A Getaway

We took a trip to Maine over the weekend. It was not my favorite trip. There were several unfortunate elements to the trip, such as

 -all our kids were sick

-we hit a bear on the drive down  (After we hit the bear, Steve asked me if I wanted to go back and check on it and The Bairn got upset and told him, "We have to get to our cabinet.  We don't have time to visit bears."  I don't know if he was worried about bears coming out of the woods or if he was really eager to go to the cabin.)

-our cabin looked a bit like this (we were staying at a Quaker camp that allows the teens who usually stay there to write on the walls/ceilings/bunks):

-because E was sick and I was nursing N, I was sleeping on the floor with an open sleeping bag and couldn't figure out how to keep warm at night until the last night

On the bright side,

-our cabin accommodation included a hot breakfast and dinner buffet in the dining hall every night

-we discovered an amazing children's museum

-we love the Common Ground fair and I got the fiddlehead ravioli this time, which I've been waiting to eat again for the last three years

Here's E chasing pigeons in Portland.  She also ran pigeons into the street in Bangor, in a super creepy city square where she took no note whatsoever of the slightly menacing human loiterers, because of her overwhelming love of birds.  

At lunch on this day, lots of elderly admirers came over to talk to E and compliment her on her curly hair and each time, she scowled at them and corrected them that it's not her hair, it's her "magic horn" (when she has a little ponytail on top of her head).

The Bairn sliding on cardboard at the Common Ground Fair

The Bairn hammering nails at the Common Ground Fair

The Bairn trying on masks at the fair

Little E

The Bairn assisting in the recreation of a moose skeleton

E looking sick and sad at the fair (a common look for her the entire weekend)

The Bairn in the park across the street from the capitol building in Augusta.  He insisted on taking a picture of it, because he claimed it was a temple.  He could tell because of the gold "angel" on top.

N hates going on trips.

E also looked like this a lot.

But she did enjoy bits of her vacation.