Maine- the beach and the lake

  So one day we went to the beach with my mom and KayAnna and Norah and met KateLyn there.  It was the best beach I've been to in Maine.  It was called Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth.  Seriously so so fun for the kids.  They could have stayed all day- actually we did pretty much stay all day.  

I finally convinced the kids to touch the seaweed.  They were so grossed out but I remember loving playing with seaweed when I was a kid.

The extent of playing in the waves was letting them hit you and running away.  The water is just way to cold in Maine.  But people do swim in the ocean frequently.

Hours were spent playing in this river.  It was what made the beach so much fun.  It was warmer and just flowed down into the ocean the whole time we were there.  The kids all played so nicely with one another and were so creative.  It was really just a lovely day.

Atticus was super funny about the seaweed at first and was freaked out when some got caught on his foot.

At times it felt like we were the only ones there.  After noon or so it started clearing out and by 3 or so there were so few people there.  It was lovely.

There was a little boy at the beginning that kind of just attached to the kids and played with them.  They were loading up this board with sand and rocks and floating it down the river.

So the seagulls are a little aggressive in Maine and I was eating my sandwich at lunch and had taken one bite and was holding it in my hand when a seagull swooped down so so fast and snatched the whole thing!!  It was so startling and not cool.  It even nipped my finger.  Then when Emery was almost finished with her sandwich a seagull snatched the rest of it out of her hands too!  So we made sure to protect our food a little more carefully.

After everyone left but us, Kendra came back up to Maine and spent our last few days with us.  We went up to Augusta and Waterville to see our grammies and go to camp.  This picture has a lot of emotion with it.  Grammie Beeckel just died at the beginning of this month and now I am so so happy we were able to go see her and take this picture.  It's so weird to think that next time we go to Maine we won't go visit her.  I'm going to do a post about her funeral and all that but I'm just so grateful my mom had us go visit her.  She was in a nursing home and it was lunchtime when we got there and I was kind of grumbling about going thinking that taking 7 kids into a nursing home wasn't the best of ideas.  But now I'm so happy we did and that we though to take a picture with all of us.  

We picked up Grammie Ruth and went over to camp.  Lakes kind of gross me out but the kids had a blast and I was so happy Kendra could join us because that made it all the more fun.

Grammie Ruth was so awesome and her and Atticus just attached to each other and he loved her and interacted with her so much and she him.  It was such a cute little bond of old and young.  I loved watching them.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for lunch and it was yummy.

Sophia and Atticus were pretty attached to each other too.

The kids has so so much fun on the paddle board and the kayak and jumping off and swimming back to shore.  I was impressed with how brave Beckett and Emery were jumping off the paddle board and swimming back.

Chandler liked this little scope thing that let you look in the water clearly.  It was pretty neat and the neighbors brought it over for the kids to borrow which was very kind of them.

Anyway, camp was super fun and the kids all had a good time and made great memories.

I've always loved the sunset at my parents and it was beautiful more than one night there.  I so wish we could live in a more country-ish place.  I love where we live but I also really would love some land and fields and a more country feel where you can see the sunset and rolling hills.

I thought I was done with my trip to Maine but I realized I have some good pictures from my phone that aren't included and also our trip home was very eventful.  It took us 2 days because of a cancelled flight and it was a little hairy for a while while I was trying to figure out what to do at 9 at night by myself with 4 kids in the Philadelphia airport.  Thank goodness for a patient husband who talked me through it all on the phone.

We love Maine and I wish we could visit in every season.  The kids still talk about being there and when I went up for my grandma's funeral recently Emery was very jealous saying, "so that means you get to see Guster (the dog)?".  They all were wishing they could come with me.

Maine- around the house

Ugh.....I am so far behind.  I have so much to blog about like the kids starting school and Atticus's birthday and going to Maine again for my Grammie's funeral and who knows what else.  I hate the feeling of being so far behind but I'm determined to catch up!  So first I have to finish our trip to Maine this summer.  

 There was a cute girl at grandma's house that looked just like me when I was little:)  Atticus was so so so adorable in this yellow dress of mine from when I was little.  I just wish he was a girl so I could have taken lots of real photos.  I feel kind of bad dressing my boy up.

I've put all my babies in this little wooden thing my mom has but this was the first visit Atticus has made to Maine.  So sad that I never got to put him in as a babe but at least he still kind of fit:)

 Chandler loves Norah.  He is so gentle and nice to her.  KayAnna and Norah drove with us home from church and Norah was falling asleep and Chandler was so sweet sitting next to her and holding her hand and telling everyone in the car to be quiet because, "Norah is trying to sleep!".

Grampa has all kinds of reading glass around the house so he can always access a pair.  We were cracking up at this Harry Potter looking pair he had.  Atticus was adorable wearing them.  

We had a little bon fire out the in field.  Nothing spectacular but my mom made some yummy black beans in the coals over night.  

 We liked how the tractor looked like a smoking dragon after my dad pushed the fire to stir it up.

 Oh Atticus was so scared of the tractor.  He thought that Grampa was going to take him on the tractor and he gave me the saddest face:(  When we "read" his truck books at night, he still will point out tractors and hit his chest and say, "scared" and I'll say, "yes, were you scared to go on Grampa's tractor?" and he'll say "uh-huh".

 This trampoline was so unsafe.  I'm surprised it didn't rip through since there were rips along the blue edging.  There were also hornets or something going in and out of the spring holes so who knows what was living in the frame?!  But what a life this tramp has had- I think it's lasted 20 years or so.

 Poor Rajah the cat.  The kids just loved her but she is terrified of the kids.  I'm impressed though because she has gotten better at letting them come near and even pet her some but as badly as they tried feeding her she would never relax enough to eat with them around.

 Emery learned a new game with Grandma that caused lots of laughter and silliness to ensue.  They played Farkle and it mostly consisted of the kids yelling, "oops, I farkled!!" or "excuse me, I farkled!" and laughing their heads off.  It was pretty funny to hear but rather obnoxious after a while.

 Guster is much more patient with the kids and they sure loved him.  It almost - and I say that with the smallest amount of almost- made me want to get a dog if just for the kids.  I hate dogs a lot so it will never happen but they were so good with him and loved him and Emery was seriously the cutest with Guster.  She took him on walks all the time and was very concerned about where he should be and if he needed his dinner or if we should put him out or bring him in.  I just loved how she was so responsible in wanting to care for him.

 It was crazy the amount of food and the chaos of meal time is with so many children.  This was mild our last days in Maine because everyone had left and then Kendra came up with her kids.  Before that we basically ate in shifts by feeding kids and then feeding grownups.

 I can't stop laughing when I look at this picture of Chandler.  That kid is funny.

 Katie decided to just lay her head on me which turned into basically her whole body weight on me.

 She so sweet and a funny girl.

This was awesome- my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Tom came by to see us all (which was so nice of them) and Uncle Tom brought his metal detector and the kids loved it!  I forgot how my dad used to metal detect and how fun it is to see if you might dig up some treasure or cool old coins.  There have been some cool things found around my parents yard. 

I don't think they found anything very valuable but it sure kept the kids attention.

 My dad and Uncle Tom were throwing the kids and it was pretty hilarious when Chandler wanted a turn and they couldn't lift him high enough to throw because he is so big and heavy.  I think the problem was he was trying to get out of their grip so it made it harder too.

I purchased the whale and turtle on Amazon and the kids had so much fun with them.  The poor turtle didn't make it and got popped on the last day or so.  But the kids loved them and used them constantly in the pool.

Lots of fun was had in the pool.  Thank goodness it was nice weather for most of our visit.  Beckett and Atticus weren't really into swimming because they are spoiled and used to our pool which is like bath water practically.  The water was very chilly but once you got in it felt good and so refreshing.  Our last few days something changed and either the water was warmer or something but Beckett and Atticus decided to swim and finally show off the skills I was telling everyone they had.  

Only at Gramma's can you order a fluff and nutella sandwich for lunch.

This was so fun.  One night my dad announced that he was keeping the kids up late and taking them out to watch for shooting stars.  I'm never one to be happy about kids staying up late but of course I let the older two.  Beckett and Atticus got put to bed without knowing about it...shhhh.  They were all so adorable laying out all bundled up and just having the cutest conversations.  We all eventually joined them and had a blast watching for stars.  We saw a few but not tons.

Chandler loves reading the funnies.

This is Ethan....he's a champ.  He is KateLyn's boyfriend and all the kids adore him and he is such a good sport.  Poor Ethan got so beat up on and such a work out with those kids chasing and climbing on him.

This was seriously the best evening.  They kids ran and were so happy and it was lovely weather and they collected beans from the catalpa tree and had sword fights and went in the tire swing and everyone was just happy  and having fun.  I love evenings like that!

Somehow my dad thought it was a great idea to bringing the kids on the roof.  They loved it and even Atticus went up with me.  Chandler declined- he is our one really scared of heights.  Emery even scaled the steep part up to the chimney but I don't think I let Beckett do that part.

I about had a heart attack when I looked out the window and saw Beckett riding on the mower on the road and then they hit a bump and he totally lost his balance and wobbled and I was holding my breath.  Oh man, they were all fine thank goodness and no one ever fell off the tractor- I think??

Anyway, they were driving on the road because they were going across the road to do a good deed for the neighbor.  Her tree fell over so my dad cut it up and took it away for them and the kids helped.

Max and Emery were so cute hanging laundry together.  They actually did a decent job at it too!

On our last morning there, my dad took the kids out to shoot guns.  I guess Max and Sawyer had done it with him before so they were begging to do it again.  I wasn't so keen on my kids going but I knew my dad is super super safe about it all.  And he explains everything.  In fact, Emery actually came back bawling because I guess she walked in front of a gun but it wasn't loaded I think but he had told them to not do that.  I don't know because I was busy packing so I actually didn't get to see them shoot guns.

I'm realizing that it may look like my dad did all kinds of unsafe sketchy things with the kids but it was all safe and fine.  We never let the kids swim by themselves and everyone was safe and responsible.  No wonder Gramma and Grampa's house is so much fun!!!

Sophia was adorable and just attached herself to the kids most close to her in age.  Before we were there her and Peter were attached and it was actually super adorable how they followed each other around and copied each other.  I was amazed how they never fought or anything.  She kind of switched between Atticus and Beckett but mostly liked Atticus I think.  I mean, who wouldn't- the kids is beyond adorable and cute and so so charismatic.  You can't help but like him.