Its not everyday...

... there is a castle in your yard. And not everyday that your baby turns 3. And wow what a 3 year old she is. She has an amazing amount of personality in her body. She is so full of life and joy. Her emotions come out with full gusto. I could not be more grateful for my sweet girl's vocabulary. She speaks with such confidence and conviction. (She just told me she is going to America in just a second. America is going to be open in one hour. She is holding two babies and has a backpack on, she's ready for the trip!) Her little curls suit her perfectly, adorable and a bit unpredictable. Her favorites are being held, being tickled, dancing, swinging, her Daddy, and her sister and her brother, ok really, all her family. She loves B and H and all her friends. She is always asking where everyone's significant others are. She loves to have us all together. She loves her lovies, her puppy is her fav, then lamb, then duck. Maybe soon we will be done with her ba's. Oh she is a joy. Love my girl!

Ready for the party? First princesses need a nap.

The interpretation of my smile is this-- "she's still my baby girl!" What a gift this was to me-- I didn't know I was getting a gift on her birthday!

Ready now!

Wow what a castle. Oh I hope she remembers it!

And another castle! It is a princess party after all!

Nothing like sweet friends who share your joy!

Two of her favorite boys. Lord help me.

Most all the kids! I love L's face- my interpretation-- Wow what a day! It almost just too much!!

Sunday ride

We ended Saturday night with a big group talk and discussion over the Cadillac mountain climb the next day. The group was quite apprehensive for some reason, maybe because the word mountain was involved. It was a 3.5 mile climb. I couldn’t quite imagine that. I knew I had to go for it, I had kept up with j this far and I wasn’t going to quit now!! So the next morning, I ate my blueberry pancakes and ate my bacon and drank my water and I was ready. The climb was a turn off the Park Loop Road and we decided to do the mountain and enjoy the rest of the day. We were about 28 miles away from 100 miles total and I really wanted to make sure we got that in. J, Mike and I took off. Tara decided on a spa/ pool/ shopping day. We planned ahead of time that the guys would climb as hard as the could and I would meet them at the top. The waited for me at the turns but oddly we were not going up. hmmm. When will it start? Pretty soon I saw the guys ahead with the map. We missed it. We then planned to save it for last. Great! Hardest climb last, perfect. sigh. We had 15 miles around to get back to the turn for the climb. Oh my. Amazing ride. The best smoothest road. Amazing views. Sandy beach, rocky beach, Coves, bridges, islands, boats. A. ma. zing. We get to the turn off and take it on! The guys get ahead and we just keep going and going. It was hard. I decided the next tour I take will be in Florida. I decided I need a new bike seat. I also decided that J was now the only reason I was going to keep going. I didn’t care for myself anymore, I just wanted to see him. And I did. 27 minutes later, I was at the top. Mike 21. John 23. I took a 2 minute break and at a few power gel bites. Cried out to Jesus a few times. And I promise he told me that I had chosen to do it and I had to just keep going. We hit 97 miles at the top. We went all around the summit and studied down below, we saw where our hotel was, we saw the island where we had been the day before and we could pick out several places where we had ridden that day. It was an amazing accomplishment. My first mountain. I took it a bit easy on the way down. There were some serious turn backs that I wanted to make sure I could actually turn back. It was very overwhelming to see what I had climbed. So we hit 100 miles at the bottom and returned to town with grins. Got back and laid in the grass a minute. So grateful for my health. So grateful for my marriage. So grateful to have gotten to accomplish that feat with my J. So grateful to know the one who made such a glorious place. And so grateful for the grandparents who let us come.

the view from the top of the Harbor where we stayed, we climbed a long way!
at the top!
in front of sand beach

The Saturday Ride

Amazing. Saturday we took a ferry ride to Schoodic Island. Our bikes were driven over on top of the van. We had a bit of discussion over the pronunciation of the island and, for the record, Mike was right, Tara and I were wrong. We hopped on our bikes and took off. I stuffed my camera in my little bike pouch because I could not stand another day of not having any pictures.

We took some roads around the islands that first took us through a neighborhood that had houses that looked like presidents would be vacationing there. The architecture is so different. Beautiful roof lines with such colorful siding. Gardens filled with tall flowers in all colors. Soft green lawns. Just stunning. We went back through town and over to the Islands portion of Acadia National Forest. The one way road seemed to just hug the coastline all the way. We would see the most gorgeous view of huge rocks and deep blue water with lobster buoys scattered throughout. We would hop off our bikes, take a few pictures and get back on ready to go and 500 feet later want to stop again! We tried to resist a few views now and then just to make a bit of progress, but it was not easy. There were not many people around and we enjoyed having this amazing road to enjoy without crowds. We circled the park and cruised into the delegated deli for lunch. A few others were there and the cooks were quite overwhelmed by out huge crowd of 15. :) Quiet island for sure. J got a hambuger and I got a turkey club. It took a bit, but we enjoyed sitting on such a gorgeous afternoon and enjoying the view of the homes and the water. After lunch, J and I set out to finish the days ride. We had one hour before the ferry left and 18 miles, which is not crazy on a road we know well, but I was a bit apprehesive to try. But to be with J, I concented and we took off. Our first stop was a tiny lobstering community. The buoys remeinded me of sprinkles, there were so many buoys in the water. The temperature dropped probably 10 degrees from the chilly sea breeze over the North Atlantic. We high tailed back and took a neighborhoodish road called Paul Bunyon in a big loop and hen back to town past our deli and then a 5 mile that felt like all up hill to arrive 10 minutes after 3:00. Thankfully our back up plan, the van was there and we rode back to Bar Harbor via roads, which was not disappointing, it was nice to talk to our guides and see some beautiful farms along the way.

We got back to the hotel and quickly cleaned up and left to go to a local, off the beaten path seafood place. We were presented with our bright red lobster, corn on the cob and coleslaw. Oh and butter. J ate one claw and requested some fried shrimp. I ate my way through but it was not the best thing I ever ate. Not that it wasn’t fresh but it was just a bit too much. Am I high maintenance if I request that my food be a bit more prepared before I eat it, in other words, I don’t like to see my meat’s eyes. The location was wonderful, we were right at a marina with the sun setting, gorgeous. And the most amazing thing came yet, blueberry pie a al mode. oh happy place. So delicious. I actually had 3 pieces of blueberry pie from 3 restaurants in 4 nights and this one got my blue ribbon. It was perfect. Tons of blueberries, perfect crust. oh happy place. Delightful day.

Acadia National Park on Schoodic Island
Mike offering a helping hand
John riding down a hill
just off the ferry
the tiny ferry was ours

enjoying the ocean view

35 miles of Acadia

Months and months ago, mom saw in Southern Living an article about a bike tour in West Virginia that she thought looked like something we would like to try. Then we started talking about taking a trip for our 10 anniversary and thought coming back to Maine would be fun. Like 9 months later, here we are!! I keep having to pinch myself. We arrived several days ago and it is stunning beautiful. We are staying right on the water and every time we look up, we see boats and lobster buoys and kayak's decorating the most beautiful blue ocean. Little uninhabited islands are bursting out of the water too with majestic rock and tree after tree. Yesterday we rode 35 very challenging miles of Acadia National Park. The car free roads were a gift from Rockefeller to the American people. The scenery is a gift from God. We climbed from along side crystal clear ponds to the top of 3 mountains. Lots of climbing. The roads are not paved but are kinda packed gravel. Most of it was actually pretty smooth but made for a challenging and nervous ride at times. I really did not get over the joy of the ride- seeing the most amazing views from every height of the trail, being so thankful for the gift of being healthy enough to ride that much, and being there with John. We saw many other riders, some hikers with dogs and 6 horseback riders. We saw one Clydesdale that was the biggest horse I've ever seen in my life, he was huge. I told John the ride and the views were breathtaking. This trip is an amazing gift.

Close call

I have been meaning to write about a crazy moment in my mommy life. The kids last ball game was on the last day of school. At noon. Wowsiers it was hot. Not a very good turn out for that one. J wasn't even able to make it. H's team played one inning. Really? one? yes. So we headed over to Ek's game. Her opponents only had 4 players and they called up an adorable rookie. H timidly went onto the field and played a big of first base. He did great. Once we helped him a bit. After all his team had batted, H was moving to the plate ready for his turn. They were so kind to let him bat. He got a hit pretty quickly and it went straight to the first baseman who happens to be his sister. oh no! and she quickly dove for the base. oh no! and they just about tied at the bag. oh no! and looked at me! really? you're going to make me make that call? H looked at me? Did I make it? Ek looked at me. Did I get him out? really? really? not fair at all. Good reason to hire umpires. safe. I say. good call, good call. Please Lord, I umpire enough, not on a field again!

Five

H is 5. wow. Time is moving very quickly. He was pretty subdued about the whole thing. Almost as if his whole self was saying "its about time!" He was pretty bummed that his party had already happened and that the club pool was closed just to make that disappointment sting. I had to remind him of great details from his party to comfort him. We ended up going out to lunch with the P's and the G's. Then Ek went home with CG and JP and BP came home with us, for 5 hours. Appropriate. The boys played amazingly. They played Pirate legos, hours of Hulabaloo, Operation, and Hungry Hippos. The only sat still for one cartoon and played for hours. It was wonderful to hear their happy laughs and I am so grateful for a sweet friend for H. We went out for pizza later that night and dragged his bday one day when we went to the pool Tuesday for swimming with friends and ice cream there.

H is an amazing boy. He loves deep and is very affectionate. He still loves to be held, carried and cuddled. He is my boy that almost every morning just needs a minute to be held before he can get going good. He has an amazing laugh and smile. He is shy with new people but full of life with friends. He has tremendous energy and sleeps hard. He loves to help. He will run to get something if I ask him. He makes his bed everyday and has his animals very strategically placed in 2 rows at the end of his bed. Puppy is still his number one and Sam is his number 2, Sam has on a UGA football uniform right now. H's favorite sport right now is probably baseball followed by basketball. He rides his bike more than is scooter and is very fast. He loves to swim and his freestyle is really coming along. He can jump in and swim to the shallow all by himself. His cannon ball is fierce and enjoys a front flip of the diving board as well. He is silly and fun and adores his sisters. He and L can get to laughing like no body can. He really looks up to his Ek as well. H is a mamas boy and a daddys boy and has a hard time letting us go. He is always anxious if he doesn't say a good good-bye especially if he forgets to say I love you. He is smart and takes his time at his work and is all round wonderful. His smile still melts my heart. I love my boy.

Conditional Animal Lovers

My kids really enjoy seeing aminals, from a distance and from several feet off the ground if the animal is alive. Do they like the vantage point better from being in our arms, I'm not sure, but if so, maybe they will love animals one day. At the Lake 2 dogs were suddenly on our dock and my 3 children were suddenly in 3 sets of arms. The fourth set of arms promptly made himself a guard at the entrance to the dock. All were safe. And we, of course, talked about the dogs later with great joy.

I got them the Disney version of Planet Earth that is edited for children. It has produced some hilarious comments. The first time we watched, it did not take long for the kids to realize that there is alot of killing going on in the wild. Not even elephants are safe. So when the sweet little penguins came onto the screen, H asks, "mommy, who kills penguins?" I guess he was trying to prepare himself for what was to come. The movie had been stopped as we had gotten out of the car one day and H exclaimed as we got buckled, "oh good! this is my favorite part! when the lions are trying to get the elephant!" see what I mean. And JP H's buddy as in my car the other day as it began and saw that it was Disney and asked if the animals talked. "But its Disney, they have to talk." There is a first for everything JP.

The video is amazing and I am so grateful that from the comfort of our car the kids have been transported all over the world to see God's gorgeous creation.