Wisconsin!

We had an uneventful flight to Wisconsin. We had a long wait for our rental car, followed by a somewhat long drive to our hotel. We checked in and found some dinner (cheese curds included, of course). When we returned to the hotel, we found the Weiner Mobile checking in!

Basketball

Ethan talked me into basketball camp this week. It's every day, after his other camp. It's a lot of sitting on concrete in 90 degree weather, but he seems to really like it so I guess that makes it worth the effort.

Rock Valley

We spent the day in Rock Valley visiting with family. No matter how stressed I am about whatever, it all seems to fall away when I'm there. It's so peaceful. We picked blueberries, helped Gramps with his computer, checked out his garden, took a ride in the ranger, and spent a lot of time playing with cousins. Ethan got to bed very late, but he had a good time. Gramps has the garden looking pretty amazing.

Treat

We always find a delicious treat at the farmer's market. We even got pizza for dinner, donuts for breakfast, and some veggies too.

Birthday Weekend Part 2

We went back in the pool twice. It was a really hot day. We also went to Seymour where we picked up a desk Ma and I found in the antique store yesterday. We tried the cupcakes, too. Then we went back for lunch and a swim. We headed to Rich's to celebrate National Ice Cream Day.

Happy Birthday!

Grandma and Pa spent their birthday with us! We took them to Laurel Diner for the best breakfast in Southbury. Pa is a big fan of corned beef has, and I hear tell they have the best. I prefer to have blueberry pancakes. The guys had a grand ole time in the pool, and you can see that Pa is actually the bigger kid. Ma and I took off and went to Seymour to visit some antique shops while they took naps and went for a bike ride, then we had dinner at the restaurant near the Oxford airport. We came home for birthday cake.

Civil War Experience

Ethan came to work with me this week and participated in our summer program. He had a great time learning all about the Civil War.

Pool Fun

Happy Birthday, Elise!

We had a great time at Elise's 9th birthday party. I can't believe she's 9! The kids solved a mystery and had a great time running from clue to clue.

Family Night

It was family night at the YMCA camp, so since it was also farmer's market day Ethan and I shopped for a picnic and had dinner there. He climbed the rock wall, played gaga, and played lawn games. We also got to experience their camp songs which were pretty great.

Headed Home

We had to head home on Sunday, but decided to make a stop at the Lowell National Historical Park. We need to do that again when we have more time. I'm sure we didn't see the half of it, and we missed the canal tour. We had fun exploring the mill.

Fireworks

By the time we left Freeport, it was raining. We went and had dinner, and it started clearing off, so we decided to attempt the fireworks. It was a very nice show and we got a good view of it.

Freeport

After the wildlife park, we stopped at Pineland Farms for lunch. They make dairy products and raise animals for meat. They have a store with a small deli/restaurant where you can try all kinds of stuff. Following that, we headed to the Desert of Maine. We have been there before, but Ethan did not remember it. It's fantastic.After that we stopped at L.L. Bean where Ethan tried hard not to be squashed by the boot.

Maine Wildlife Park

Our second stop was more successful. We wanted to visit the Maine Wildlife Park so that we could finally see a moose. We saw several, as well as eagles, deer, an albino raccoon, bears, and a lot of other animals. There was also a fish hatchery where we could feed the fish. There were also amazing wood carvings all over the place.

Poland Spring

On the fourth, we had a meandering itinerary with a number of stops. The first of which was Poland Spring, where the bottled water comes from. This was one more place that neglected to inform Web users of holiday closures, so we just looked in the windows.

Storyland

We altered our plan to spend a day at the beach when we realized that the temperature at the beach would only be in the 70s. I can't say I was all that sad to avoid sand in everything. But don't worry,we found sand. We decided to take a super long drive to Storyland in NH. It was great fun. James has apparently been, but did not remember much.

There was a really great roller coaster with a dinosaur theme that we rode on twice. There were also several water rides, which we were completely unprepared for.

And there was a magic show. Guess who got to be the magician's assistant? Ethan did a great job up there on stage.

James braved the ride that promised to get riders soaked. The theme was ancient Egypt, so of course he had to go on it. He tried getting me wet, but was not very successful.

We ended our day in the swan boats. We all give storyland thumbs up.

Augusta

We spent our first full day in Maine exploring Augusta.  We tried to stop along our route for pastries at a well loved local shop I had found online, but despite their lack of virtual notification, the sign on the door indicated they were on vacation. This happens a lot on our anniversary trips. Ethan and I had some breakfast at the hotel, but James did not so we stopped at Tim Horton's. I can't say we're losing out by not having those around here. When we arrived in Augusta, Ethan proclaimed that it couldn't possibly be the capital because it's not a city.We started our visit at the Maine State Museum. It was pretty cool, there were exhibits about domestic life through various time periods so Ethan got to try out a rotary dial phone and see a tube television. There was also a working water wheel IN the museum. I can't even imagine the humidity nightmare that must create.

After the state museum, we went for lunch and then headed to Old Fort Western. We got to see where the colonists fought the Indians at the early settlement. We were heading to the river to see a boat that they had in the water, when we came across a big surprise.

There was this lovely playground. I think it was the highlight for Ethan. There were something like 7 slides.

There was also this amazing tree with two trunks which was really fun to climb.

We headed back in the direction of our hotel, where we found dinner at a mini-golf, drive in kinda place. It was a REALLY hard course!

On Our Way!

We finally headed for Maine a little before 3 on Wednesday. Traffic was as it always is in Connecticut, that is to say horrible. Ethan handled it well. I made him a minion cozy for his water bottle and he ate a matching lollypop. We stopped in Portland at a diner we like for dinner before driving another hour to our hotel.