We headed up Friday afternoon (8/5) and met Elisabeth & Family at the Howard Johnson's in South Portland. We hung out for the evening and ordered in pizza. Rob took the kids out on the lawn and played some football - so nice being related to someone that can't sit still! I tried to hold Reese but it didn't work out for me, and in fact I found it best to avoid eye contact.
Saturday morning we went over and visited Grammy & Grampa at the cemetery. Elisabeth remembered to bring painted stones to leave behind, and I brought a beer for Grampa. We walked around the cemetery for a while - I find them fascinating. Elisabeth and I agreed that there should be a little button to push to get an audio story of the people buried at each grave.
After the grave visit, we went over to Chuck E. Cheese's at the Maine Mall. The kids had SOOOO much fun! Jesse was hysterical on the basketball game, shooting granny-style and actually making quite a few! Jocelyn made several friends that followed her around the whole time. Then she found the stage where there was a camera shooting a live feed to a TV screen. Yeah, that was a hit. We collectively got enough tickets for 6 foam shooter thingys and some rulers.
We temporarily parted with Elisabeth & family and headed up to Sebago to get checked in and settled and meet up with Uncle Joey who did our grocery shopping for us and met us at the cabin. It was warm so we through the sheets on the beds and hopped into the water. Mandy & gang showed up around 7 and after we put the kids to bed we drank the night away down by the lake.
Sunday morning we were joined by Elisabeth & family and mom and dad for more swimming and italian sandwiches and birthday cake for Patience. Mandy and Elisabeth and I walked the kids down to the baseball field. We tried playing baseball. Patience got to go first because it was her birthday but when it wasn't her turn EVERY time, well, it seems that was a personal insult. Jocelyn was just as happy to prance around the infield not really paying attention, and was surprisingly the only child to hit the ball with the first swing. We switched to pickle and Timothy managed to run into Chase and knock him over, so now Chase was crying and Timothy was pouting because I yelled at him for not realizing that he's 5'5" 130lbs and Chase is not. With 3 of 7 kids in a snit, we decided it was time to pack it in and do some more swimming. That was a much bigger hit!
Mandy and Elisabeth and their respective crews cleared out a bit before dinner and the rest of us grabbed leftover sandwiches and then swam some more before bed.
Monday Mom treated us to lobsters and pizza. Dad and Morgan paced while Mom and Jocelyn and Jesse and I went out to pick it up. Jocelyn ate more than a whole lobster on her own. Jesse tried a bite then said he liked it but would prefer pizza. Timothy also had a lobster. Morgan and Dad stuck with the pizza. Joey was out in Naples on the Songo River Queen Tour.
Tuesday morning Mom and Dad cut out before we were up. The rest of us took a while to get out of bed and lolled around until after a late breakfast. Then Joey and Josh and Morgan headed over to Kettle Cove to rent us a boat for the afternoon. Morgan wouldn't get on the boat so Joey brought him back while Josh drove the boat over. We had more luck getting Morgan into the boat from the cabin, though it was still a bit touch and go. Once in though, he seemed quite content and we all had fun tooling around the lake. Then, suddenly, Morgan was unhappy. I got back next to him and managed to figure out that his shoulders were hot from the sun. I should have put him in a t-shirt! But once I covered his shoulders with a towel he quieted down and we headed back. We rested and swam for a while and then I took all the kids but Timothy inside while Josh and Joey and Timothy went back out on the boat and then returned it.
Wednesday we finally got around to going to the Ice Cream Dugout for ice creams. Jocelyn and Jesse had a competition for who could be messiest. It was a close call, I think they may have each independently set a world record. Morgan likes the ice cream part but not the cone part, but he also won't use a spoon, so we have to get a cone even though he won't eat it. When he gets to the bottom of the cone he scoops the end of the ice cream out with his fingers, putting an end to the myth that ice cream isn't finger food.
Thursday Josh and Joey took the kids on a drive around the lake and then picked us up blizzards from DQ because it was Miracle Treat day where they donated $1 from each blizzard to fight Childhood Cancer. You know, normally I would never advocate 2 ice cream days in a row, but it was a worthy cause, so what could we do??
Friday Uncle Joey headed home and Josh went out and got more groceries to keep us through the weekend as we try not to make a habit of leaving the cabin on the weekend and fighting all the traffic. We spent the weekend swimming and resting and swimming some more. I found spray on sunscreen horribly inefficient and it took a whole can just to coat the 5 of us (everyone but Mr. I-Don't-Burn) where as a regular bottle lasted me the whole two weeks. Sunscreening 4 kids plus myself was the only bummer of the whole trip, so I refused to do it more than once a day. So we swam during sunlight once and then waited until after dinner for the 2nd swim each day. Timothy burning on two swipes of his arms where I thought he did the sunscreen and he thought I did. Otherwise no burns except for Mr. I-Don't-Burn, but that wasn't until later in the week...
Over the weekend we bribed Jocelyn into jumping off the dock (with a life jacket on). It cost us $2 and the promise of another lobster. Money well spent as after only one jump she was addicted and did it about a thousand times over the next week (taking off the life jacket after only a couple jumps).
We had rain all day Monday so we went up to Bridgton to shop at Cool Moose and the party store - our annual outing. Josh and Morgan stayed in the car and watched videos on the computer. The rest of us ventured inside to get t-shirts and one toy each. Then we stopped at the fudge store and got 1 1/2 lbs of assorted fudge - yum!
Tuesday started out rainy as well so I took Timothy and Jesse and Jocelyn and we went to Mexicali Blues for more t-shirts (for Josh and Timothy) and a purse for Jocelyn and a wallet for Jesse. Then we went to the Salvation Army and got Timothy a suit, boots for me, Timothy, and Morgan, sneakers and snowpants for Jesse, and some assorted clothing (including of course, a blue velvet dress for Jocelyn). By the time we got home the rain had cleared and it was time to swim some more!
Wednesday and Thursday were gorgeous and we spent most of our time in the water. Jocelyn started getting the hang of swimming. She could already swim underwater fairly well but put her feet down whenever she came up for air. Then she sort of figured out the doggie-paddle. Then once she figured out how to combine the two she was quite pleased with herself. Jesse stuck to wearing a life jacket, which allowed him to go out deep with Josh and Timothy to play football. Jocelyn was too scared to go over her head until almost the last day when she finally figured out the miracle of a life jacket as well. Once that happened we even managed to coax her up onto the raft and she and I jumped off of it holding hands. After that she jumped all by herself, several times.
Jocelyn and Jesse were cutest when they were playing together nicely, which was surprisingly frequent. They would play on kickboards together in the water and then get wrapped up in towels and sit on the dock together. It was super sweet.
Friday we cleaned and packed and swam and cleaned and packed and swam one last time, getting out as thunder rolled in. We hustled into the car and were on our way home around 6pm. Jocelyn cried for the better part of a half hour, talking about how much she was going to miss vacation. Jesse fell asleep by the time we hit the highway and slept until CT, giving us quite a peaceful trip home! We stopped at a different rest stop than usual and ended up having to use port-a-potties. Jocelyn was NOT impressed with them.
Saturday it was time to get some school supplies so Timothy and I headed to Staples and bought about one of everything they had. Then we headed over to TJMax and Timothy picked out some new clothes while I grabbed an outfit for each of Jocelyn and Jesse (showing up at home with only things for Timothy would not have been a popular move!).
We've gotten the bags out of the car and generally into the right room, but actually unpacking them will wait. A bit more than a week before school starts. We got Jocelyn's PIN for buying school lunch in the mail, and her bus number and tag. The short bus will be picking Morgan up at 7:16am!!
Well that's the story of the last two weeks!
Rhonda
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