Saturday, June 28, 2008

Acadia National Park

Yesterday, Sam came home from work and decided that we needed to go Acadia. Last year we bought an annual family pass so we might as well make use of it. On our way we stopped to pick up some subs at Subway so we could have our traditional picnic with the seagulls at the top of Cadillac mountain.



We arrived at the top of the mountain and ate our subs.




After we finished eating we walked around...



and posed for some pictures...




We descended the mountain and headed towards Thunderhole. It was high tide so it wasn't very exciting. So we walked around the rocks






...or was it we climbed around the rocks?





After about 5 hours in Acadia we headed home. It has been our experience over the past several weeks that when we finish our days activities it starts raining (thus creating my motto "We can't sit around waiting for rain"). The weather has forcasted rain basically every day for the past month. So this trip being no exception it started to rain.

-R.I.P.

(The following is written by Sam)

So, after we got back to Bangor it started raining heavily. We were driving up Old County Road towards our house and the lightening was very close. Right after we passed Schoolhouse Lane, lightening struck the telephone pole that was about ten feet behind us, blowing out the transformer. I could see the sparks rain down behind us in the rear view mirror. The power went out on most of Old County Road. We took an extra lap around the loop to see what areas were affected by the outage. Our street was fine and most of Main Road was fine, but about half of Old County Road was out. We came home and decided that we would watch a movie after Rachel finished cutting Ken's hair. Rachel was about 99% done when the power went out at our house. We scrambled around to get some candles lit using my cell phone as a light. Luckily Rachel has a collection of about thirty Yankee Candles and they put out really good light.

We lit about ten candles and since movie-watching was out of the picture, started a game of Risk. I hadn't played Risk since High School, and I don't think Rachel had ever played. Rachel and Ken fought over North America while I worked on gaining control of South America, Asia and Europe. Once they realized what I was up to they formed an alliance to take me out. They both attacked me until my only troops had retreated to Siberia. Then Ken turned on Rachel. That was lucky for me because I would have been out of the game otherwise. The power came back on at midnight, but we were well into the game and continued playing until about two-thirty.

After the game Ken wanted to clean up the last part of his hair that Rachel hadn't got to because of the power outage. He picked up the clippers and shaved a strip right up the middle of his head. The depth guide had been removed so it was just the bare blade. I guess he'll have to shave his head bald now.

Monday, June 23, 2008

It has been a while...

Well as usual our combined Fairpoint and People PC internet connection has made it so we cannot upload pictures so I am going to post this and hope that I can add some from my mom's house or something...As you can probably see I got the pictures on...it took me 6 hours!!!

Since summer is finally here we are generally outside most of the daylight hours (and sometimes in the evening too at our fire pit).




We have done a lot of bike riding! We go to the Bangor Forest just about every day but we have tried some other trails too. At L.L. Bean we found a bike rack that will hold 3 of our bikes (for only $35, it was on a big sale!) I am so happy to have a new bike rack...our old one only held 2 and would scratch our bikes when we put them on. I really don't like it when my bike gets scratched!





One Saturday we went to Sandy Point Beach. The water was freezing cold so Sam and I didn't go in but the kids had a great time playing in the water!






After the beach we went to walk around Millinocket. We stopped at the local grocery store and picked up some picnic supplies. We had our picnic and than did some walking.










The next day was very hot...probably a much better day to go to the beach. However we decided to put up our pool instead. It seems like such a simple job to put up the pool. Well Sam decided that we needed to make the ground level. A good idea but a lot of work. Every other year we have just set the pool up and dealt with it being a little lopsided. We have a beautiful yard that I love but there isn't a flat spot on the entire acer!










Sam, Otto, Logan (the dog) and I went out in the canoe on one of the girls last days of school. We need to get some bigger life jackets before we can all go out in it again. All 3 kids needed bigger ones this year!









During swimming lessons Otto hated his life jacket. Now he has found he can swim much better with it on. We would like him to learn how to swim without it so we have him spend at least 10 minutes in the pool without it before he can put it on.








He and Lexie both love to showoff how well they can go underwater!






Also how big of a splash they can make!








-R.I.P.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Otto's Birthday-day (6/2, Monday)











To celebrate Otto's Birthday-day (the actual day of his birthday) we picked up an Ice Cream cake at Dairy Queen. We actually went to Baskin Robbins to pick one out, but we were overwhelmed by their selection of flavors, and lack of good flavors. Who wants an ice cream cake made with Praline flavored ice cream? Anyways, we had the cake and then went to Ski-Rack to try and find a piece for Otto's "one wheeled bike." When we got his new bike on Saturday, it didn't have the hitch part that would hook to my bike. I tried to fabricate one out of stuff that I had in the garage, but I couldn't make anything that I felt was safe enough for him to drive. I had found the part online for around $30, but I didn't want to spend that much and I didn't want to have to wait for it to ship. We went to Ski-Rack and Jeremiah was very helpful in finding us the part we needed for Otto's bike. He found it in a box of spare parts that was lying around out back. He fitted the part for us and only charged us $5 for the whole ordeal. I really enjoy dealing with Ski-Rack, Rachel and I got our bikes there. The next time that I buy a bike I am definitely going buy it at Ski-Rack. I keep telling Rachel that I need a road bike, but she tells me that my bike goes down the road just fine. After we got Otto's bike going we went out to the Bangor Forest to ride. Otto had a great time riding his new bike. He kept telling me to ride over the dirt piles with him. We did a couple, but it is a lot more difficult with a whole other bike attached. Near the end of our ride Otto was copying me and riding standing up, he is sure that he can do anything!