we came up with things to do!

And here's one of the things Sammy came up with! =)

Daddy and Sammy fishing together. It was the first time for all of us and even though we didn't catch anything it was really fun (and nice to leave Caleb at the house with Grammy since we literally climbed down the mountain and back up again to get to the pond). I don't recommend it with a 1 yr old in your arms! In fact, I just plain old don't recommend it at all!

This was a very cool old, run-down barn we drove by many times. On our way home we finally stopped and took this picture. I think it would make the best postcard or a really cool puzzle. Or maybe I'll just do the boring thing and blow it up to hang on the wall. I don't know what it is, but I just love this old barn!

Caleb being silly and sweet on the ride home. We made it all the way with no traffic at all until we got to the smallest stickin' state (sorry, I can't bring myself to even utter the word - it starts with a "D") and mercy did we ever hit traffic there! We were stuck on 95 for what seemed like an eternity!  

All in all we had a great time and though I don't think we'll ever go back while the kids are young (I'm the kind that enjoys a quiet relaxing vacation every now and then, but really loves a place with stuff to do and see!) I could totally see us going back sometime when it's just the two of us.

We picked blueberries till we were blue in the face...

...not really. We actually picked less than $3 worth since we saw that the already boxed up ones were only $1.50/lb and the pick-your-own were $1.80. Seems so backwards! If it weren't for the boys we would have just bought the boxed ones and called it a day, but we had a good time picking.

We rode on the wagon out to the fields. Caleb was really sweet (what else is new?!) and waited patiently for a taste. Grandmom showed him how to pick them himself and before we knew it he was picking and eating almost as fast as his brother! By the end he was grabbing them off the bushes as we pushed his stroller along the aisles!

Sammy was really funny. I noticed he was eating a lot so I asked him how many he had in his basket. He looked in and then looked back up at me and said "oops!" His basket was empty after about 15 minutes of picking! It's so true that if they were smart they'd weigh the little ones before and after to make more money!

YUM!!

He and I have very different ideas of what saving for winter means!! =)

picking...

...eating...

...grinning because his basket is nearly empty!

Walking back to the wagon (to buy the pre-boxed blueberries!!)

Fruity Fun

About half what we ended up with

This wasn't posed or anything! ;)

Look at that sweet boy!

Today we went to pick strawberries and cherries with Grandmom, Aunt Sarah and "my cousin baby Josie" (as Sammy calls her). You'll notice that there are no pictures of picking strawberries. That could be because Caleb was a crab and Josie wasn't thrilled with the carrier so Grandmom put the two of them in the corner which left Sarah, Sammy and I to pick strawberries. Well, actually it mostly left Sarah since Sammy was running up and down the aisles and I had to stop quite frequently to make sure he wasn't getting too far. Sorry, Sar! It was pretty hot and we didn't get a ton of strawberries, but the fun was to come!

Next we went around to the other side of the farm and picked cherries. I love to pick cherries! It's so fun! We picked from just one tree and ended up with TONS of cherries. We parked the two strollers under the tree in the shade and had a blast picking bunches and bunches of beautiful, delicious cherries. Someone (who will remain unnamed) even climbed the tree to pick. The kids were great and we came home with more cherries than I knew what to do with!

The past few weeks

Ok, I promised details of some of the things we did these past few weeks so here's my feeble attempt.

Sammy had his 3rd birthday on Monday while his grandparents were visiting. I do feel a little guilty that I didn't blog on his birthday, but things were nuts here! We had a nice day together.
He opened some gifts in the morning.


We went to the zoo which is easily Sammy's favorite place to go!


Yeah, he's brushing the goat's butt! Whatever!


Just look at this sweet little bundled boy!


We went to Pat's for cheesesteaks for lunch (passed the Rocky statue on the way and had to take a pic for my father-in-law who thinks it's just the coolest thing!)


We went to dinner together and just had a really nice day.

His party wasn't until Saturday and he was so excited! We had family and a few friends over and Sammy had a great time!


This was Sammy's big gift. We had it waiting in the basement for several weeks and he was beside himself he was so excited to set it up! Once it was ready he got in and jumped for nearly 2 straight hours!!


Sammy asked for a Boz cake for months before his birthday. He wanted a "Boz cake with Mickey Mouse candles" (we got one because it was insanely expensive to get more than one!). He decided he liked the Mickey Mouse plates and things so it became a Mickey Mouse party, but with a Boz cake. I must say that it was SOOO much work to make that cake that during the 2.5 hours it took to decorate it I got him the say that next year we can get a Friendly's ice cream cake!!


Opening gifts with one of his friends


Caleb picked a doozy of a weekend to get his (and our) first ear infection! We had my parents over for dinner Thursday night, a house full of friends over Friday night, Sammy's party on Saturday and Caleb's dedication at church on Sunday. He was feeling much better though by Sunday so it was a really nice day.

He squawked a few times when he saw Grandmom up front taking pictures. He gets so excited when he sees her! =) So cute!


Overall we had a busy, but great weekend. Caleb's dedication was another time for me to get all emotional and grateful for all that God has blessed me with. I can't begin to tell how blessed I am to have such a wonderful and loving husband, two sweet beautiful boys and so many extended family and friends who love and care for us! God has been so amazingly good to us! I was also reminded of all we went through during my pregnancy with Caleb and thank the Lord for His protection and healing and for a happy and perfectly healthy little boy who is an absolute joy!