Swim Banquet 2010

The annual Swim Banquet was this past weekend... Yummy food provided by Gator's Dockside.  They are one of the team sponsor's.  The kids always have fun hanging out with their friends, and we had fun hanging with Uncle Steve!  And then there are the TROPHIES!!!

For some reason, Carly's picture with Coach Chris ALWAYS comes out blurry!!!  Oh well... She got a "Participation" trophy and new team t-shirt... and lots of applause.  Go ahead and guess which one she loved the best! 

Ben, looking like he just got out of the pool!  He had just been running around and got all sweaty!  He LOVED his "BIG" trophy!  The more Cut Times you accomplish, the bigger the trophy, and he got all the way to several BB times this year!  He also accomplished a Junior Olympics time cut, and participated with the BIG boys on their National Championship Meet Relay Team in Orlando.

Mostly, we think Ben was happiest his trophy was bigger than his sister's.

Hiking: Jordan Pond Carriage Bridges

More vacation fun... I told you, NEVER ENDING!  This is our hike around Jordan Pond, that started out on the Carriage Bridges.  The funniest part of the whole thing was CARLY... as soon as we got out of the car, I turned around and saw her doing this:

You know, stretching before our BIG hike.  Like she knows what she's doing.  In her defense, she's a SWIMMER.  Walking makes her complain. 

Lovely Jordan Pond... this is the view you see from the back lawn of the famous Jordan Pond House.  We hiked around this pond, about 3 miles.

The Carriage Bridges.  They are a big deal around Acadia National Park.  There are about 17 of them all over the park.  Don't quote me on that, but you can google it if you want. 

These trails are great for walking, biking, and of course, taking a horse-drawn carriage ride.  We walked.  Obviously.  We left the horses at home.

Beautiful Nature along the way...

Then we got adventurous and decided to hike CLOSER to the pond, and make our way around that way... This meant hiking down into steep, rocky woods...

We WERE on TOP of this Carriage Bridge and never even knew how pretty it was until we started hiking DOWN... the view from the top looks like a road, but underneath, it's a different story...

Hard to believe Little Miss only tripped 2 times... and WITHOUT tears!  That stretching REALLY paid off, huh?!!?

Love this picture of Ryan helping Amanda.

Yes, that is Ryan hiking with a book.

Blue Trail Markers guide the way

At the bottom, and ready to hike around the last 1/2 of the lake...  This is the opposite side of the first pictures...

Beaver dam...

Laurie and Tim walking on the path...

These would the the rocks the kids were hiding behind and jumping out and scaring people.  Nice.

Off to school...

Here we go.... another school year off to a great start!  Ben started 6th grade, which means, MIDDLE SCHOOL.  He was pretty excited to be going, but MIGHT have asked 100 times last night what his homeroom number was, and what class he was going to first!  We just kept answering him and figured it was Ben's way of being nervous:)  He changed classes 7 times today and did really well.  He made it back to my car at the end of the day, so it seemed a success.  Plus, he was wearing a BIG smile, so that was another great sign!

Little Miss is now a THIRD grader!  She loves her teacher (shocker!) and is thrilled to have her buddies in her class with her!  I made sure to tell Teacher that she was in NO WAY allowed to sit beside them.  I know: Pot calling the Kettle black, but I know this girl.  She's a talker.  And she takes everyone down with her.  Just saving her teacher the time it would take moving her.

And the Handsome Media Specialist at Carly's school.  I particularly love the sunglasses on his head.

Carly's book bag and lunch bag... they are cute, so I felt the need to put them on here.  Plus, we got them at the Christmas Tree Shoppe in NH, which I am a fan of... you know, because we don't have that store here.  Anyways, cute bags were $3.99 and $2.99 respectively.  Fun bargains!

I guess I should have taken a picture of the QUIET house I enjoyed this morning, or perhaps the DELICIOUS cup of coffee I drank while it was still hot.  I could have taken a picture of the lady in line behind me at Marshalls who was telling everyone within earshot how much she missed her kids all day, "I actually miss the chaos!"  Wow.  No awards for that, Honey.  I may or may not have rolled my eyes.  Now you know why I need this next part so much:

...we are working on something new during morning devotions.  Memorizing verses.  This is our first shot at it, and our "overall" verse for the year.  We spent some time this morning talking about this verse and what it means and what so important about it.  We don't want them to just be able to repeat it back to us, but to really get it. I figure if their MOTHER needs it so much, surely her OFFSPRING haven't fallen far from the tree. 

So... we are off!

Isleford Boat Cruise

You would think that a Blog Post regarding the Boat ride we took while visiting Acadia National Park would include a photo of the boat.  You would think.  So, above are some very cool looking lobster bobbin things.  They are all over Maine.  You know, because they trap lobsters.  I took about 10 pictures of these SAME bobbin things.  No boat.  But aren't they cool?

We took a very fun Boat Cruise on the Sea Princess to the Cranberry Islands, etc... the Cranberry Islands are a couple of the Islands that make up the Isleford Islands... but I apparently only remember The Cranberry Islands.   There was a Park Ranger on board as part of the fun, and he pointed just about everything imaginable out to us.  Very interesting, and entertaining! 

This is the Bare Island Lighthouse.

An Osprey Nest... which are EVERYWHERE in Florida, but Ranger Bob was making such a big deal about it, I felt obligated to take a picture.  Ok, kidding.  This one is estimated to be about 50 years old because of how big it is... apparently they add to it each year.  That is impressive.  Hence, the photo.

Fun Sea Lions.  Lounging.

On Little Cranberry Island, we got to get off the boat and walk around.  There aren't many year round residents, but this is their market and post office.  There were also little kids selling lemonade, brownies, and sea urchins on the side of the road.  We bought brownies and sea urchins. 

Inside the post office... the boxes reminded us of our mail boxes at Word of Life!

The signs in the post office cracked me up... especially the one regarding the photocopy of the lost key.  Hence, the photo...

Our delightful fam!

Ranger Bob and Carly! 

He really did a great job on the tour!

As we were heading to our next "destination"  we saw this huge Reindeer on the side of the road.  No hunting allowed on Acadia, so he's pretty safe... Laurie said it was an 8 point Buck, but Carly and I are sticking with our Original Call:  Reindeer.

Thunder Hole

Isn't Acadia beautiful??

This is Thunder Hole, which is a massive "hole" that the tide comes crashing into and creates a huge roar and water display.  We didn't get to see it "in it's Glory"... apparently the BEST time to see it is 45 minutes BEFORE the tide comes in, and we were there at EXACTLY the tide coming in.  Plus, it was a pretty calm day... but we still got some great pictures and had a blast... and didn't lose any kids in the water, even though they were trying desperately to climb on the rocks ("We know how to swim!  We are on the swim team!")

Thunder Hole ... you can see the caves along the edges, that fill up with water.

To the right of the bridge is The Hole... waiting for the display!