Awesome Vacation

We are home again. We had such a wonderful time on vacation that it has been very hard to come home. The three weeks we spent in Maine were jam packed with fun, family and lots more!

The first week we visited with both my side of the family, The Young's, and also with Todd's family. We spent time with both sets of grandparents and even one Great Gramma who flew in from Arizona. We ate lobster and clams at Doug's and Heidi's house in Gray, Maine (about 45 minutes south of where Kara grew up). Todd's Aunt Sheila and Uncle Buster were there visiting from Colorado and had brought a couple of friends. That was a bunch of fun! George and Linda Young, my parents, and Juli Dubuc, my sister, tagged along for the evening. The kids had a blast jumping on Uncle Doug's trampoline and messing around with everyone.

The lobster didn't stop there! We had lobster again at Juli's and Scott's house later in the week! Yum! We also spent time 4-wheeling, and swimming.

The first weekend there we were busy with, my High School friend, Kristina's wedding. We attended the rehearsal dinner in the soaking wet yard where it would be held. We sloshed around in the puddles in the grass for about 20 minutes before we headed to the dinner. At the dinner, TJ spent much time catching itty bitty tiny frogs with the girls who were there. :) It was rainy and wet, but it was fun no less.

Then on Saturday the wedding took place. Todd and I were playing photographers. It was fun, but it also reminded me why I hate doing weddings!!! They are so fast paced and crazy. Again we got to slosh around in mud holes for the most part! I am so glad I went casual.

We were able to attend church with my parents twice this trip, which wouldn't have happened if Todd had worked the Friday before. So, on August 2nd a group of us who were youth together sang in Sacrament meeting. It was the first time in about 15 years since we had sung together...and sung that song in particular. I kept thinking, while we were practicing that I sounded totally off key. Well then I realized that our YW leader at the time had changed the song to fit our abilities as a group. So, I wasn't really messed up! I ended up doing the "soprano" part. I haven't sung that high in a while, and it wasn't really that high. It was a good alto part! Anyway, the song is called, "Warriors of Light". So, I got through it to the end...and then I cried. So fun to sing together again. Granted it was only a handful of us, but it was still awesome. We had myself, Juli, Darcy, Shannon, DeeDee and we asked Ashley Paine to help on soprano. It was neat. ...Memories!...

We spent a weekend at Doug's and Heidi's home, where Todd's parents are staying for the summer. We went swimming, played video games, ate smores, jumped on the trampoline, sang songs while Doug played the guitar, and so much more.

We were also able to attend Todd's parent's branch. We were amazed at how few faces we knew this time. It has changed a lot. The sunday school class was awesome. It was a great experience.

Okay, so we then spent more time 4-wheeling, swimming, playing video games, fishing with Papa, and shopping! Alex caught the most awesome bass. It was about 14 inches...I think! Ask my Dad, he knows! We ate that bass too. It was so yummy! So we went on many adventures. We went shopping at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport. We went to the ocean...Doug and Heidi came along too. Doug went fishing. We "walked the rocks". Then we all went swimming on the beach. We learned a valuable lesson too. Don't wear a two piece if you want to ride the waves!!

We then raced to our favorite shopping place on Bailey Island and got there just before they closed. It's a fun shop at the end of the island, right on the ocean. To get there we had to cross the Cribstone bridge which is a famous bridge. My Great Grandfather helped build the bridge. It was made out of huge cobble stones. Really neat!

TJ got the chance to take pictures with Papa's digital camera. He took him out into the woods like he used to do with my when I was young, and he showed him nature to take pictures of. Then they uploaded them to the computer and TJ learned how to use Photoshop to edit his pictures, which he then printed out and put into a "portfolio".

We went to the movies to see "G-Force" with a lot of family and even more friends! It was fun. We took up about 5 or 6 rows in the theater.

Mom, Juli and a friend of my Mom's, Sue, all went to North Conway, New Hampshire to go shopping. That was a fun day!

Todd and I went on a double date with Scott and Juli and then later we went on a triple date with Gus and Darcy, and Scott and Juli. We also celebrated Juli's birthday early with an evening of Mexican food (Juli's choice) and chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, a family tradition!

I am sure I have missed something that we did. We had so much fun. We got to see a lot of friends and then there were some whom we still weren't able to see. It's crazy how busy vacations can get. To those whom we didn't get to see, we apologize, and hope to see you next time. I am sure this is totally out of order, but you get the idea! We had fun! Glad to be home, but miss Maine and family so much.