Jul 31, 2011

Dive!

Lots and lots of fun and relaxation was had on our vaca. We jumped off the dock and swam pretty much every morning and on into the evening. We took a trip to nanny's house where Ella had her first tube ride. She liked it at a crawl but didn't so much enjoy it when we sped up just the slightest bit to plane off. She thought the tube was much more fun on land. And she fished with daddy right until the moment we left. Once again, not a bad view huh?

Jul 28, 2011

Fly!

We had the neatest experience while fishing one morning. A bald eagle soared over head and landed in a nearby tree top. It then proceeded to swoop down and grab a fish from the water just 20 feet or so away from the boat! I don't have a zoom lens or anything on my camera but I did capture it all! Here it is in sequence.

Swimming!

It's amazing what a whole week on the water's edge will do. Althought Ella was extatic about having the water at her doorstep to begin with, everything is on her terms. At first she would just wade to her waist. Then she would jump in if we held her hands. Then she would let us hold her and take her out into the water a little deeper (for a few seconds at a time only). Then she would let us hold her belly down and practice her swimming. And on the 7th day....she SWAM!!!
We would be holding her having her practice swimming to the other and then just let go a little at the very end. She was not fond of this but got used to it. Then she would wade into the water to us and we would slowly back up encouraging her to swim to reach our hands. Finally she would gingerly pick her feet up off the ground and swim a foot or so to us. She just kept getting bolder and bolder, plunging right in and swimming further and further! We had a few setbacks, with water getting in her ears or face which scares her, but by the last day at camp she was jumping off the deep end of the dock to one of us and swimming around with all the adults! Now we go for dips in grandma's pool and she swims the ENITRE length! Although she can still be timid and times and a little frightened, she can also often be heard saying, "No! Don't hold me. I do it myself!"

Sunrise and Sunset

This is the view from the front porch bedroom that we love so much. There's no sleeping past 7am most mornings anyway, so we don't mind the light filtering in from the sunrise. Beauty.
A glassy lake evening troll in search of a picture of the huge snappers we saw the first night. Of course, they eluded us this evening, but the fish did not!



Our fisher-woman extroirdinaire. Seriously. This two year old gets her own worm, knows exactly where to find the bobbers and reels like nobodies business. Casting is another story...duck and cover!



My loves.

Success. She needs to touch them :)



The ride back got a little chilly. Nothing daddy's sweatshirt and hat and a little snuggle can't fix.

And the sunset just as we were rolling in.

Jul 26, 2011

Bean Bounty!

(We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of family vacation trips to bring you this post about beans.)


Last night I had THE sweetest experience. Jason, Ella and I headed out to harvest our beans. J picked green, I picked yellow and Ella alternated between us both coming to collect the ones we'd picked and put them in the containers. Family together, simple pleasures, marveling at God's creation and the production of "fruit". Delightful! And this morning Ella and I turned our picked beans into Dilly Beans! This is my first run so we'll see how they come out when we can taste them in a few months. Ella amazes me with her maturity and helpfulness. I prepared the beans last night. This morning she stood with me at the counter and carefully followed instructions, pouring in the water, vinegar and salt. Then she diligently placed one clove of garlic and one head of dill in each mason jar. I put in the hot pepper (1/2 have crushed red and 1/2 have ceyanne as I found recipes calling for each...we'll see!) and then she and I packed the beans together. We played "airplane and zoo" while they processed and voila! (And yes, that IS a sneak peek at our new counters in those shots as well :)

Jul 25, 2011

Boatrides

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. There was maybe one day at the beginning of our week where a few showers passed through and other than that it was blazin' hot. Anywhere else it would have been too hot for me, but at camp there is always a generous breeze and the shore is shaded by towering pines from mid-morning on so it's perfect!

While camp is still "campy" it has all the luxuries of home...electricity, full bath, and running water. It's really quite perfect. And there's a party boat for the using! So perfect for little ones. There's ample room to run around, but they stay quite safe with the perimeter railing. It's also fabulous for casting, spinning rod or fly rod. I love to jump off and swim, and of course my fave, sunbathing. We're teaching her to drive already.Early morning just after a shower, and just one of our many fishing successes!My mom was able to join us for a few days. I could get used to this.He's livin' the life.

Cousins

I think they're technically second cousins, but I don't really keep track of all that. At least three of the days that we were at camp, Ella had the pleasure of visiting with her cousin Ryleigh. Ryleigh's a year older and they get along fantastically. They love each other!

Oh c'mon, what's vacation without getting to do things you normally aren't allowed to do at home! Neither of theses little monkey's fell off and bumped their head.

Fun with their "pack-packs". When Ryleigh was in the lead, they were "going to school". When Ella was in the lead they were alternating between going "grocery shopping" and "taking their naps".

Camp!

We took our vacation at family camp. Or "Everybody's Camp" as it was dubbed by sweet Sophie. Because that's just it...every one is welcome here. It belonged to Jason's Grandmother and she passed it on to her four children. And now Jason and I are blessed to have part share in it as well. For the first time ever we took an entire week off and had a family vacation. It was glorious! Ella started liking jumping into the water. She still won't tolerate her head getting wet though.


She had a ball exploring all that the water had to offer...rocks, sticks, leaves, bugs, fish.

She quite liked the little kayak trip that Daddy took with her.


And thank heavens for Aunt Diane bringing this sandbox down! It was a much needed option or else mommy and daddy would have had no break from the water from dusk until dawn because that is where Ella asked to go the second her eyes popped open in the morning until they closed at night!

Maine State Wildlife Park

After returning and trying settle back into normalcy, I'm finally getting around to our vacation pictures. So all of the next posts will be our vaca broken down!

We kicked off our vacation with a stop at the Maine State Wildlife Park. I do reccomend a visit. It is filled with animals native to Maine (except maybe the peacock) and the only animals kept here are ones that cannot be in the wild due to injury or abandonment etc. You get to be quite close to all of them and feed some of them as well.

Jul 19, 2011

The Gah-den!

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about coming home from vacation was finding my garden looking like this: Above you see carrots, lettuce, onions, spinach, yellow beans, green beans, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes. We had a little bout with some persistent bunnies so we threw up a fence (and by "we" I mean my fabulous hubby put up a fence to avoid the complete meltdown of his wife over the peas that had been munched.) to keep it safe whilst we were away and forever more for that matter. The plants grew FEET while we were away for 10 days. It was so exciting! Thanks to my mama for keepin' it watered!
Above we have cantaloup, butternut squash, some sad little watermelon plants and some rockin' pumpkins. And below is a sampling from the flower garden in July!!!