New England Tour 2011, phase III

My dear reader, our journey had just begun! After leaving Beth's, we continued south, hoping to make it through New Hampshire before the airshow at Pease finished. We were about 15 miles from the Maine border when we hit the traffic.... ugh.



Thankfully, the kids were happy with our inflight entertainment (portable DVD player velcroed to a board that was tied to the armrests of the front seat) and the plethora of snacks we packed. What should have been a half-hour drive turned into about 2 hrs with only 1 bathroom stop but we lucked out and passed by Pease just as the fancy fast planes (like the Blue Angels) were landing (they actually came in for a landing right over our heads). Phew! The rest of the drive was smooth sailing, despite a few raindrops

and we reached our destination, the Kettells, just in time for dinner with the cousins!


Everyone was super excited to see each other and enjoyed a little low key playtime as we prepped for a few days of crazy fun!

New England Tour 2011, phase II

After our brief sojourn in Portland, Greg, and the boys and I parted ways as Greg drove back to Bangor to catch a 6:30am flight to Seattle. Although he didn't document his trip with photos (come on!), it probably looked something like this:

Meanwhile, the boys and I continued south for a quick overnite in a hotel before the next phase of our adventure. The hotel stay was quite exciting for the kids, especially in the morning when they were allowed some screen time:


I managed to tear them away from the TV with the lure of a dunkies stop, and we set out on our next journey. Somehow, I decided that it would be a good idea to ignore the directions I printed out, and take my own route. This all happened before coffee whatever they were serving in the hotel lobby didn't actually contain any caffeine. By some miracle, we not only found a dunkies with drivethru but also Beth & Erik's house!

It was my first time at their new place so I got the tour (it is spectacular!) and we got to catch up a bit while the kids played...


Despite the lack of photos, we all had a great time and hope to get another visit in soon :)

I was arrested a couple of times by the fire chiefs for driving too fast (I was going 3 when I should have been doing 1, who knew?)

Where've we been?

All over the place lately! We're just wrapping up a fantastic summer capped off with a fairly quiet week before school starts. It's perfect for us since our last few weeks have been a whirlwind of visiting with friends and family. We started off our most recent round of adventures with a trip to see our good friend from college, Shervyn, his lovely wife Amanda and their adorable progeny, Ben, who all just happened to be up from NYC and vacationing in Portland for the week. It was great to see them again and the time together flew by. The kids had a great time running around together (here they are in a rare still moment)


and playing legos together


and we were able to share a delicious meal pulled off by Greg despite a few snafus along the way...


Hope that we can do it again soon!

Artists

I just came to the realization that summer is almost over and the new school year is about to begin. So, I figured it might be time to go through the huge stack of artwork that the boys brought home with them last year. They each had some spectacular pieces and here are a few of the highlights:

Nick

Artwork by Nick from The St Pierre Family on Vimeo.

and Tim

Artwork by Tim from The St Pierre Family on Vimeo.

Twigs

One warm but cloudy afternoon, we were headed over to Amanda's to go swimming but felt the pull as we started past Treworgy's and decided we needed to stop. The kids needed ice cream, of course so we indulged in a little treat...



then did a little tractor driving


And of course, visited with the animals


While we were there, we saw the apples on the trees, ripening in the sun. We'll be back in a few weeks for those!

Blueberry Time

The blueberries are in and the boys are in heaven! The other night as I was getting dinner ready, Nick came in and asked for a snack. When I said no because dinner would be ready in 15 minutes, he said he'd just go outside for a snack...







Yum

Quiet time

Harvest time

The kids are kind of lukewarm about the garden until it is time to actually start picking something. They loved the strawberries, and thought it was cool to pick asparagus. Things weren't any different this year when some of the carrots started to come in.

Tim ran down from riding his bike once he figured out what we were doing


and Nick jumped right in


Carrots!
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They also helped with the cukes


and even better, BOTH ate some for dinner :)

Little Artist

While Nick headed out to various summer camps and playdates, Tim attended preschool two mornings a week this summer. He enjoyed his time at his "summer camp" school and came home with some nice pieces of art work.

Tim juggling next to the camp fire


What Tim wants to be when he grows up (in addition to a policeman and farmer)


Us at camp digging for pirate treasure

More Camp!

We just can't get enough! If the weather is hot, and we don't have any reason to stay in town, we head out to camp! So, we did just that the other day and had the pleasure of being joined by the Kendalls!

The kids played, the moms kicked back - it was awesome!!


We did a little swimming with one trip out to the float, although everyone started freaking out since it was a little wavy. I think Tim took at least 6 waves right in the face...


The even convinced me to jump in a few times to prove to them that the bottom wasn't icky


The kids all got along so well and really didn't need much intervening from the adults. What a treat (since mine have been at each other constantly lately)


We even headed around the loop for a walk and scavenger hunt


It was fun to see Nick and McKayla together again


and I think Nick met his match in Scrabble!


Another great day!