Summer Adventures, Part One

As I said in my last post, now that the girls are off to school and things are quieter around the house during the day, I have a chance to go back through our photos and think about all the fun things we did over the summer. We had an exceptionally good time and I know the girls made a lot of great memories.

Besides our trip to Indianapolis and Niagara Falls, which I've already written about here, we went to York's Wild Kingdom, saw all the cousins, drove up to Vermont to see the girls' first real concert at the Shelburne Museum, did our annual daytrip to Star Island, checked out the brand new LEGOLAND, rode up Cannon Mountain in a cable car, visited the Squam Lake Science Center, took the ferry out to the Boston Harbor Islands, and did a Duck Tour! [Deep breaths]

It will be rather appropriate for me to jump now from our summer-ending trip to ride roller coasters in New Hampshire to our summer-beginning trip to ride roller coasters in Maine.

Can you spot Maggie? Do you think she's having fun?

The school year here lasts until the very end of June, which normally isn't a big deal because it's still Spring weather then, and I actually prefer for them not to have too long of a stretch without school -- eight weeks is plenty, really! By the end of last May, though, I was just dying to get out and run around New England with the girls to see some sights. Mike's mom is a teacher [for those (maybe one) of you who might be reading and don't know me aren't my cousin], and she's usually out for the summer the week before us, so we kicked off the break ASAP on an adventure with Gram.

York's Wild Kingdom is in York, ME, just over the border from New Hampshire and a day trip for us. It's a pretty amazing place: a nice little zoo and amusement park that exits right out into town just a few blocks from a gorgeous beach. We did animals in the morning, roller coasters in the afternoon, and made it to the far side of the park just in time to get coffee and saltwater taffy in town and run on the beach for a bit. It's a superb day trip for kids. I can't recommend it enough.

One of the coolest things about the zoo was the enclosure where you could feed white-tailed deer who just wandered around freely and fearlessly. They have a good mix of exotic and domestic animals.

Hey, buddy.

Tiger Lilies (and some orange flowers)



This ride, somewhat strangely, was their favorite of all. It's a caterpillar. I'm gonna guess it was built in the '60s and is covered in tetanus.

York Beach

Gram and Maggie are expert treasure hunters.

After this daytrip, we were gone for a week on our half-way-across-country road trip to visit my family in Indiana. As soon as we got home, we quickly did our laundry and trekked back up to Gram and Grandpa's house where the girls' cousins were all together for a long weekend. There was so much chaos with five girls (plus the neighbors' bunch of kids) that I really didn't get very many pictures at all, but here are a few:

Minecraft-apalooza!

Just to prove that it wasn't all staring at screens... Kate did a puppet show for Caroline...

...and Maggie and Ana were bonkers for the neighbor's horses.

...there was also some kickball, bikes and scooters, crafts, costumes, and s'mores. Good times.

Stay tuned for my next installment, in which Maggie and Kate go to their very first real concert in the Green Mountains of Vermont overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Don't tell me these kids don't lead a charmed life!