Lobstah & Lighthouses - Our Family Vacation to Maine, pt. 2

We weren't exactly sure how best to use our second day in Maine. Luckily, James' Uncle John recommended we take a road trip down to Rockland. It's a beautiful area with nice restaurants, etc. But more importantly, they have a really cool museum with old cars and airplanes, and there's a nearby lighthouse that you can hike right up to! So - we climbed back into the car and made our way to the coast to explore the Owl's Head Transportation Museum!

It seemed like a pretty random, out-of-the-way place so we were skeptical about the place at first. But it's a really great museum. They got my vote immediately because they had a changing table in the bathroom, and a nice bench over by a large toy train table where I was able to sit and feed Audrey and keep Kaden occupied at the same time! (The travel priorities of a nursing mom... haha.)

 They had several beautifully restored old cars and airplanes to look at. You could even climb up inside of a couple of them! For some reason Kaden had no interest in climbing up inside this old 1925 Ford, but Audrey got her first driving lesson from daddy that day.

Tiny hands on the wheel

Daddy's favorite car in the collection

Model of the original Wright Flier

Kaden's favorite display. This should surprise no one.

Out behind the museum they have a couple of garages where you can watch them working on the vehicles. In the airplane shed, one of the employees let Kaden climb inside this kid-sized little plane. Too cute!

After the museum, we drove out to the tip of the Owl's Head peninsula and hiked up to see the lighthouse. It only took about 5-10 minutes to get out there, but somehow in that short span between the car and our destination, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and the wind really picked up. We were unprepared for that, and so Kaden ended up wearing daddy's beanie, and we were not able to stay as long as I would have liked. That's ok - we still got some beautiful photos and saw some pretty sights!

Kaden and I climbed the extensive steps to the lighthouse while daddy stayed below with a sleeping Audrey. This picture may be my favorite one from the trip. Love that boy!

View from the top

 By the time we returned to the car, it was getting late and we were all a little tired and hangry. Luckily, we found a great restaurant right there in Rockland called The Landings.
It's a seafood restaurant with a beautiful view of the water. (I got steak.) We loved the fact that their kid's menu was taped inside the front cover of a cute children's book about a puffin. That gave our cranky toddler something to do while he waited for his grilled cheese. We were all smiles by the end of the meal.

 I needed to nurse Audrey and give her her evening bottle before we drove home, so daddy took Kaden for a 20 minute walk out on the nearby pier. Kaden couldn't get enough of the windmills across the water. The photo below is HIS favorite picture from the trip and he still requests to see it often. That boy loves anything tall and tower-like!

After that, we made the hour and a half drive back to our hotel in Waterville and were all happy to collapse in bed. It had been a long but fun day full of those things people most enjoy about Maine: history, gorgeous ocean views, light houses, and good seafood. Thanks, Uncle John, for the recommendation!

Lobstah & Lighthouses - Our Family Vacation in Maine, pt. 1

One of the big attractions for moving to the East Coast in James' mind was the (relative) ease with which we'd be able to visit his family in Maine. He was born there, and still has grandparents and an uncle who live there. But due to our Air Force assignments keeping us in the western half of the world, we have not been able to visit them since we started dating 10 years ago! Travel priority #1 after arriving in South Carolina has been to make a trip up there. But unfortunately James' work schedule has not allowed him to take any vacation time until a couple weeks ago. You can be sure that once his leave was on the books for mid-May, we immediately booked our New England get-away!

We weren't sure how the traveling would go with our new family of four, but the kids did great! Kaden loved looking out the window on our road trip up to the Charlotte, and had a ball exploring the airport and watching the airplanes through the big glass windows. Audrey was a trooper on her first flight, and we avoided any major melt-downs even though the flight took place right around bed time. One huge bonus is that the winds were with us so we landed about 40 minutes early and managed to put the kids down at a reasonable hour in the hotel. That also meant that it was just light enough to get a great view of the coast  and a few tiny light houses through our airplane window as we landed. What a treat!

Our first view of the rocky coastline of Maine!

Our first full day in Maine was very full. We started off with a visit to the Portland Head Light. It was a gorgeous day and Kaden loved hiking around and looking at everything. Unfortunately, they were working on the actual light house when we visited which spoiled my pictures. I suppose that's the hazard of visiting in the off-peak travel season. They were sprucing it up for the summer tourists.

Curse you, scaffolding! This would have been a perfect shot.

James pointing out another lighthouse across the water. He couldn't get enough!

 Next, we drove up to Freeport and ate lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant called the Tuscan Brick Oven Bistro. You could tell this was the kind of place that would be packed during tourist season but we didn't have to wait for a table and it was relatively quiet. This was about the time we realized how perfect the timing of our trip was. Lots of traffic and waiting in lines everywhere would have been miserable with small kids!

After lunch, we walked around the L.L. Bean Flagship Store. In addition to their great outdoor gear, they had all kinds of interesting things for Kaden to look at. They have a koi pond by the stairs and a large fish tank that you can stand up underneath and look around in (photos later). They also have a large clock chime to watch and listen to in the entryway and fake mountain terrain to climb around on in the shoe department. I did a little shopping while James corralled our increasingly over-tired toddler. But before we'd even seen the full extent of the primary store, it became obvious that Kaden was at his breaking point. (He lay down on the floor and tried to take a nap in the kid's department). So we figured it was time to cut our losses and get back on the road.

Thankfully both kids slept well in the car that afternoon so James and I got to enjoy some peaceful sight-seeing on our drive up to Waterville, where his grandparents live. On the way we drove through the capital city of Augusta and saw where his parents lived and worked at the time he was born. I could not get enough of the beautiful, classic American architecture up there. The entire trip I felt like we'd fallen into a Norman Rockwell painting or something. Truly idyllic.

I also enjoyed reading all the signs and seeing all the restaurants that serve lobster in Maine that otherwise would not. Turns out, if you're hankering for a lobster on a budget you can get it at Arby's! (Blech!)

Late that afternoon we arrived at our destination. We quickly checked into our hotel and then drove over to the Wentzel's farm to spend a little time getting acquainted with Great Grandpa Phil, Great Grandma Mary, and Great Uncle John. They were kind enough to grill up some burgers for dinner and entertained our strung-out toddler by taking him out to look for frogs by the pond. It was a challenge keeping his little fingers off of all the interesting things in their house, but thankfully he took a liking to them quickly and felt comfortable around them by the end of the night. It was sweet seeing them all delight in little Audrey as well. It was clear after just that first brief visit that we were in for a fun week.

Audrey 3 Month Update

Wow! I feel like time is flying by and little Miss Audrey is growing and developing very rapidly. She is noticeably bigger this month. She's nearly outgrown her 0-3 month clothes and is putting on a healthy amount of baby fat. She now has multiple thigh rolls!

She continues to demonstrate how strong she is. She can sit straight up with minimal help from us, and can fully support her weight when we help her stand up. This is her new favorite way to view the world, and she gets very frustrated with us when we try to cradle her in the crook of our arm like a baby. She's also very motivated to move. She can already roll over from front to back and back to front, she can get up on her knees during tummy time and kicks her legs so hard that she can move a great distance around on the floor when she's fed up with lying on her belly.

She moved that whole way in under 3 minutes!

She's also developed a much greater interested in toys and is rapidly gaining control over her fingers and toes. She's gotten very good at reaching for and manipulating toys, blankets, and anything else she can get her hands on. I have to be careful about this because she will scoop anything up and stick it right in her mouth if she can. But for the most part, it's great because I know I can set her down on her play mat or give her a toy while sitting in her rock-and-play and it will keep her entertained for several minutes. The bad thing about pulling out all of these baby toys is that Kaden wants to play with them. He's learning to share, though.

My hair will be chopped very soon because she loves to use it as a hand-hold

She's definitely smiling a lot more these days. She will light up and make sweet faces for anyone who engages with her. (Our tall and dapper pediatrician told us we were in trouble after her 2 month check up because she was flirting up a storm!) She also coo's quite a bit and tries to "razz" when being silly. She's mastered the "N" syllable and we hear it quite a bit when she's upset. She'll protest with a loud chorus of "Nee-nee-nee-nee!" or let me know she's hungry or tired by whining, "Ah-nee, ah-nee!"

 Sleep has been off and on this month. There are days when she sleeps great, and others where she gets me up multiple times a night and chooses not to nap well. She has slept through the night multiple times, but that is certainly not the norm. One part of the problem is that her acid reflux continues to worsen. I've had to stop eating most acidic foods because I notice it makes her spit up a lot more. If I have even a tiny bit of raw onion in a salad or dip, she turns into a fountain of ick for the rest of the day. She often wakes up 10-20 minutes after falling asleep by spitting up in her sleep and then can't settle back down because she gets the hiccups. It's miserable, especially since Daddy was TDY in Las Vegas for four whole weeks and Mommy had to manage both kiddos all alone with minimal sleep.

Looking so sweet and innocent after spitting up all over herself and blowing out of her diaper. I might as well just keep her naked all day because we go through so many outfits every day. And SO. MUCH. STAIN REMOVER.

We were all very glad when daddy came home!

 My final note for month three is that we've had a lot of new experiences. We're introducing her to new things - new toys, books, environments. We got down and tried putting her feet in the grass out back. (She seemed indifferent). She also had her first plane ride up to Maine for a family vacation. (In-depth posts about that trip coming soon!) Over all, I'd say that she is much more open to new things than Kaden was and doesn't immediately flip out when we set her down in the grass or water, etc. However, she is much less flexible in the big things. Kaden is rarely phased by moving, traveling, jet lag, people coming and going, nap time shifts and schedule adjustments... But Audrey seems to thrive on structure and routine and if we deviate from that even a little bit, it takes a long time and a lot of work to get her back on track. Particularly with her sleeping. This will make our AF lifestyle interesting moving forward...

Audrey continues to be a joy. Even if she keeps me up all night, I love waking up to see her bright smile greeting me from inside her crib. For the most part she is a very easy baby and I am so thankful for her!