South Bubbles

First family hike of the summer!

Battleship Cove

Our first really big Cub Scout adventure! Ben and I joined the Ellsworth Cub Scouts this past year and had a blast. Ben was a Tiger Cub and I volunteered to be the Den Leader. We did alot of fun stuff and learned alot about scouting. The year ended with a bus ride to Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. This is where the USS Massachusetts is drydocked along with a WWII submarine, a Destroyer and a Russian Missile Cruiser. We slept in the berths aboard the Massachusetts and got to explore all the ships. Ben had a great time climbing in the gun turrets and cranking them around. The submarine was very exciting to go inside even if it was a bit cramped. It was a great end to a fun year of scouting. I think we are both looking forward to starting back up in the fall.

Trying out a new hobby

We've done a bit of geocaching since the weather got nice here in downeast Maine. I hope that it turns in to something the kids enjoy. So far, it hasn't been real exciting for them. The first couple of caches we went hunting for were either waterlogged or rusted shut, not much fun for the little ones! Since then, we have found some in better shape, and hopefully we can tie it into some of our camping trips this summer. Ben really likes the exploring part of the challenge but when the caches are in bad shape, the effort feels like it was all for naught. We'll see if we can keep up the interest. I guess my duty is to select good caches!

Visiting our Nation's Capital

So, this is getting posted a bit late, but oh well, that's how it goes. Kathy had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting for the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington D.C. this past April and since it happened to take place during Ben's school vacation, we decided to make a family trip out of it. So we packed the kids in the Exploder, loaded up with plenty of road snacks and stuff to keep the kids busy on the long ride and headed out on the highway. We stopped over in Connecticut at Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Lloyld's house and finished the trip after 2 days of driving. We had a great hotel in Arlington, just across the river from Georgetown. And so, while Kathy got to participate in a great conference, I tooled around the city with the kids for the week! Although it is impossible to see everything in a week, especially with a 7 year old and a 3 year old, we managed to do a ton of stuff and enjoyed it more than I could have imagined. We spent alot of time on the National Mall, playing at a playground that was set up in a tent (a great way to get out of the hot sun and take a break), we visited the Natural History, Air and Space, American History Museums as well as the National Portrait Gallery. We went on a tour of the Capitol Building and Ben and I even got to tour the White House! We walked all over that city and I was continually amazed at how well the kids did. Olivia spent alot of the travelling in the stroller but Ben had to do a ton of walking. He was a real trooper! I've attached a slide show of our photos. Hope you enjoy!

Ice Fishing

Ben has been wanting to go ice fishing for a while now. He's finally old enough that I thought he would be able to handle the cold and potential boredom so we planned a trip with Grampy Snow and on Sunday, Jan. 17, we headed up to Moosehead Lake. I woke Ben up at 5a.m. and got him dressed and into the back seat of the Explorer so we could meet my dad in Newport. I figured he would sleep most of the way, but the excitement was too much and he was awake and talkative for most of the ride. We got to the lake around 8:30 and put on our snowshoes and started walking. At first he didn't seem to keen when he saw how far we had to walk to get to the island where we would set up camp for the day but I kept him going and hoped that he might still have some fun. I didn't have to worry. Before we even got all our traps set, we had our first flag of the day and had pulled up a small brook trout. Ben was hooked for the rest of the day. We continued to get flags and eventually caught 7 fish and kept 4 (2 brook trout and 2 lake trout). The walk out took a bit longer than the walk in but we made it back to the truck around 3:30 and Ben was asleep before we even got back to Greenville. When we got home, he told his mother it was the best day of his life. I don't know why I was so worried that he wouldn't have fun. But I'm glad we went and expect we will get out there again this year, hopefully with an auger next time though!