Maine!

I have wanted to go to Maine forever! It’s one of the last 4 states I haven’t been to - Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota being the other 3. Arkansas is questionable, but I think at some point driving cross country I had to have been through there?

I have held all my NY plans loosely, just like all my every other plan over the past 18 months. Amy surprised me and said we should just go up to Maine for a few days, and then when we looked for places to stay there weren’t any available. Who knew?! Not us, that’s for sure. I thought that Maine is so far out of the way that it wouldn’t be crowded and I thought very wrong. So we decided to plan B it and camp, and that was the best idea! We did easy style camping and didn’t worry about making food or even fires at all. 

And we were off! We stopped at Wendy’s for lunch because the Cracker Barrel next door had a 45 minute wait. 

We were pretty squished, but everyone got along. 

We got to our campsite by 6 and let the kids play while we set up our tent. We set things up and then drove through cute little Camden in search of dinner. After a few strikeouts - things in small town Maine close early and also did you know Maine is called Vacationland? Lots of people there. We finally settled on flat bread pizza, mostly because we could get a table for our crew of 7. Our first night in the tent was decent and we everyone slept decently. 

Tuesday morning I tutored and then Amy had a 3-hour work meeting, so those two things ate up most of our day. While we waited for Amy, we swam. #nerd

I’ll tell you another thing about Maine, it is not hot, and these kids did not last long in the pool. 

We let them hang out the doors of the van as we cruised 5mph around the campsite. 

We tried swimming again. 



This is Seymour Sea Swell and he is so quintessentially Maine that I had to get a pic. 

Our campground was very cute and we met all the camp hosts, which is a job Matt and I aspire to. 

Right after that picture was taken my phone died. As soon as Amy’s meeting finally ended, we headed out for some lighthousing. 

Our first stop was this mile long jetty walk out to the Rockland Breakwater Light. 

The kids all ran ahead and it was definitely worth every step of the mile out to it. 

#ilovedoors

How can you not  love lighthouses? 

We sat on the big breaker rocks and watched the boats for awhile b



These 2 love to push boundaries and mom comfort zones. They have no fear. 

#happy

Love her. 

Love this crew too. 

I only wish we could have gone inside. My lighthouse plans were also held loosely because I’ve had a long-standing vacation to Maine planned with Laura where we will lighthouse to our little hearts content. So these were really just for funsies. 

Next up was Owls Head State Park for the Owl Head Lighthouse. It was so beautiful it almost looked fake. Seriously breathtaking. 

Look at this little cutie! Reminded me so much of Oregon!

We had gotten there after their gift shop and lighthouse closed. Why??????

I could not get over the view. 

I will be back. 

There is a story about Spot the lighthouse dog that saved many lives during a storm, so of course we bought the book and took the pic. 

😍

Two lights were the kids limit. We hit up DQ on our way home and enjoyed chicken strips and blizzards before heading back to camp. The beginning of the day was a bust, but the end made up for it. 

Maine decorates with these cool buoys and I’m kicking myself for not buying one. I’m still not super sure what I’d do with it, but they are so fun. 

That night we walked back up to the coolest little lookout spot at our campground. 

From this lookout you can see the Indian Island Lighthouse with its lights still on. 

We sat out here for hours, it was so beautiful. I could never get tired of this view. 

The theater

Said in my most fancy voice. 👆🏼 

Max and Delaney worked all day on this stuffy (stuffed animal) fashion show. We all got tickets and had to be in our seats a few minutes before it started. It was all very official. 

Delaney helped each stuffy walk the runway. 

Max worked the lights. 

And then joined in on the show. 

After the many stuffies had strutted their stuff we had to vote on our favs. 

It was cute and creative. 

July 25th. ✅ 

Swimming

July 24

This place is covered in trees, but most aren’t good climbing trees. D found a good one and hid in it till we found her. 

The kids also made a little lean to out on one of the trails. So many trails! So many trees! So pretty!

During lunch they all tried peaches and straws. 🤷‍♀️

That afternoon we went down to the reservoir and went swimming. 

The water was cold, cold, cold, but we all got in and played. 

The kids liked swimming to this big rock and stayed talking on it for a long time. 

We stayed for a few hours until we got too cold. We made a friend on the beach - everyone is so friendly here! - and chatted with her while the kids played. Then Amy and I picked up pizza and, more importantly, garlic knots. We ended the night with showers and games. 

And Car-baby for good measure. 

The one with all the spiders

On Friday we took the crew to see Black Widow and we all liked it, except we missed Alli there reminding us who everyone is and telling us how they all fit together. 

These two are thick as thieves. They love doing art and come up with games and plays together. 

This was for one of their plays. Delaney was being a spider and we thought her costume was so creative!

Amy, Sandy, Kristi, and I have played Skull King almost every night. Surprisingly sandy won the first game, but I’ve been the winner since then. It’s been so fun! The kids had a minor fiasco that night. They unzipped one of the poofs and one of them sat on it and sticky light weight poof innards went everywhere. They are hard to sweep up because they fly all over. They all worked together and the drama level was medium low till about halfway through when it skyrocketed to medium high. 

The puff filling was eventually pcked up and mostly returned to their puff.

At home in NY

The NY crew are still moving in, so on Friday we kept them company as they unpacked and put things together. 

Sandy and I ran into town and then she bbq’d dinner that night.  

Silly pictures were taken by all. 

We caught up and played games. 

The kids explored and played and made messes. 

Their yard is amazing and we played outside for a long time. 

Adi loves taking pictures. 

Everyone loves Howie, but Howie doesn’t love everyone. 

Delaney is convinced we need a chihuahua. 

Everyone got along pretty well. 

Also the weather has been so mild and nice!