Maine - Day 1

emi woke me up early, kinda to say, "hey mom, we gotta get going. we don't want to miss a thing." and had it been anywhere else, i would've been grumpy, but because of where we were, i had a pretty good skip to my step. so i put the kettle on the stove, warmed up some water and poured me some coffee. hey, a girl needs coffee at 6:30am, whether she's in maine or not.

it was another half hour before anybody else woke up so emi and i slipped outside, her with her cup of milk, me with my coffee, and sat on the front porch. not long after, we heard the ziiiiiiiip from the tent out back and emi immediately knew what that meant...brother was up.

yup. mike and lando slept in a tent. some may call that torture, but for the two of them, they call it awesomeness.

can i just say that i seriously love landon's morning eyes.

swan pond was absolutely breathtaking. a slight mist over the water, the sun not completely up yet. the contrast between a bright yellow canoe and the blue-green water was something i couldn't help but admire. i seriously took my camera everywhere. if there was a swaying reed to photograph, i was going to be there.

and like each morning after, landon and mike hurried to the dock to see what they could see. several mornings some large bass swam around looking for minnows to prey on. another morning a ginormous, and i mean GINORMOUS, snapping turtle hung around devouring some left over fish we fileted. don't worry, i will put a photo of him up here. but that's another day.

and me with my camera attached to my hip was able to capture some sweet shots of papa with miss ruthie. that poor man, living his life with a house full of girls. fighting over bathroom time and music preference. but he did learn a few things about loving well even in those war zones. and it was more than rewarding to see my dad and emi bond.

around mid-morning we hiked it to the portland lighthead (otherwise known as a lighthouse, not totally sure why its name is different). every year, on one sunday of our trip, we go there to picnic and enjoy the company of some long-time friends, don and pat. there's always cold-cut sandwiches and iced tea or lemonade.

it was breezy and a little chilly but for us folk who live in 90% humidity and high 80's most of the year around, it was a welcome change.

and our attempt at a family picture was slightly ruined by landon throwing a fit because we wouldn't let him climb on the rocks and emi, well, she just didn't want to have to do anything she didn't want to do. so no smiles from the children, but at least no one is screaming. (see the group photo below...)

my sister, ashley, and her husband, tommy

don, my mom, my dad, and pat

tommy, ashley, screaming emi, shelly (my sister, abbey's, best friend and roommate, my mom, abbey, me, lando, my dad and mike

while the others went out exploring and watching the kite-flyers, our little family went back to the picnic site and dozed. well, the kids wouldn't really let us doze, but we rested just the same. and for real, i can not for the life of me figure out who took this picture.

we celebrated abbey's 23rd birthday, as we always do at the lighthouse and pat made a delicious cake. it was a pretty sweet day. and the fact that we had little-to-no child meltdowns made the day that much sweeter.

we headed back to the cabin and landon and emi ruth partook in a goodwin family tradition that their cousins, their mom, their aunts and many other relatives have all done at some point in their lives. a bath in a cooking pot.

and after being up since 6:30 and getting to bed around 11:00, the day felt long and full. i laid down and thought to myself, "i can't believe i have 8 more days like this."