She is Eight

 

Our baby girl turned 8 years old last month. She entered our world 8 years back and our lives have never been the same since. She is growing into a young lady and keeping us on our toes everyday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Maine - Beach time

Sam working on a geocache puzzle.

Since we were so close to one of the most popular beaches in Maine it would have been wrong not to visit it. We spent the entire day at Popham Beach (and that says a lot about our family since we are busy bodies). It didn't stop us from geocaching while we were relaxing. We were able to walk out to one of the islands close by during a low tide and solve a puzzle to a cache.

This picture was taking from an island and as you can see you can walk on it during low tide.

This little pesky guy wanted to be our best friend during our lunch time. He even landed on Nate and took a bite out of his sandwich while he was still eating!

 We did a lot of walking along the beach admiring views of local houses and the ocean. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and looking for critters.

Jo digging a hole with a big sea shell.

Sam relaxing after lunch time.

Nate being Nate. Just getting dirty in the sand.

 After a long day at the beach we headed back, played in the pool (like we didn't spend too much time in the water already) at the camp and had dinner.

That is how we roll camping! Yep those are two lobsters you see. I know life is hard when you are camping close to the beach a local lobster is only $3.50 a pound!

Next time we need to bring a bigger pot!!!

 On the way back we stopped at one of our favorite stores L.L.Bean in Freeport Maine to take a picture with a very big boot.

Another fun camping trip with the family.

A smoothie treat at the end.

Maine - family fun day

Good morning Maine.

 We enjoy our family time when we go camping and exploring new places. Most of the time we pick a campground we have never visited before so we never know how the place looks until we get there. This time we ended up with a very lovely spot next to a pond with gorgeous views.

 The first day, after a filling breakfast, we heading out to do some more geocaching. I know it might be getting old for some of you but we are having a blast this summer exploring new areas while looking for treasures.

We picked a bike trail that ended up being too much for our clan. We ended up pushing our bikes most of the way but that didn't stop us from enjoying the day in the woods.

I have no idea what it is with kids and rocks.

Boys pretending to support the rock.

All of them (but me) made it to the top.

 Daddy got a big cut while biking along the way and the boys were happy to show us their first aid abilities which they learned in camp this summer.

First they cleaned it nicely (with TONS of alcohol wipes to try to make daddy cry).

No stitches required.

Almost done and ready to go.

We ended up doing close to 6 miles (half on bikes and half walking). We were all tired but happy with our geocache finds for the day (total 21 caches!)

Enjoying a campfire in the evening.

I have no idea what it is with kids. They are tired one minute and looking for another activity the next. Here the girls are showing their jump roping skills.

Maine - Fort Williams (and other places)

First stop was the ever popular Cabela's store (with few geocaches around)

We were able to go camping to Maine in August and we made few extra stops on the way there.

Our second stop was Fort Williams Park. The main reason we stopped by (was not only for the beautiful light house) but also the oldest geocache in Maine.  It was placed January 2nd, 2001. We visited the oldest cache in New Hampshire last month.

The kids holding the oldest geocache in Maine.

We did stay a little longer to admire the views. Oh and the boys were goofing around.

Portland Head Light

Yep, nice views :)

 Our third stop was DeLorme. We use their gps on our geocaching adventures. They have a very nice store with TONS of maps from all over the earth plus they have EARTHA. Eartha is the largest rotating globe in the world and for geographical buffs like us that is COOL.

Our first virtual cache with Eartha.

By the way the globe is big.

We made it to our campground late in the afternoon after a few extra stops to pick up more geocaches on the way.

White Mountains - week later

Silly or shy?

These pictures are a week later after we picked the boys up from camp the following weekend. Since we were up there early we made another day of it in the White mountains.

Daddy and the girls climbing rocks.

It was great to have all the kids together again. It is a lot of work and a blessing at the same time:)

Hiking along few falls. Not too much water.

Siblings

You cannot tell from this picture but the incline was pretty steep. None of them complained the whole trip.

Cutie

Two cuties

Here you can see it a little bit better how we were climbing up the hill.

At Arethusa Fall. 

Sam resting at the falls.

The girls

Our family minus Nate who was behind the lens this time. We feel very blessed!

Back in the parking lot after our hike. What a lovely day we had.

On the way home we stopped to explore local  stores and a local art shop. Nice chair Jo!