...and we're out...

Last night of summer vacay. Am I ready to go back to school? 

 Well. I love being on vacation as much as the next librarian, but I've just had so much summer, it's been so rich, we've been so lucky, had so much time together as a family and with a lot of people we love. It would be greedy of me to say no.

 The answer is yes, I'm ready to head into my new adventure.

  I'm full of summer.

It's been enough; perfect, really.

I've seen my share of discarded silver sandals and plenty of flipflops at the various ponds, beaches, docks, and parties we've frequented. And taken portraits of them when I could.

And I have one more Artist Profile for you in the works. But Urchin Goddess needs her etsy site set up first. Now she has the photos to do it! In the above photo, I am modeling one of her gorgeous necklaces. In fact we did a partial trade for it, for the pics. I can't wait to show you more.

~Lucky, lucky me~

The summer that kept going

Mini golfing. The beach. Gorgeous swims. 

In the words of Marcel, 

"Well, that's just how it looks right now."

If you are ever sitting on an amazing, uncrowded beach, looking at the gorgeous view and listening to the waves, and a small person offers to do your hair, you will be glad that you thought to bring your brush and your red leather coin purse full of hair-ties. Because this is pretty close to my idea of heaven.

awesome yellow owl, keeping watch over the golf course

There are two mini golf courses nearby us. One is the from-a-box, kind of pre-fab, boring and perfect kind (located at letter A on the map). The other is this one (it's located at letter B in the map). Privately owned and constructed, awesome and a little bit funky. One hole has a buoy suspended directly over the hole itself that you have to set in motion if you want to have a prayer at getting the ball in there.

If you are a snob about your mini golf "green perfection," you should go to the other place. Yeah, so OK, some of the greens here have wonky little invisible hillocks and sometimes the astroturf knap is like completely worn down, almost slick, so that your ball gains speed when it otherwise wouldn't.

It's all part of the experience. The other place has no bright yellow owls, either.

check out mama's form, 

tied for first place, thank you

Sometimes your mother wants a picture of you two together and your grumpy face is fantastic. (Smiling pics came later...).

Oh. And who is this guy?! This guy is clearly not my baby, he doesn't even look much like my ten year-old. He's a total guy's guy here, like a 22 year-old major league catcher who's giving a charming and articulate interview. Holy Handsome, Batman!

~snail racing~

Two snails were racing as the tide went out the other day.

According to The Week-End Book, snails travel at 1.916 feet per hour. Does this figure reflect the speed of snails at leisure? Or an average of sauntering snails and snail athletes? Because these two contestants here appeared to be hustling.

I don't know if they made it to the water before the tide went all the way out. Maybe you'd have to calculate the rate that the tide was going out, and this might involve calculating the slope of the beach, and I'm more content to have born witness to the moment that these snails and I shared. Even if I don't know the outcome. Life is uncertain, after all.

Sand forms. This is part of the Waldorf curriculum: making amazing beautiful free-hand forms, sometimes mirrored, or not, and the idea is that you don't lift your crayon (or stone, in this case) once you have begun the form. You are committed. Being there in the moment helps, trusting your hand and eyes to work together. I asked Sylvan to make me one to copy and this was what he made.

Some of our party balanced stones as per usual. Though the Stillmans were notably absent on this day, it was really otherwise perfect. (We felt you with us in spirit! Note to S: The water was actually delightfully swimmable, really pleasant even, and not at all ankle-numbing.)

may in maine

is sometimes gray. and cold. and rainy.

~(for weeks)~

it didn't stop us

from enjoying the beach:

bubbles, ballgames, birthday cake

cookout, scraped knees

cutest kids

sun was optional.

~we had tractors~

the summer's rollicking finale

I have barely had time to download my pictures off my camera lately. We have been busily enjoying summer to its max...our annual trip to Moosehead Lake, and a first visit to Reid State Park yesterday (real waves, big surf, people getting pummeled by waves and suits full of sand).

anders was the best at this

sophie has the best hair and a great splash

carl and sylvan being cute and sporty

The creative endeavors at Moosehead this year were mostly along the lines of utilizing air mattresses and bicycles in unusual ways, wearing our bathing suits all day, taking multiple swims, and laughing a lot.

air mattress flotilla

a devilish smirk that can only mean he's up to no good

a quiet moment one morning

when sylvan was the only one ready to go swimming before 9 am

My school semester began yesterday and the kids won't be in school again until September 14.

mr. crafting dadda catches some surf on a boogie board

So I toted along my management text to the beach and even read some (3 pages!), though it was hard to compete with 1) the view, 2) the peoplewatching, 3) the overheard conversations floating on the breeze ("he only had one eye but he was still a great bowler..") This is my hardest time because I have no regular time in which to do my school work.

drip castle magic

Remember that I promised you a glimpse of Jonas's sailing trophy? Here is The Harbor Cup, 3rd place:

So I am taking a blogging break for just a bit, until I get my feet on the ground. We'll see how long I can stay away.