A real family vacation - New England

We are back from what I consider to be our first real traditional family vacation. There was a lot of driving with kids, a lot of outdoorsiness, and occassional napping. We even had a bout of 'rhea, which made it seem even more memorable.

Our first stop was to see friends in Newburyport, Mass., a small and very New Englandy town that has lots of boats, a real market square, many mom+pop stores, lots of Colonial-era buildings still in use, and lots of dropped R's.

Henry loved the boats. He called them 'choo choos.' Anything with a motor is a choo choo to Henry, except a bus, which is a 'DAAAAAH!'

Elizabeth genuinely loved using the laser pointer with/on our friends' kitties. Made me think we should get a cat, especially because we have noticed evidence of mice in almost all rooms of our house. I found one on Elizabeth's pillow once.

But, after breakfast, a walk around town, and a few minutes of choo-chooing at boats and frustrating cats, we were on our way to the North Woods of Maine. 

Heading North



Even Billy (babydoll) came along to identify choo-choos




Sisyphus the cat

 Here we are. Maine. It's impossible to overstate how much we loved having our own sandy beach on a no-wave pond. It was so shallow that it wasn't cold, even in early July. There were mussels to examine, fish to try to catch (to no avail), a beaver dam and a lazy river to explore, geese to chase (yes, we had our own wild goose chase), wild blueberries to pick, and smores to eat. There was nothing to iron, mow, or sign. There was no Internet. It was a week of quality time (remember that phrase?).

We went with another fearless family of five, the Lezama's. Here are Kate and Ricardo (mom and dad) crossing the lazy and extraordinarily mucky river. We had some super cute pictures of all five kids eating popsicles, but blogger apparently ate them.

Here is a smattering of photos from our trip.

Since the Lezama's had to leave a day early, we had Friday to ourselves to enjoy the pond.



Greek god pose. Henry is not impressed.



Asleep in a canoe. H skipped nap and was quiet from the get-go, only smiling when I asked if he was going night-night. He has since earned the title: Mr. Night-Night

On our way out of the woods we stopped by a somewhat sad wildlife park that included bears that you could feed by purchasing food pellets. We didn't have quarters, so we picked dropped pellets off the ground and threw them in. Henry subsequently wanted to feed all the animals, which led to him throwing stones at lots of wildlife.

He really is the smiliest baby