Happy 5th Anniversary

Better late than never. Happy Anniversary Mal!

Enjoying Summer

A typical summer for the Watkins family includes plenty of hiking, camping, and outdoor fun. This summer has hardly included any of the aforementioned activities. We have been so busy working on the house, doing school, work, etc...enough with the excuses! We decided to get to know Acadia a little better and hike the South Bubble. Afterwards, we ate at the Jordan Pond House. Madie owned the South Bubble, of course. So far she has hiked Champlain and the South Bubble. We are going to conquer each peak eventually. 

Our happy Finn Man. 

Top of the South Bubble, North Bubble in the background.

Bubble Rock

Another shot of Bubble Rock. 

Looking north to Eagle Lake. 

At the Jordan Pond House. 

Popovers!

Lady Madie Fi

Man, the fun just never ends with this little miss. Let's see, where to start? ...

Well, this morning she told me, "Mum, my feet hurt." "Oh yeah? Why?" She gave me this look like, Really? You can't figure it out. "Because I'm walking." Oh gosh. Of course.

Madie loves the water. We were watching a girl learning to dive at the pool the other day during Finn's swim lesson. The girl never got the dive, but Madie thought it was very cool. She's been asking for swim lessons for her birthday. I've explained to her that she'll take swim when preschool starts up again because it's included. She doesn't seem to get it. We spent yesterday evening at my aunt's camp and Madie tried to stand strong when her cousin asked if she'd like to go swimming. (I told her we weren't swimming since it was Sunday and hadn't packed her suit on purpose.) I told her she could go wading as deep as her dress permitted. When she went into her thighs I knew I'd lost that battle.

Another new interest is gymnastics. On Wednesday some of the girls who aren't in Young Women but were not having their usual Activity Days pulled some mats out of the closet in the cultural hall and practiced cartwheels and roundoffs. Madie loved it! She was sharing a mat with Kate and doing somersaults. The next day she told me she needed a leotard. I said, "You don't need a leotard to do gymnastics. I did gymnastics for a few years and never had a leotard." "But Mum! I do! I can't do my gymnastics without one! Listen, you just get me a leotard and I'll do gymnastics. Okay?" Yikes.

And here's the candle on the cake. This is a great one. A week ago I was in the car while Mike was driving. I can't remember how I got started, but I sang the la la la's to "Loving You." I could hear Madie in the back playing something with her toys but as soon as I stopped she said, "Was that me?" Mike and I just busted up!

Ocean fun

One disadvantage to living in a rural area is the lack of museums and exhibits to take the kids to. One advantage to living on Mount Desert Island is we have a laboratory that specializes in marine life just a couple of miles away. Once a year, MDIBL opens their doors to the public and displays their aquariums, put on some games, and offer some crafts for kids. 

Madie had so much fun, but who wouldn't when you eat ice cream, gold fishes, and candy (all treats in our home)? She loved watching the shark tank the most, but also had fun making silly putty and running around on the labs private pier that looks over Salisbury cove. 

Finn was content eating the gold fishes, and touching star fish! Almost like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, only 1/50 the size, and free. 

Fourth of July

Well the Fourth has come and gone. Man I love this holiday. As a kid I remember having a hard time picking between the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years. It seemed like you were supposed to have a favorite holiday. Now I ask, why? And I also say, uh uh!

Okay, let's move on to the actual festivities and off of my holiday soap box. Bar Harbor hosts a blueberry pancake breakfast on the Fourth from 6 to 9 am. It's fun if you want to get together with some friends early, or if you don't have your own kitchen but still want part of the action I guess, but they're just Bisquick type pancakes with blueberries in them, so we did our own thing. Then we went into town for the parade.

Finn and Mumma ready for the parade to start.

Madie wanted to ride in the YMCA bus with her preschool friends, so we had to be there a half hour before the parade started. Well, we actually got there 15 minutes before, and parked on the opposite side of town. I know it's not a big town, but you should try hauling a 4 year old from one end of it to the other in 10 minutes and 90 degrees. By the time I got back to Mike and Finn and our seats I was drenched.

Trying to stay cool.

I kind of wish Madie was sitting with us--it would have been the first parade she really would have understood and remembered I think.

Watching the first set of Shriners.

Dad and FinnMan. This is after a couple of fire trucks went by and blew their horns. He was a delicate flower from there on out.

Madie is somewhere on that bus, but despite running to the other side of the street (where she would see us) and yelling and yelling for her to look outside, we never saw her and she says she never saw us. :(

I want to hang from a fire truck with a cape!

The parade lasted about 45 minutes. It's not as long as I remember it being as a kid. They didn't have the grey hounds for one thing, and there wasn't one single school band. WHAT?! The high school band at least has always played in the parade! And usually a couple of middle schools. My dad will probably say, "Well, thank heavens. Then you won't have anyone butchering the national anthem," or something to that effect. But I missed it. I'll need to petition for it next year.

After the parade we went to the athletic fields to look at the craft fair. They also have a seafood festival down there and lobster races (which we opted out of this year) and some games for kids. We didn't stay  long though 'cause we went to the middle school to meet up with some friends for a little baseball. We were the only ones there for the first 20 minutes or so and we thought no one would show so Mike was running back to get the car for us to go home but before he could get back two other families showed and then a third so we did end up tossing a frisbee around. (We, of course, had already been hitting the ball and playing chase.)

Play ball or eat? I think we know the answer to this...

After we rested at home for a bit, we went to some friends' house for dinner and then walked the shore path to the fireworks. Because Madie and Bryant were so anxious to go and we were ready, we went ahead of everyone else and hung out on the Lunt's pier until we saw the rest of the crew.

Me, Madie, and Bryant hanging out. The Margaret Todd was just docking.

Lunt's pier on Frenchman's Bay.

Finnegan enjoying some fingers.

A gorgeous pink sunset on the far side of Frenchman's Bay. You can just see Bar Island.

Getting ready for the fireworks. You can see the masts of the schooner out there.

This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen in Bar Harbor! It was great! My only complaint is the band they had playing needed some more powerful amps--it's a large venue and they were at the bottom of the hill by the town pier, so we could barely hear them. But the show itself was great.

Happy Independence Day!

Cooling off at the Glenn Mary wading pool

Raising Mountaineers

I love the outdoors. Hiking, camping, climbing, kayaking...you name it. Even more fun is sharing these activities with my kids. Although both are still young, I think Madie has been places not many other kids her age have been. Being outside is what we do as a family, and I think it's starting to show. I took the Boy Scouts on a hike last Saturday in Acadia. I was initially in a pickle because Mal had a fitness training class to attend for the entire day and I was stuck with the two kiddos and a hike I had planned two weeks prior. After not being able to find a babysitter for Madie, I settled in with the idea of taking both of them with me. Finn on my back, and Madie on foot. Whatever Madie couldn't do, I came to terms that I would have to carry her as well. 

Saturday morning came and off we went up Champlain. Madie absolutely owned that mountain. Aside from helping her scramble up some steep/slippery granite that was more than twice the size of her, she did the entire trek all on her own. Do you realize how proud that makes a daddy? Let's just say I've got a future backpacking partner in this girl. Everyone on the hike kept commenting how impressed they were with her resolution. She did not complain the whole way up. Finn of course was as happy as a clam to be on my back and even decided to take a snooze on the way up. The kids pack is how we got Madie exposed to the trail as well. I can only hope that this is the start of many more adventures. 

Madie was scrambling up this stuff like there was nothing to it. 

What a relaxing way to spend your morning. 

I told Madie to stand next to Finn and smile, and this is what I got. Impressed?

At the top, Finn got to stretch his legs, eat bread, and scoot around. The boys enjoyed playing with him. 

What a team! I did carry Madie a lot of the ways down the trail. But what an accomplishment for a 3 year old.