Cute little mug

Josh enjoyed his noodles today.

New routine

It's a little strange to have all the kids in school and have complete one on one time with baby. 

We're getting into our new groove.  We take a morning walk/jog as long as it's not raining.  The leaves are just starting to turn.  It is my favorite time of year here. 

I will miss the New England autumn.

Yom Kippur

Today there is no school because it is Yom Kippur.  I thought about driving a few hours to Block Island, but the ferries are only open on weekends now.  I thought about heading into the city for the day, but my baby is still sick and cranky and I didn't want to take the train with him for an hour each way.  Soooo, we stayed here and did not much of anything.  Sawyer and Hayden played video games.  McKinley watched cartoons and made me start making her Halloween costume.  She wants to be a Greek Goddess from her Goddess Girls books.  I am making her a dress, yipes!  Once baby woke up from his nap I made everyone go outside for a bike ride.  It took a while to get it together because of the flat bike tires and the one wailing whiney child who didn't want to go outside.  When we finally got him out the door with shoes on he ended up falling off his bike.  In between his sobbing he told me "I told you I didn't want to go for a bike ride!"  He wanted to walk his bike the rest of the way back home (about 1.75 miles), but I made him get back on his bike.  We got to cruise down the hill at an overly cautious speed of about 0.25 miles an hour.  Arrrgh!

We ended the night with indoor football while I made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner, because that's what we eat for dinner when daddy's out of town for the week.

Another power outage

Last night a storm system came through with tornado watches.  Luckily we just got a lot of rain and no tornados.  Unfortunately our power went out for almost 24 hours. 

I sure won't miss that about Connecticut.  It's time to bury these stinking power lines.

Sleeping like a baby

Josh missed his afternoon nap to catch Sawyer's football game on Saturday.  We had to use his front-facing car seat in the truck, so got to see his eyelids get heavier and heavier.  I love watching sleeping children.  He is precious!

Fall Flag Football

We were out of town last week, so Sawyer broke into his fall flag football this weekend.  He is on the orange team again...he wanted to be blue.  This game was played on the high school turf.  It was fun to watch.  It looked like a miniature real football game.

Good thing it is flag football, because there is already a lot of pushing and blocking.  The other team even got a penalty for tackling orange too much.  Oops.

Sawyer is excited to play tackle next year!

11 months

Today Joshua is 11 months old.  One more month before his first year is complete!

At 11 months:

He still has 8 teeth.

He loves to crawl.

He loves to grab-hold our fingers so we can lead him around and walk him.

Loves to eat whatever we are eating.

Is trying to say hi to people to greet them.  It comes out as an "Ah", but you can see the little wheels turning in his head...says his mother.

His hair is lighter still, like McKinley's, but we've noticed an auburn tinge to it.

Has a favorite blanky-his white fuzzy one.

Likes to squnch his nose up and snuffle out. 

Is completely adored by his brothers and sister, and parents.

Happy 11 months old Joshua!

Our last day on PEI.

This was the view off the back deck of the beach house.  Today all the storms are gone.  It would be the perfect beach day.  Sigh.  I'm so glad I got to visit Prince Edward Island.  If it wasn't so blasted far away I could spend every summer there.

On the way to the Confederation bridge we stopped at Victoria on the south shore of the island to see more red cliffs and beaches.  I got my first lobster roll at the Lobster Barn pub and eatery on the wharf in Victoria.  It was delicious.  And that is from a girl who is now a seafood fan.

After an obscene $44 toll to leave PEI on their bridge, we drove straight through to Bangor for an overnight rest.

In the morning we drove from Bangor back to Connecticut.  Thank heavens we had books on tape.  We listened to the first three Gregor the Overlander books.  There were no major car traveling mishaps.  It was a roadtrip miracle.

I think the kids would say their favorite part of the trip was the beaches (when I let them go in) and the sea glass.

Green Gables Shore

On the north center shore (Green Gables Shore) of the island is the Cavendish.  This is where the Green Gables home is that Lucy Maud Montgomery based her book on.

Tidbits: Lucy's mother got Tuberculosis and died when Lucy was 21 months old.  Her father couldn't take care of her, so her grandparents (the MacNeills) did.  Her cousins lived in the "Green Gables" house, and inspired the home in her book.  She loved Cavendish and it broke her heart to eventually leave.  Her Anne book was rejected 4 times, and when she came back to it long after and tried one more time it was published.  She married when she was 31.  Her husband was a pastor.  They lived apart engaged for about 5 years.  Lucy's grandfather had died and he knew she couldn't leave her grandmother alone, so he waited.  They finally married and left the island after her grandmother's death. 

The recreated Green Gables of Lucy's childhood.  I thought it was the same house as the movie, but once I got over the mild disappointment that they were not the same, it was fun to see, and it was more authentic.

This Green Gables also had a "haunted wood" and a "lover's lane".  Here are the kids on the Lover's Lane trail.

I'll spare this post the rest of the pictures, just know I took nearly 1000 pictures on our 8 days trip.

We did not go to Avonlea village.  It's a little village they built that you pay $19 a person to go to and stroll through as if it was Avonlea.  There are actors to play the parts of Anne and everyone in Avonlea. 

None of us were fanatic enough enough to pay the money, so we didn't go, and I don't regret it.

Next we went to Prince Edward Island National Park Cavendish.  Luckily tourist season is over and we didn't have to pay to enter.  Immediately upon entering we were greeted by a family of 4-5 foxes.  Despite the signs not to feed the animals, it was obvious by their beggar behavior that many people do.

This one was right by my window staring at me.  I got nervous that he might jump in my window, so I rolled it up until he left.

Red sand cliffs and beaches of PEI.

 The dunes.

 An old lobster trap.  I wonder if it was planted there.  It kind of looks too perfectly quaint to be coincidence.  But then again, most of the island was perfectly quaint.

 My little Anne.  Just kidding.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthplace house.  We snapped a picture and kept driving.

We were headed to a lighthouse on Cape Tryon.  We traveled many of these red roads on the island.

Cape Tryon lighthouse on Green Gables Shore.

The lighthouse overlooks the red cliffs.

Now THIS lighthouse just east of the Cape Tryon lighthouse WAS on the Anne of Green Gables movies.  I was glad we found it! 

Kent was a good sport to indulge my PEI dream.

Colorful fishing wharf off Hoffsteter's viewpoint.

It was a good Anne day.  And I didn't pick up one cheesy Anne souvenir!

The Island

There is a little seal that makes it's way into the harbor early in the morning.  A few of us woke up at 6:30 to catch a glimpse.  We saw it's little head bobbing in the bay, but he must be very shy, because he disappeared when he saw us on the beach.

We walked the beach and watched the sunrise on the island.

The land was covered in long waving beach grass, towering evergreens, with juts of flaming red cliffs.

Walking along the beach line we found sea glass!  It was magical.  We gathered handfulls over the course of our stay.

See the little see glass among the rocks? 

We're going to make little necklaces at home to remember our visit to PEI.

The weather was so peaceful in the early sunrise, but soon the outskirts of hurricanes touched the island and the storminess moved in.  We drove around to a few different places today, instead of playing on the beaches all day.

This light house was on the East Point.

The kids don't love the lighthouses as much as I do, but they were happy to get out of the car and run around on the grass.

The lighthouse at Naufrage

More red cliffs

St. Peter's harbour lighthouse.  It was charmingly rustic and run down.

It's surrounded by the most perfect dunes and sandy beaches.  But it was drizzling and soggy.  I got at least 4 mosquito bites while I was out of the car taking pictures.  It would be a perfect beach on a sunny day.

A soggy day on the island though is still a great day.

Bienvenue!

On Friday we crossed the border to Canada.  Kent bought me some ketchup potato chips.  Yum!  We slept over in a hotel in St. John.  We didn't see much there except fog.

Saturday we drove the rest of the way to Prince Edward Island!

We stayed in a house on Howe Bay which is on the Points East Coast of PEI.

There was a little bay that was just outside our beach house and down the stairs.  It had a lot of shallow sandbars at low tide, and was very calm...perfect for kids! 

The weather was nice, the water was warm, and the kids went straight to the water.

Our crawler wanted to explore things too.

Don't worry it's just the sea grass all washed up on shore that his holding.

There was a canoe and kayak to use at the house too.  Grandpa took the older 3 out on the boat.  I'm sure he had a lot of "help".

When it got dark we hurried in to the nearby town of Souris.  The grocery stores were closed, but we found a local eatery to get some dinner.  Sawyer gobbled some fish and chips, while I ate the native Poutine of Canada.  It was really good.  (Poutine=french fries+cheese curds+gravy)

Acadia National Park

We slept in a little this morning since my parents ended up having to fly into Boston and drive up to Bangor at midnight!  Once they were a little rested we visited Acadia National Park (even though their luggage hadn't come with them).

First stop, Sand Beach.  I didn't think there would be beaches to play on, so the kids didn't have swimsuits again.  They did pretty well this time...no face plants.

We drove on the park loop and got out at the stops we wanted to view. 

We hiked around on rocky shores  

and watched the waves crash.

We squished our toes in the sand

and gazed into the ocean.

It's a beautiful world.