Swimmin' with friends???

The little friends that Myshel's swimmin' with are small and green and like to hop around! I couldn't believe she had the frogs in the pool with her. There's actually 2 frogs swimming in front of her. The frogs didn't seem to mind too much. After awhile she gave them something to sit on . . . just in case they wanted out of the water. I swear, sometimes I wonder if these kids are mine!
Vance, Noah and McKaylie were sliding on the pool cover and then running into the side of the pool. They were having a good time but it didn't seem like it would be that fun to me.
Here's Noah and McKaylie in the pool. The boys where their t-shirts so that they won't get sunburned. I've tried to explain that sunblock works well, but they insist on their shirts.

Thomas Point Beach . . . again

When we first moved to Maine (Winter Harbor), I was completely fascinated with the tides. I'd never seen such huge differences between high and low tide. It was just awesome to me that at low tide the water would go out so far. Every where we'd been there wasn't such a drastic difference between the two.

Last week we took the kids out to Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick. We knew it was low tide and decided to just wait for the tide to come back in. I took some pics while we were there, because like I said, it just fascinates me for some reason.

This when we first got there. It's not right at the lowest tide, but you can barely see the waterline way off in the distance. All the clam diggers are out doing their job. They stayed until the very last minute, too, most had to wade through the water to get back to shore.
(If you click on these pictures, you'll be able to see them so much better!)
Here's Vance checking things out with Myshel and McKaylie. I wouldn't go out there, because the mud just sucks your feet into it--besides the fact that it stinks. There's a bit of a "river" that ran right by where they were.
The water's starting to come back in. You can see the "river" more now. It's starting to spread out more and get much deeper. There's a clammer on the far left of the picture. He was on somewhat of an island and was able to stay there for a lot longer than the other guys.

This was about an hour after we got there. The water came in faster than we thought it would.
About 1/2 hour later the kids were out in it with Chad. It only looks deep. The kids were actually laying on their stomachs in these pictures. It was never more than a foot or so deep where they were.
While we waited for the tide to come in, we played in the sand, I read, the kids explored a lot. Thomas Point is a breeding ground for Horseshoe Crabs and they found lots of shells. This is only some of the ones they found. It was fun even though they didn't get to swim very long . . . except for the bugs, which ate me something terrible. My arms and legs were covered with some kind of bug bite and I itched like never before, for days. I think it must have been something I was a little allergic to because it was terrible and no one else had a problem with it at all.

Boothbay Harbor

Maine State Aquarium

We visited the Maine State Aquarium in BoothBay Harbor. It was really small, but very cool. There was a tank that had sharks and skates in it that you can touch. Very Cool!

And it had a big touch tank filled with all kinds of little creatures that you can find off the shores of Maine. Lobsters, sea urchins, starfish, sand dollars, sea cucumbers (they were gross and squishy!), scallops, crabs, snails. We could pick them all up and check them out. It was very cool. We had a hard time getting the kids to leave.
The also had a HUGE lobster.
A blue, yellow and red lobster. I didn't realize there were yellow lobsters or that there were red ones that hadn't been cooked. (hee hee)
You can click on the picture below and read about the largest lobster ever caught!!!
Unbelievable!

Eartha

If you drive down I295 by Yarmouth, then you pass by this globe. (This picture isn't the best, but is you click on the link below, you can see a picture of it all lit up) We always thought it was cool, but never really thought about it much. I've come to learn recently, though that it's the world's largest revolving and rotating globe. So . . . we had to go see it up close, just to say that we've seen it, right!? It was pretty cool. You can see it at 3 different levels, too. It's at the DeLorme Headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine. Click here to learn more about it. Delorme-Eartha
There were some little boys running around it on the bottom, floor and Chad said, "look that little boy just ran around the world." The kids thought he was hilarious!

Chocolate Moose . . .

This is Lenny, the world's only life-size chocolate moose!
Only in Maine . . .He has two little buddies, the cocoa bears, which are actually made out of dark chocolate and I think they weigh in around 800 pounds. They live in Scarborough, which is really just down the street from Sam's Club (which is where we were headed!)

Alpaca Farm

We went to see the alpacas in Wiscasset yesterday. They were so cute, especially the baby one!

Nature Bugs . . .

Three of my kids love being outside!! But, can I just say . . . enough with the snakes and frogs, already!!! Chad let the kids walk home from the commissary and they found this little snake on the way home. They were very excited. Whoo hoo . . . not! This one, I admit, is very cute. Noah caught it. He thought it was a grasshopper until he caught it. McKaylie's holding it in this picture. It would jump out of her hands and hang on her shirt. I guess these little guys live in the trees. This is the biggest frog they've caught this year. He doesn't look that big in the picture, but he was good sized. I think they should have left him in the pond they found him in. They did let him go shortly after this, though.

I don't have a picture of it, but the other day the kid's went to the park and brought home 6 frogs that they found in a puddle from the rain the day before. Yuck!