A Girls Trip to Indy

Laura's cousin Christy gave birth to her third baby in July, and Annabelle and Laura decided to go visit before school started.  From the airport, we headed strait to the zoo.  A ride on the carousel.

Annabelle likes being the big kid and helping out with Ruby and Clara.  

Annabelle was a little hesitant to touch the sting rays.

A pic of the girl cousins; Christy, Esther, Ruby, Annabelle, Clara, and Laura.

Annabelle holding Esther at their house.  This was really the first time Annabelle has spent any time around a newborn.  She loved helping with her and holding her!

Annabelle pretending to be a tiny baby.

The twins wanted to dress up.  Annabelle thought it was funny to attempt to put on their dress up clothes.  They happened to have the same monkey costume both my kids wore for their first halloween.

The girls wanted to bake cupcakes on Saturday.

There was a lot of licking the spatula during the icing time.

During the girls rest time, I got in a little Esther cuddle time!

A little play time before church on Sunday morning.

A pic of the girls before church. 

Annabelle cuddling with Esther during a movie Sunday night.

The girls dressed Tilly up as a merpup!

Maine Vacation - Part Four

 We headed to Augusta one day.  After lunch in downtown, Annabelle wanted a picture on the saddle.

We went to Augusta primarily to see Old Fort Western.  It was built in 1754, and it is the oldest wooden fort in the US that's still standing.  We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we were so impressed with the tour.

A family selfie before we headed in for our tour.

The main building is the only original building, but this blockhouse was built as a recreation.

Inside the main building, they have different rooms recreating different uses of the building throughout the years.  It was built as a fort during the French and Indian war, and then it was used during the American Revolution.  This room was to depict an officers room during the American Revolution.

In the 1800's the building was a general store.  This room was set up to recreate the general store.

The family that owned the general store, lived in the other half of the building.

There were bikes at the house, so the kids enjoyed a few bike rides during our stay.

The day we flew out, we stopped by Penobscot Narrows Observatory and Fort Knox.  A selflie below the bridge and observatory.

Some views from the observatory.

A view of the fort from the observatory.

Another selfie of the bridge.

Our trip home wasn't quite as smooth as the trip there.  Our Bangor to Boston flight was cancelled, so to avoid any further connection issues, we ended up having to rent a car and drive to Boston.  Then we flew out of Boston the following morning.  

Our litter of puppies is getting bigger; they're a month old now.  Here are up to date pics of the puppies.  The breeder has posted a few pictures to their instagram account, and Annabelle had me make this collage, so she could use it as the ipad wallpaper.

Maine Vacation - Part Three

 We were scheduled to take a whale watching tour, but when we arrived at the dock, we found out that the water was too rough for whale watching.  So we ended up taking the nature cruise.

We spotted several bald eagles and some dear.  Apparently, deer can swim, and they will swim from the mainland to the islands.  I had no idea they would do that.

The coastline of the mainland and of the little islands around the coast were beautiful.

If you look closely, you can see the bald eagle on the branch in this picture.

The kids had fun trying to spot things with their binoculars.

The rain that prevented our whale watching tour, resulted in some beautiful waterfall runoffs.

There were lots of seals around this island with the lighthouse.

A pic from boarding the cruise.

After the cruise, we walked around Bar Harbor and ate lunch waiting for the tide to go down, so we could walk across Bar Island Land Bridge.

Waiting for the tide to go down.

At the top of our hike over on the island.

Ready to head back.