Simplicity

Other than some slight family turmoil on our first night there, and some problems with the house not having water (that I had to call the owner about, and turns out we will get a 2-day refund!), our Maine trip was wonderful.

The car ride turned into a 14-hour-long voyage, and boy was it interesting with a 15-month old little lady who happens to HATE being in the car for extended periods of time. If we didn't know the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Love Story" already, trust me they are ingrained to our subconscious for good now. It turns out Abrie LOVES this song (and the whole Taylor Swift 'Fearless' cd for that matter) and we had to put it on repeat whenever she would get irritable, which was more often than not. Between that song and the four of us singing Ernie's 'Imagination Song' to soothe our Show Show to sleep, the car ride was quite comical. Of course, we can't leave out the fact that Dan was pulled over by the police when we had just 20 miles left on our way back home-- at 1:30am nonetheless, when all we wanted to do was get home and try to sleep. I will never forget Maddie and Faith in the background saying "ohhhh boy. This isn't good. Donovan would love this. It's a real police scene." Hahaha.

Our memories there are what makes it all count. We are big Taylor Swift fans, and one of the songs on her cd is called "The Best Day." These girlies called it their theme song while we were there, and I couldn't help but wonder what are the little moments that they will remember the most about this adventure? We didn't visit an amusement park or mini golf, or anything else like that at all. And yet, they had so, so, so much fun.

My big girls hit it off (as I had expected would happen) with Amber's two girls, Olivia and Hannah. From the second that they met, they were calling each other "the best friend's club" and did everything together. I didn't have the heart to tell them that they couldn't all sleep together, so the 4 of them slept next to each other in a line on the futon. It was precious. They did each other's hair. They sat out on the porch painting each other's nails. They had a blast. Girlies' cousins, Tyler and Molly were there too and they had so much fun with them also. Faith absolutely adores cousin Molly, and Maddie thought Tyler was so funny with his 'silly lobster.' Abrielle is fascinated with babies right now too, and had a blast with Molly. Big girls were quite taken with their Uncle Matt too.

Abrie is cutting more teeth than I had originally thought (she has 4.. possibly 5 on the top trying to come through the gums) and gets bad diaper rashes when she is cutting teeth just like big sister Faith used to. Needless to say, she wanted nothing to do with anyone besides Daddy, her sissys, and Momma. I remember on our trip to Indianapolis when Faith was about to turn a year old, she was like that also and everyone nicknamed her "la chillona" (*the whiny one*), and I think Abrie would definitely get the nickname of "la gritona" (*the screaming one*) if my relatives would have seen her. Bless her little crabby heart! My baby girl had the most fun when she was by the shore. This girl is a beach baby, through and through. She is her happiest when she is by water and rocks. She absolutely loved every occasion and chance she got to be at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park, or when we were down by the Pier at Bar Harbor or on the pebble beach at Lamoine State Park. She wanted to splash and carry rocks all day. In fact, one of her favorite pastimes in the house was to go splash her little hands in the little pool of water that collected at the bottom of the water cooler. I filled a styrofoam cooler for her with water and put it on the porch, and she was as happy as could be playing with her sisters.

We spent a lot of time at Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. It was surreal to me to have our three little girls in the same spot on top of Cadillac Mountain and get a picture of them where we were married 9 years ago. I think that was my favorite memory of this trip. It was such a neat feeling to see them standing in that exact spot, and realize how far Dan and I have come together. We have created and raised these three perfect little girls. Girlies loved the mountain (even Abrie who is destined to become a rock climber with the way she was trying to scale the big rocks!) and my big girls said they felt like "Pocahontas when she sees John Smith's ship." Their imaginations are never far away. It's neat to see what they think of every new adventure that comes their way, and their interpretations of it. Thunder Hole was beautiful, and Sand Beach was a favorite spot. My girls fell in love with Bar Harbor too. We took them to a cute little (and free!) whale museum there, and they had a lot of fun browsing the shops and playing in the water fountains.

Lamoine State Park was just a short walk away from our house, which was really neat. Dan and Uncle Kyle collected enough mussels during low tide to feed 15 grown men, and we tried (unsuccessfully) to collect more over the next few days. Maddie was disappointed, but she and Faith instead found lots of deceased crabs along the rocks that they collected and took home as their "pets." I even found Maddie singing a lullaby to her crab. Faith was hilarious in that she named one of her pets, 'Daniel.' Hahaha.

Some of the best memories are the fun we had there at the house. Sure, we were overcrowded in this old farmhouse, but the girls couldn't have been happier. We had relay races and played whiffle ball in the backyard, tried (unsuccessfully) to make a fire pit for smores, collected bugs and grapes (yes, they had grape vines and lots of different vegetables in their vegetable garden), and just sat outside on the porch for hours. Bedtime was later than usual-- even Abrie usually didn't go upstairs until between 7:30-8pm-- and baths (or quick hose-down's) were a daily necessity. Girlies' hands and feet were constantly caked with dirt, and the scent of 'Off' was their perfume for the week. I wouldn't have had it any other way.