Visiting with Friends!

Some dear friends from our University of Utah days paid us a visit!  It was one of the most perfect mini vacations we have had in a long time!  They have 4 children, 3 of whom are very close in age to our 3!  (We are just missing a baby!)  And our children all got along beautifully!  Our kids are still asking when we are going to see them again - we had such a great time!

Of course, we had to take them to some of our favorite Maine parks and sights!  Our first stop: Mackworth Island!

 Grins found a teeny, tiny sand crab!

 Wiggles and her friend.

 Angel with another sand crab.

 We all climbed the rock wall together!  Such fun!

 Wiggles is quite the climber!

 Wiggles and her friend, enjoying the umbrella!

Of course, the Fairy Village at Mackworth is one of our favorites!

 The girls created a beautiful little Fairy House and garden!

Hiking through the forest with our friends.

 Angel and her friend, holding hands.

 Wiggles and her friend, holding hands.

 Grins and his friend (too cool to hold hands.) :)

Next, we decided to go on a lighthouse tour.  We started at Bug Light.

The girls, enjoying the cool breeze.

Next Stop: Springpoint Lighthouse.  There is an incredible rock walkway (but I somehow missed getting a photo of the actual light house - probably because I was so carefully watching the children on the treacherous stone walkway!)


Next Stop: Fort Williams.  The children loved the ruins.  Here there are, still paired up. :)

Wiggles, climbing again!

 Grins, exploring.

 Angel, posing for the photo.

Good friends! :)

 The girls, posed as lions guarding the castle.

 Peace out.

Next Stop: Kettle Cove.  It was windy and chilly, but that didn't stop us!

Wiggles adores the "baby"!

 Next Stop: Two Lights

 Next Stop: All of that travelling made us hungry!  After 2 1/2 years in Maine, we had still never tried Lobster Shack, so we decided to give it a try!

The Verdict: The food is lousy, but location is incredible!

 Next Stop: (Our kids are troopers!) Len Libby to see the Chocolate Moose!

And since the children had been so fantastic throughout our long day of travelling, we decided to indulge in ice cream for all!

What a fun-filled day, showing Maine to our friends!  We had SO much fun with these dear friends, and really hope we can see them again soon!  It truly was the perfect day!

Bug Maine-ia

We had the remarkable privilege of attending an annual exhibit at the Maine State Musem in Augusta (the State Capitol): Bug Maine-ia.  It was SO much fun!!!

We loved that there were SO many hands-on exhibits!  Here, the children are carefully handling butterflies and moths.

I can't remember what they were looking at under the microscopes....but they were enthralled!

This was my favorite exhibit:  We learned that the Declaration of Independence was written with ink made from wasp galls!  The girls got to try their hand at writing with wasp gall ink with a quill pen, just as they did in colonial times!  It is much harder than it looks (and you'll note ink stains on Angel's hands in other pictures), but they did a marvelous job!!

Next, we took a look at the 'fuzzy' caterpillars:

Then, it was the cockroaches.  I enjoyed most of the other insects, but.....ewwwwwwwwww!!!!

Grins was the only one brave enough to hold this HUGE tarantula!  EEEEEEEEEEKK!

We all enjoyed the walking sticks!

Next, we took a trip outside for some 'bug catching' fun.

The children were given small cups to capture bugs in, and then they took them to the park rangers, who told them what type of insect it was.  Then they released them back into the woods.  It was a great learning experience!

Then we headed back inside, because, though we'd been there for a couple of hours already and had seen a lot, no one was ready to leave!  We had to head back to the 'petting zoo' for more fun playing with insects!

This time, Angel got brave enough to hold the hissing cockroaches too!  Ewwwww!

After several hours, I finally managed to pull the children away (though not without many complaints!).  We took a quick peek at the Capitol while we were there (with some friends of ours)!  A great trip and very fun learning experience!  We will definitely go again next year! :)