summer vacation

As usual, vacation at Sandi's family camp at  Schoodic was utterly amazing. 

I was sorting through the (688) pictures for this post and decided I wasn't even going to try to be frugal with the photos.  So here ya go:

(And no worries...I have a whole post coming that is only the dock-jumping pics...)

The deck at camp- one of my personal favorite places on the planet:

Vacation at camp is full of fun, sun, relaxation, socializing, family time, yummy food and the ability to share time between kayaking, deck sitting, swimming, reading and constructing architecture out of sand.

 At one point Sandi said to me, "I don't know if I should suncreen now and wait for it to absorb before I go in the lake or go in the lake now and then dry off again before I sunscreen."  If these are your problems you're doing okay. 

Some muchly needed and well-deserved R and R:

It was fun to have the kids be a little more independent this year.  Without the constant fear that someone might stumble and drown in 2 feet of water, it opened up a world of possibilities.  For example, solo kayaking:

As she lugged it to the beach, she said, "This is a lot of work."  I keep telling her almost everything truly worth doing requires some work.  I'm pretty sure she's hoping to prove me wrong.

























Who couldn't see this coming?

My favorite part of the day at camp is the morning.  Actually, I love the hot mid-day laying on the deck and reading too.  Plus, I love the evening when the wind dies down but before the mosquitoes are swarming when I can put on a sweatshirt and read in the waning light.  Okay, I love it all.

I was excited to have a week without 4:30 wake-ups.  But after the first morning of sleeping until 7 and then going running on the dirt roads of the blueberry barrens, I found I had missed my favorite part (among others) of the day.  So the next day I set my alarm and actually got up before it went off and was back before my family was on the beach.  Perfect.  I got up successively earlier each day so I could run further (and sometimes even just walk and listen to my book on my ipod- seriously luxury) without the heat on the shadeless roads and still get to enjoy the calm mornings. 

I've found rising early has become less of a punishment and more of a gift.

Early morning toss:

Having our friends and family come out to spend time with us is one of the other really fun parts about being at camp.  And have I mentioned we have the BEST friends and family?

Ange, wearing Beckett's swim toy as a sombrero:

Sam, Reed and Skyler in the blow up boat Sam rescued from the swap shelves at the dump (you heard me right), bringing enormous joy to the kids.

And by the kids, I mean Matt:

It wouldn't be a day at camp with Reed if he didn't need some form of water rescue at some point.  Last year he nearly sank a toy wooden boat as he paddled furiously and took on more and more water.  This year it was merely a lost paddle.

I think he is about to abandon his vessel and swim for home here.

What fun we have.

I would so love to know what these two are discussing:

Ella and Brady, out kayaking together.  (Future save-the-date fridge magnet engagement announcement photo.)

My mom being read to by Ella at  breakfast.  My mom is big on literacy (I grew up and still am a book worm) and she was laughing at all the right places as Ella read her Junie B. Jones has a monster under her bed.

Grampy (Sandi's dad) lugging all four of his grandkids:

Our makeshift bathtub for cleaning the grim, sand and suncreen at the end of the day.

The kids all wanted to try their hand at surfing:

Schoodic can be a frustratingly active place at night.  Normally when we are there it is fairly quiet during the week with a fair amount of noise into the night on the weekend.  But this year, with it being Fourth of July week, there was noise every night.  We usually have our vacation week in early August but we had to abide by Sandi's school vacation schedule so this was our week. 

But with some good ear plugs and some letting go, we were able to embrace the night life.




Harvest moon rising:

And even some fireworks.

Love these girls.

Date night-vacation style:

It is honestly really painful to leave Schoodic.  I feel like a child saying goodbye to summer.   The girls and I have a lot of summer to enjoy, but Sandi is hard at work again, barely able to pick her head up to notice the spectacular summer day outside.  We are hoping to go back for two more weekends this summer.

I know it isn't right in any way to complain about a vacation as good as this one.  I know I shouldn't tell you that we normally go for ten days and this year we only got to go for seven and one of those days was spent entirely away from camp for the Fourth of July parades (much, much more on that later).  I won't tell you that I did actually cry when we pulled out on a still beautiful summer evening at the lake and that it hurt to wake up the first night home to think I was at camp only to realize I wasn't.

No.  Instead I will tell you how lucky we are to be able to spend a week at Schoodic.  That even just having Sandi traveling in the car with us felt like a gift and that we are beyond fortunate for the time, the place and the people to share it with.

Indeed, Schoodic always leaves me happy, fullfilled, relaxed and wanting more.