Maine Vacation: Act I: Scene II & III: Ice Cream & Wildlife Park

Here's the second installment of photos from our Maine vacation.

On Monday night after the trolley ride, we took the kids out for ice cream. All 3 kids had chocolate soft serve on a cone. Take a peek!

Natey LOVES his ice cream!

Maddie showing us her cone.
And another...
Not sure what that face is but it's funny!
We took the kids to the Maine Wildlife Park on Wednesday before we headed home. It was fun to see the wildlife that's native to Maine. We saw deer, moose, raccoons, bears, fisher cats and a few others. They had really neat places to take pics throughout the park and we took advantage of it.

Lexi on the left, Nate and Maddie

Lexi, Maddie, Natey Lexi, Maddie and a funny faced Nate
Thanks to Ariana's awesome weekly family shots, it's inspired me to get more family shots. Notice the boot. :)
And the kiddies again - Nate, Lexi, Maddie
And a preview of what's to come..........in the next installment!

Maine Vacation: Act I: Scene I: The Trolley

We managed to survive a short vacation to Maine with only a minor sunburn for me and 3 tired kidlets. We took what seems like a bazillion photos so I'm going to split them up into separate posts. Keep a look out for the next week or so for all the installments!!

One of our favorite (and cheap) attractions of Maine is the trolley. Our friends (who very graciously offered up their camp for the second year in a row) place just so happens to be within a 2 minute walk of the start of the trolley stops. So we walked down and hopped on and just rode the loop. It takes about an hour and you get to see all of Ogunquit, Maine. Personally, it's one of my favorite things!

Here are some pics from our first trip on the trolley! :)

Natey loving it!

Joey sitting with the girls!
Maddie looking to see what Mommy's doing!
Checkin' out the sights!
Nate and Mom
Maddie looking happy and Lexi looking grumpy! Don't let the scowl fool you - she loved it!
Same shot in black and white...
Met up with Polly the Trolley along the way!
One of a few family shots taken on this vacation.
Maddiekins

More Randomness and MIA

Is that even a word? Randomness? Eh, who cares...call it a Brandyism. :)

Anyway, we've had another busy week and I haven't had a chance to update. Here are some pics from the week!

Natey hanging out in his clubhouse! Doesn't he look cool?!

Lexi Lou with her nasty chin bruise! It looks even worse now. It's this bright reddish-purple mark. Ick! And just in time for family pics in a couple of days!
Joe and his buddy went for a 2 day photography trip so his wife, Candy (hey girl! :P), and I took the kids to a children's fair in a neighboring town. It was SO much fun. Here the kids are watching chickens hatch in the incubator.
And a bunny rabbit!
The girls LOVE animals and Nate hates them. They jumped at the chance to go in and pet the goats.
Their favorite part of the day - ICE CREAM!
This morning, we took the hooligans mini-golfing (or as Lexi called it Gulching - as in Elmyra Gulch from the Wizard of Oz). They had a good time but got bored after about 7 holes.
Here's the big moose! You can't help but miss it when you drive by. Too by the kidlets wouldn't look at the camera!!
And a butterfly that landed on a flower as we were heading by one of the holes.
And they had this horse you could put the kids up on. It isn't electric or anything, just something to set them up on. We got pics of each kid on it but this one stole the show. He was in the middle of a big "GIDDYUP!!"

I'll be MIA for a few days - watch next weekend for LOTS and LOTS of new photos!! :)

Hardwood Is Unforgiving

Well, it seems I'm not the only one prone to injury in this family. Yesterday, Lexi was practicing her gymnastics routine from my end tables - picture one hand on each of the end tables that are spread just a little too far apart. She kicked her muscled legs back to where she was almost horizontal with the floor and her hands slipped off the tables and she fell...and she hard. But don't worry, her chin caught her fall.

I know, I know. I'm terrible...making fun and all. But if you could've heard me not 2 minutes before that telling her not to do that because she was going to fall and get hurt. So I was having a really hard time feeling sympathy for the poor child...until I saw that almost immediately it began to turn purple and swell up. Then I had just a teensy bit of sympathy for her and got her an ice pack (chuckle now because it was the same ice pack that sat on my stinky broken foot for 3 days hahaha). She sat on the couch with it on her chin for almost 15 minutes...that's a record for her sitting still, btw.

Anyway, got up this morning and this is what it looks like.

Attitude Galore!

I wanted to take a few photos today in their new dresses (thanks Grandma!) but boy, the attitudes were abundant. These were the best of the bunch.

Maddie

Lexi
Natey

A Little Electronics Lesson

For those of you who don't know, Joe was sent to Las Vegas yesterday for work. He'll be gone for a week. Blech. But you ladies know how it goes...when the hubby is away, something is going to happen.

Joe's been away a little more than 24 hours and we've already had something happen.

I was settling in about 6:30 having just put the girls to bed and thinking "only one more hour to the opening ceremony of the Olympics" when the power went out. I cannot repeat what went through my mind next...this IS a family friendly website, after all. I heard this horrific screeching sound and followed it and found this:

Since I had no clue how to shut it off, I hit the only button I could find on it. Low and behold, it shut up.

Then the weirdness started. The tv came back on, the rest of the electronics in our cabinet started powering on. But yet, the fans hadn't come back on...the kitchen was still without power. I thought to myself "no problem, I don't need Joey here to fix it for me. It MUST be a blown breaker! OH! I know how to fix that!!"

Then I realized that the basement is pretty dark without power...so I went off in search of a flashlight. I grabbed the one that's been plugged into the outlet since we moved into the house and flipped it on. Uh, the light went about 2mm and was worthless. No problem, we have this gigantic monster of a flashlight under the sink. I grabbed that and before I could turn it on, I heard crying from the girls bedroom. Irked already because I didn't want to miss a second of the opening ceremonies, I hustled my butt back to their room. Step, thump, step, thump, step, thump. You get the picture. The problem you ask? Their nitelite wasn't on. Um, ya think? I try to explain to 2 - 3 year olds that the power is out. Not an easy task.

So I finally calm them down and make my trek to the bottom of the basement stairs. I flick on this enormous, stupidly heavy flashlight and ta-da - LIGHT! And then 2.3 seconds later it fades to black. Oh the words that actually flew out of my mouth...I'll end up on that bus to hell for sure. And then I heard a voice call from the top of the stairs "aw shucks momma" (what we've instructed Nate to say instead of $hit). Sorry bud...aw shucks.

But wait - victory! At the bottom of the stairs, a flashlight - THIS flashlight...

Yep, that's a bear flashlight. And it was right there waiting for me. So I picked it up and headed into the abyss - aka, the closet area in the basement where we have tons of stuff (ie JUNK) stored and where the electrical panel is. I turn it on and began removing things so I can get to the panel. I got one thing halfway out and the bear roared and shut off.

CRAP!

So I stop what I'm doing, pick up the flashlight and hit the button again. I finish moving whatever it was I was moving and again...ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAR. And the light goes out. I hit the button again. Lather, rinse, repeat for about 10 minutes. I mumble some more profanities under my breath so my precious, innocent 5 year old won't correct me.

I finally make it to the panel and notice that not one breaker is out of place. So what the heck, I start one by one, flicking them off and then back on. I do this to EVERY SINGLE ONE. Still no power.

More profanities.

Thankfully I brought my cell phone downstairs with me. I call Joe in Las Vegas.

More profanities.

I give him a brief synapis of what has happened so far (leaving out the profanities, of course - his virgin ears cannot handle that).

What does he say to me? Um, are you sure the power is on?

McFly! Hello! Of course I'm sure the power is on - the TV is on upstairs and so is the DVR and the stereo receiver. It's getting electricity from somewhere. He couldn't see me, but I'm sure he felt the eye roll I gave him.

I start rattling off some more profanities and how much I want to see the opening ceremony. He cuts me off mid-sentence and says he really doesn't think the power is on. I ask the almighty why he thinks that.

It seems that box that was making that horrific screeching noise that I shut off and then turned back on is an APC BACKUP. It's a freaking battery backup. And when I turned it back on after I got it to quit screeching, it powered everything back on that was plugged into it...the tv, the DVR, the stereo receiver. Apparently, it's so I could properly shut everything down. Hmph.

Guess the power wasn't really back on.

I did suck it up and tell him he was right because....well, he was. Boy does that hurt to type out. The man does NOT need any encouragement thinking he's right all the time. Love ya Joey! ;) You know I'm kidding...kind of. :)

So, power was out for 30 minutes and back on in plenty of time for the opening ceremony, which has been awesome btw!

I'm going to get a beer and finish watching the opening ceremony. Peace out...but NOT the electricity.

Ling-Ling Don't Forget Your Bling-Bling

Name that movie!

Lexi found all the bracelets that Grandma has brought them over the last year or so and put them ALL on. Take a look at her bling!!

She was playing dress up, if you couldn't tell. The shorter "necklaces" are actually headbands! Loved the big smile!
This was my favorite shot!
And a pic of all 3 of them. Oh and Maddie is wearing shorts under that shirt - I really don't dress my 3 year old like a hussy!
And then they wanted me to take a picture of them with their new pjs on! I liked how this one came out. For once they all had their eyes opened and looking at me!
And Maddie with her goofy smile again!
I liked this one because they were all holding hands! Let me hear ya say "awwwwww!"

A Bunch of Random Photos

Today was the ideal summer day for me - 75 degrees with a nice steady breeze. After the girls got up from their nap, we headed outside. I took the camera along because I didn't feel like reading, which was what I normally do when we go out. I just snapped away, not really paying attention to settings or what was really going on. I came out with a few that I like a lot.

I think this was my favorite of the day. Maddie looking intently at something.

Natey playing peek-a-boo behind a chair.
Maddie was in the hot seat today with photos - normally it's Lexi.
Nate picked these pretty flowers for me.
hehehe I couldn't resist a shot like this.
Maddie doing her goofy expression!
One of the few that I managed to get of Lex.
The girls heading out to draw with the chalk.
Lexi digging into the new bin of sidewalk chalk.
And of course, me with my foot propped up on a chair.