Ben
Wade and I were having a conversation and used the phrase “it snowballed.” Kaitlyn heard this and got a grand idea. She pulled out our “snowballs” and orchestrated a snowball fight with Ben. They had the best time until she had to leave for cheer practice. In fact she was rather annoyed she had to leave.
Our Saturdays are once again consumed with activities. I dropped Kaitlyn off for a 2 hour cheer practice at 8 am. Then I took Ben to his soccer at 9. He loved it this year!
We had just a little bit of down time before I had to drive Kaitlyn to cheer at an away football game.
We left a little early so that we could drive to her away soccer game. Her team lost but played a great game. Kaitlyn played goalie the second half and loved that position.
Because we hadn’t been in the car enough for the day, we left the soccer game and drove another hour to pick Wade up in CT where he was dropping his little truck for a week of TLC.
After our recent hiking adventures, Wade and I both thought Kaitlyn would love rock climbing. We decided today to take the family. We searched the barn and found our old climbing gear. (It required a little dusting off, but it still fit.) Then we set out out and had four interested kids – which is a rarity. We got there and filled out a ton of forms, had a quick belay course, and we were off. Everyone loved it! Kaitlyn and Teague were naturals. Ben loved climbing but didn’t make it to the top till we were about ready to leave. Alex enjoyed it but never wanted to be very far from the ground. I think bouldering is probably more something he would love.
Kaitlyn and Wade spent the weekend cleaning and organizing the barn. She was intrigued with the go-kart so Wade decided to fix it for her. She loves it and Ben couldn’t wait to drive. We finally agreed to teach him and he did pretty well (only running over small bushes and hitting the house once). Teague even got on for old times sake.
For the first time, all four Burch children are in full day school. Alex and Teague are in different schools, but they are on the same campus and start within 5 minutes of each other. They also both have to walk (we are too close to justify paying for the bus – which is charged for middle school and high school). After Alex’s awesome big brother ways yesterday, he had quite a different attitude today. Teague asked to walk with Alex this morning and Alex responded with, “You can follow behind me”
Next up was Kaitlyn. Her bus comes about 30 minutes after the boys leave. Thankfully our neighbors ride the same bus so she enjoys the bus ride and has fun waiting for the bus with friends.
Ben is the last to leave and his bus is about 45 minutes after Kaitlyn’s. We have been using the time waiting for the bus to review his sight words.
Our schools have a practice day for kindergarteners. The day before school starts, the buses run their routes and pick up the incoming Kindergarteners at their normal time. The kids go to school, meet their teachers, and spend a little over an hour in the class with the other students. Then the parents go to school to pick them up and meet the parents. It’s a great first introduction to buses and school before adding additional students into the chaos.
Ben was excited for school, but a little nervous to actually get on the bus. Thankfully a teacher was on the bus today and she was great at making him feel immediately comfortable. When I arrived at the school to get Ben, he was playing with some new friends and not ready to leave.
Ben showed up in the kitchen with a piece of paper and lots of questions. Evidently he and Kaitlyn had a little fight and he wanted to write her a note. I was expecting something along the lines of “I am sorry.” Instead he started writing and didn’t stop till he had thirteen words and had used both sides of the paper. I was so impressed.
I was determined to try a new trail on our hike today. The problem was I had forgotten about an ortho appointment for Alex at noon and swim lessons for the littles at 4:30. That made our time available rather short – especially if we needed to travel to the hike. I decided to try it anyway. We drove to Wachusett Mountain and decided on the West Side Trail. I knew we might not have time to reach the top, but decided we would try. We reached the top (I think) and decided not to loop down, but to return our original route.
Kaitlyn once again a mountain goat in the steep rocky areas. She loves them! The trail wasn’t overly hard, but definitely much more challenging than anything we would find in Grafton. Coming down is always much faster, which was good since we were racing the clock. We were a few minutes late to swim lessons, but nobody seemed to mind.
We arranged one last outing for Ben and his preschool friends. The plan was to meet at West End Creamery and enjoy their Adventure Farm for the morning and afternoon. The kids had a blast!
It’s the last week of summer so we tried to squeeze in all the things. Today we had a park playdate with some friends we hadn’t seen in a really long time. We ended up spending hours and hours there. The only downside was I forgot Kaitlyn’s scooter, but thankfully our friends brought two and were happy to share.
Wade’s Father’s Day gift was a trip to the Ecotarium to feed the Otters. We had to reschedule once due to Kaitlyn’s unexpected excursion to sleep away camp, but today was the day! We went to feed the otters – Slydell and Daisy. I’ll admit it was a pretty awesome experience.
Wade and the big boys headed home and I stayed with the littles. They had been wanting to visit the Ecotarium for ages.
Today was our last day in Acadia. We woke up to a chilly, dreary day. We had a slow morning and the kids enjoyed the perks of our house.
I voted for a short hike before our lobster voting adventure and most everyone agreed. (The ones who didn’t were outvoted.)
Then we headed to Bar Harbor and our Lobster Boat tour. I have never been so glad to see a covered boat! Our captain was a character and made the trip very entertaining. I’m sure he had to work much harder than normal due to visability being almost zero, but we still pulled lobsters up from traps, saw some seals, and even a dolphin.
We decided to take it a little easier today. We had breakfast at a local diner. Then we took an easy hike on the Schoodic Peninsula. The big kids were grumpy (because they are teens) but the little kids love all the rock hopping.
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While some of us were still getting ready, Alex, Kaitlyn, and Wade went exploring.
Today we hiked – again! The plan was a loop trail to The Bubble starting from Jordan Pond. The loop around Jordan Pond was a really easy hike and just fun to walk. Then we took the path off towards The Bubble. That’s when things got fun. Fairly quickly things got steep, very steep. We went from hiking to climbing. Kaitlyn immediately took the lead and I couldn’t see her in seconds. We quickly established the rule I just needed to be able to hear her. She never seemed to tire or be bothered by the hike. Alex and I were next. It was definitely one of the harder hikes I have done, but I enjoyed it. I think Alex just wanted to get it over with. Wade was quite a bit behind with Ben and Teague. I wasn’t sure if they would make it to the top with Wade’s knees and toes and Ben’s shorter legs, but they didn’t end up being as far behind us as I anticipated.
We all walked to the “bubble” and tried to push it off. Then we hiked down the other side of the Bubble loop. The difference in the terrain was hilarious. It was such a gentle slope. We finished the Jordan Pond loop and then got a snack before heading back to the car. Everyone was definitely done hiking for the day!
We decided on a seafood dinner. Wade ordered a Lobster Boil so he could try it out. Kaitlyn wanted to try something new and ordered a crab cake. The boys all got hamburgers or hotdogs. I got my favorite – a lobster roll.
Wade and I had planned to make a leisurely drive to Acadia this morning after Teague’s dentist appointment. We were going to take two cars so that Wade could pick up his parents in Bar Harbor, but while Teague was at the dentist, we got word that his parents would no longer be able to join us. We changed our plans a bit and decided on one car.
When we reached Acadia, we decided to go ahead and explore some of the park before finding the house we rented. The kids loved “rock hopping” and visiting Thunder Hole.
We grabbed dinner in Bar Harbor and then drove to Schoodic and our house for the next few days.