War Wounds

Julia officially has a "scar and story" of her own now. Growing up is not complete unless you hurt yourself or break something and have the scar to prove it. She's growing up so fast. When she's older she'll be able to tell her own kids about that time when she fell off her bike and had to go and see a doctor. A few months ago Julia almost knocked her front tooth out on the television stand at my parent's house, this time she went for the chin.

Although Julia is an exceptional bike rider, she's still new to the idea and learned the hard way today what can happen if you don't pay attention or make a mistake. It's something we've all done at some point or in fashion in our lives, so it's hardly anyone's fault. It's really just part of growing up and learning new things in my opinion.

We needed a second opinion from the veterinarian and Julia wanted Grandpa to come over, so my Dad came and spent the night with us at the the urgent care facility. The cut on her chin was pretty deep and had gone through multiple layers of skin, a sure sign that Julia needed stitches or steri strips.

The doctor gave us the choice of what we would like to do, with pros and cons to each. Because it is in an area that is hard to see among other factors, we opted for the strips to save Julia the traumatic experience of stitches. She was very brave but did cry when they put some topical pain relieving gel and the glue to help the strips stick. I can only imagine what stitches would have been like.

Things should heal well and she'll probably have a small scar under her chin. However, it won't be noticeable and may even go away by the time she becomes an adult. 

Jonathan had a good time staying up late with everyone, in addition to being outside for the first time at night. He thought it was very cool and kept saying the word "dark" on the car ride home. Although he did seem concerned at a few points and patted his sister on the arm, for him tonight was just one big party. We told the doctor that he would probably be seeing us again soon...

Happy Apple Farm

We took the kids to Happy Apple Farm today, just like we have every year since they were born. Everyone had a good time even though the apples were small this year. There were still plenty of apples left, especially up high. I climbed up into one tree and found some great picks high above the ground. We'll probably go back in a few weeks and pick out pumpkins...

Let's Ride

Stacey emailed me at work today to say that she and the kids had a surprise for me when I got home.  When I turned on our street she I saw the kids outside and instantly noticed that Julia was riding her bike with no training wheels as if she had been riding it for months.

Julia's training wheels weren't working properly so Stacey just took them off this morning. It only took Julia about an hour to pick up how ride her bike without them. The Strider obviously helped, but Julia is so teachable and coordinated that she probably picked it up faster then other kids would.  I mean, she's only four years old and can now ride a bike. I think she could have learned this months ago, but it all worked out just fine.

She wanted to ride her bike all day because "she needed to practice" so that she could "become a pro".

Mount Battie

I realized that I never posted this video from our vacation a few weeks ago. I shot this from the top of Mount Battie in Camden Hills State Park. This was one of our favorite spots, as you'll see in the video, because it's a great view of the entire coastline and town of Camden.

New Kids On The Block

A few weeks ago we received a call from someone at Compassion to see if we would be interested in continuing our sponsorship. Our previous sponsor child from Haiti had recently graduated from the program, so we could either stop altogether or transfer our sponsorship to another child. Today we received a packet with a different child from Haiti in the mail. 

Although it was difficult to throw away the packet we received (especially considering it has pictures of a specific child we could sponsor), we had been waiting for this time to sponsor two new children as a family that shared names and/or birthdays with our children. We knew Julia and Jonathan would be involved in future years, so we did our best to match them up together.

We searched the available children pool on the website and found a girl and a boy from South America. We couldn't find an exact name match for Julia, but Maria was close and they still have the same birthday. Jonathan, on the other hand, was a more common name and we were able to sponsor a little boy with the same name and the same birthday. Additionally, both of the bios and the pictures sort of reminded me of our own children.

In a few weeks both of these kids will be notified that they have sponsors. We'll be introducing the family to them and will send them pictures (using the online letter writing and photo uploading tools on the Compassion website), as well as explaining to Julia why we have pictures of other kids hanging on our refrigerator. It will be interesting to see what she does and the questions she'll ask.

Happy Apples

The Best Medicine

Although most of you have already seen this video, you know you want to watch again. I guess this means Jonathan did OK without us while we were on vacation. 

This reminds me of the YouTube video of the baby in the highchair who would laugh every time his Dad would say “bing”. That video went viral. I wonder if this one would too...

Maine Vacation Day 3 (Part 2)

We had reservations on The Surprise for a three o’clock sail. Neither of us had ever been on a sailboat (that we can recall), so we were looking forward to the experience. To our surprise (pun intended) our schooner was celebrating its 94th birthday this year. The boat is a 57 foot long schooner, family owned and operated, and listed on the national register of historic places. The captains are an old husband and wife couple and both looked like they had been sailing the salty seas for a long time.

After leaving the dock, Captain Jack looked around one of the main sails at me and sort did the “oh yeah” chuckle. I knew what the chuckle was for, and as expected, a few minutes later he grabbed me to help him raise the main sail. With the exception of the two girls from the Navy ship anchored off shore, we were the youngest people on board. That suggests that they mainly serve older individuals, since he had me and the next youngest looking man on board help him raise the sails. Captain Jack pulled his end of the main sail up with his rope and all I had to do was match his pace with my end. I had to pull on the rope faster than him to keep the sail parallel to the water.

The sail was nice but probably not something that I would get into if I lived near the ocean. On the way out of Camden we were on the low side of The Surprise, meaning that the sailboat on our side was tipped over so that we got a good view of just how close we were to the water. We were able to see some good sights and some other sailboats that were out that afternoon. The weather was great for sailing, sunny and windy, but towards the end we were getting cold and ready to get back on dry land. Since we were sitting towards the front we got a little wet from a few waves splashing against the hull. I was looking forward to the advertised freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, but they never came. We did get to see Curtis Island Lighthouse and a close up view of the U.S.S. Normandy, so I can’t complain too much.

We ended the night with a nice dinner at the harbor and then headed back to our inn. We had a relatively early start the next morning to catch our plane in Manchester. Other then then delicious scones and coffee we picked up the next morning, this was the end of our vacation. I’m pretty sure we both had a great time exploring the area. We’re already talking about coming back, but next time we’ll make sure we come in the fall when the leaves are changing color. As the locals call it, that’s time of year when all the “leaf peepers” arrive.

Maine Vacation Day 3 (Part 1)

After doing a lot of driving the previous two days, we were looking forward to spending some time exploring the area around Camden. After breakfast we went for a short drive to Megunticook Lake located only a few miles outside of town. It was nice to see that the area also offers lake houses, camping, swimming, and boating as well the ocean. In the fall the area around the lake would be another great place to spend some time.

Camden Hills State Park is also only a few miles outside of Camden, but in a different direction. There were some camping spots, but mostly people use the park for day hiking and biking trips. We checked out the park because a mile and half is all it takes to drive to the top of Mount Battie. At the top there is an amazing 180 degree view of the coast and the harbor and town of Camden. We stayed at the top for a while because the view was so good.

We contemplated picking up lunch in town and coming back to the overlook to eat, but as we were leaving we stumbled upon the other half of the park on the other side of the highway. This section of the park is near the water and has many picnic areas. We found a path near the water and after picking up lunch from the local grocery store in Camden, returned to eat while overlooking the ocean. We both agreed that the view from Camden Hills is surprisingly better then at Acadia National Park.

The corner grocery store, French and Brawn (since 1868), was a nice find for future visits. The store isn’t very large when you first walk in, but in the back they have tons of pre-made salads, sandwiches, and a full deli, bakery, and coffee. We’ll definitely buy breakfast and lunch from there if we ever come back. Also surprising was that the prices for food didn’t seem very high compared to home. My big salad was only five dollars and my fresh baguette, only a dollar and a quarter.

After lunch we went back to our room for a few minutes to rest before our two-hour sail around Penobscot Bay...

Maine Vacation Day 2

Today our plan was to sleep in a little bit and have breakfast at the inn before spending the day driving up the coast and around Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. There were a few towns along the way, but for the most part everyone seemed to be heading to the same place we were. We only got a few miles into our drive before we hit some light rain. It lightly rained on and off for most of the day, but it was a nice change from the "desert" sun and heat of the summer at home.

We arrived in Bar Harbor around lunchtime, so we decide to stop and eat across the street from the harbor at an Irish pub and restaurant. After walking around the town for a few minutes we hopped in the car and drove around Acadia National Park. The park was very pretty, and I can only imagine what it must be like in the fall when everything is in color. There were so many large oak, maple, and other trees. 

The islands around the area reminded me of the San Juans in Washington state, but the rocky coastline and mountains reminded me of home. I was surprised to find out that most of the rock on the island is pink granite, the same stuff so common around the Pikes Peak region.

We rested in our room tonight so that we'd be ready for another day around town tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon we have a sailboat trip around the bay and should see some more great sights.