Tara's visit to Maine: Day One

Oh yes, I do mean Tara (Corcoran) Tjarneberg.  In Maine.  Right now.  

However, we should start with Noah - today was his last day at the Chapel program so he "graduated" from his day care.  He'll start back up at Montessori for year two in a couple of weeks.  Here he is in his graduation cap down by the river where he met some old friends (Karsen and Katie) and met some new ones (Peter and Jack).  Fortunately Jack gathered up Noah's Crocs, which were left in the neighbor's yard....

So nice to see Tara and her kids and an added treat to meet Steve and his children Peter and Jack.

Noah down by the river in his Graduation Cap

 The kids played in the yard while we caught up a little bit on the back porch.  Later, we all went down to the river to see what the kids were up to.

Steve and Tara

 Somehow Katie lost her flip flops in the river!  One was easily retrieved, but Karsen had to rescue the second one - it had been carried down river a bit.  The rest of the kids sort of coached him and cheered him on as he saved the day.

Karsen rescues the lost flip flop from the river

Jack, Karsen, Tara, Steve, Peter with Katie and Noah in front

Katie and Eli

 Right before this photo, the boys were upstairs watching Katie and Eli.  They got the biggest laugh from watching baby Eli spit up on Katie's shoulder!

We packed up the crew and then headed to Orono  - first for a brew at Bear Brew Pub, then dinner at Pat's.  Tara had been waiting for a Pat's pizza for what?  5 years?  And Pat's delivered.  Yum.. just like old times (except this time with children !) 

Eli and Auntie Tara!

Jen and Cameron Tower join the bunch right outside of Bear Brew

We all head down to Pat's for dinner.  

Mark and Lisa join us downstairs at Pats

A visit with an old friend on the Starship Enterprise

It's almost too much for a girl to take.  A visit with a dear friend from high school PLUS Diver Ed.  So much good stuff going on.

Facebook can be downright creepy at times (maybe sometime I'll write about all of the conversations I have had with students about what NOT to say/do on facebook) but I have to say that staying in contact with old friends is the jewel in the crown. 

At Orono High School, I could count on my friend Doug Bost to see the world in a slightly different way.  We were bringing wacky Woody Allen one-act plays to life while friends in my other worlds were listening to Whitesnake and anticipating chem-free dances at the Bounty Taverne.  

His yearbook message to me was written like a screenplay.  It had stage directions, if I remember correctly.  He had one foot in Orono, Maine and another in Washington Square Park.  

And he is in NYC today - a real life Ad Man.  (I'm a little obsessed with Mad Men so I'm still processing the coolness of this) I am so psyched that I got to see him, meet his wife Carolyn and little girl Acadia.  Acadia was born on December 28th, 2007  -  just a few weeks before Noah.  Two wonderful four-and-a-half year olds with willful wild personalities!  What could be better?

Well, maybe add those wonderful four 1/2 year olds to a boat called the Starship Enterprise.  Diver Ed is fantastically cool.  He's a scallop diver in the winter, and primo entertainer in the summer.  He squeezes himself into a dive suit

and then heads to the ocean floor to see what he can find.  That day, we met sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, flounder, lobster, crab, shrimp and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  The kids had a ball checking it all out. 

The Bost Family on the Starship Enterprise

Diver Ed shows Noah a scallop

And then we head to Mount Desert Island Ice Cream .  I mean, President Obama "strongly recommends it," so it behooves me to stop by and get a cone.  Today, I had salt butterscotch in a pretzel cone.  Oh my. 

The kids ran around in the park and Doug, Carolyn, Lisa and I chatted about everything from babies to  farming and back to elementary schools.

Acadia sitting quietly on the monument; Noah running around like a looney. 

Eli says hello 

Yoga kids

A moment when all the stars aligned. 

We are lucky people.  Here's to a great day in Maine and old friends.

Faith, Eli, Doug and Carolyn 

When an excavator comes down the street....

.....all things in the house come to a halt.  Noah rushes out the door - first in only in the shorts and bare feet he woke up with, then his Momma insists on some shoes and a raincoat because it is raining.

Our neighbor is putting in a new driveway.  Noah watched as each bucket of old pavement was loaded into the dump trucks and hauled away....I had to hold him back from introducing himself to the men who were working.  He insisted that he could be helpful.

A weekend at camp

So Friday we headed out of town early to spend the weekend at camp.  Gene was working Friday and Saturday nights, so the boys and I packed the van and hit the road. ..

We are at camp!  Headed down to the beach ....

Noah is all about finding buried treasure these days.  He brings along a shovel where ever we go...

 On Friday evening, Noah had watched some video footage on the local access channel about boat rides on the steam ferry Patience and just couldn't wait to ride on the boat.  I got him all psyched up, loaded the car and provisions, drove to Thompson's Wharf, and ---
no boat rides on Saturday.
So, we had to improvise.  And quickly.  Noah was beside himself with misery and longing of what could have been.
We headed to the train.  Noah instantly brightened and said, "See, Momma, I knew we would ride on something." Crises averted.

Noah checking out the hand brake on the caboose

He's got his ticket & engineer's cap. 

The conductor punching the ticket but Mom didn't really get the punching in the photo.   Just the surprised conductor.

After the train, we went back to camp for lunch.  While I was feeding Eli some rice cereal and squash, Noah continued digging around the yard for pirate's treasure.  

 
And then he shouted, "MOMMMA!  I found it!  I found pirate's treasure!  I KNEW I would find it if I kept looking!"

Mark, stop reading right here.

So what he found was pirate's treasure called styrofoam insulation.  He had dug around the garage and found the insulation that our contractor put around the foundation.  We put it back, and I explained that this treasure needs to stay buried in the ground to help the garage stay dry.

Buried treasure! 

 After Noah's lunch, he played with Eli in our $25 Target tent.  Noah would cover his face and body with the blanket and play peek-a-boo with Eli.  Eli loved it up and gave us lots of good baby laughs.

At dinner time, we packed up again and went to Young's.  Noah is in lobster heaven.  I couldn't help but notice all the other little kids there with McDonald's or pizza that their parents brought in.  Not Noah. $13.95 dollar bowl of lobster stew, please.
He ate it all up, though.  Can't blame him.

Oh yeah.  A bowl of Lobster Stew at Young's Lobster Pound. These days  it's  Noah's favorite meal.  

 Sunday morning after a couple of episodes of Phineas and Ferb, we hit the trails at Moose Point State Park.  Noah loves to push the stroller & hiking on the trails. He doesn't like to get too far away from civilization, though.  Afraid we are going to get lost.  Next time I need to bring a map - he's really into the maps these days (he could use a few to find buried treasure!) and he didn't quite believe me when I told him that the trail WOULD get us back to the car.

Pushing Eli down the Spruce Trail at Moose Point State Park

After lunch, we packed up and met Papa back at home for dinner.  Got lots of lettuce, green beans, peas, kale, garlic, and basil in the garden.

Noah and Eli + Kira and Kedrik= lots of fun

OK.  I'm still catching up a little bit, but had to share these photos and a couple of stories.  Erin went to a wedding on July 30th, and I got to spend the evening with Kira and Kedrik!  What a treat.  Noah was psyched to play with Kira again - the last time they hung out was at Kedrik's baby shower!  

One of my favorite photos of the summer.  

We are lucky to have a playground in our front yard, so we took the gang over to the Stillwater Montessori School to climb, swing and teeter-totter.  Eli was on my back, so he didn't make it into these photos.  Kedrik was in the stroller.

This is Noah's "I'm sharing but it's realllly hard" look

So right after the sandbox we all went up to the back porch to our little pool.  The water was clean and warm, so all the kids took off their sandy clothes and splashed around a little bit.  (also provided a nice segue into jammies) One of my favorite memories is when we spotted a deer way at the other end of the yard down by the brush pile.  Kira wanted to say hello so she bolted from the pool - completely naked- and ran after the deer to say hello!  Wish I had my camera for that one.  She came right back when she realized that the deer wasn't going to stick around.

Kira also was super psyched to wear Noah's crocs  - they were a little too big for her, but those were the shoes for Kira that evening.

Kira is willful, independent and curious (sounds a little like her Mama? :)  It was a treat to spend some time getting to know her & Kedrik.  That night, Kedrik, Eli and Noah all fell asleep (Eli in his crib and Noah and Kedrik on the inflatable mattress in my room) but Kira was too curious/excited/intrigued to fall asleep.  We read books (Goodnight Maine, A Visitor for Bear, Goodnight, Sweet Butterflies), snuggled, and talked until Erin arrived.  <3

Auntie Dawn and the hot black tractor

Welcome to Maine, Auntie Dawn!

Eli, Gene, Dawn and Noah outside of the house

Dawn came to have dinner with us on Thursday - so we packed up and headed to Bear Brew Pub in downtown Orono.  Noah likes to sit on the upstairs deck and check out all the happenings in the big parking lot below.

Gene had a Black Bear ale and I had a Shock Top wheat ale - and we shared The County pizza.  The County- white sauce, mozzarella, roasted garlic, roasted red potato, green onion and bacon.  Yum!

At one point, Noah grabbed my camera and took some photos - this one is really interesting:

Just a interesting perspective that I haven't caught with a camera.  LOVE that little Eli belly button.

We had a great time catching up with Dawn.  Hope to catch up with her in her new (ish) home in Sun City Center, FL.  She asked us about going to the parks, but probably not for another couple of years with the boys.  I want them to be old enough to really enjoy it.  Now warm weather in the winter/early spring?  THAT is something we ALL can enjoy.

After dinner, Noah took Auntie Dawn on a tour of Whitter Farm (a.k.a. "Noah's Farm") on our way back to the house.  Earlier that day, Farmer Mark was cutting hay right in back of Chapel (Noah's daycare preschool on campus) with the "hot black tractor."  Have I told the story of the hot black tractor?  Noah watches the fields around campus very carefully and knows that there are two tractors that are generally used - the black one and the blue one.  One day when Papa took Noah out to the field to talk with Jake, they impressed upon Noah that we don't touch a tractor when it is running - the engine makes it VERY HOT. (One time Noah touched our mower right after Gene was done mowing and the engine was still hot)

Since then, UM's farm tractors are the "hot blue tractor" and the "hot black tractor."

Back to Thursday morning:  Noah was saying goodbye to me and then heard the tractor coming down the street.  He quickly alerted the teachers and his classmates who then ran to the window shouting "The hot black tractor is here from Noah's Farm!!!!!!"

Noah's farm?
:)