The Lundy 5

Every year, Matt celebrates his birthday somewhere awesome.  2010 was Mount Rushmore, 2011 was the Grand Canyon, and 2012 was Niagara Falls. He's one lucky dude!  A 10-year-old dude now too (gasp!).  After the family reunion, we drove to Niagara and got to meet up with the Brewers , another RVing family!  We met them in FL, then again in PA, and now in NY.  It's so nice having a "road family" since we're away from our other family on the road. Allen and I went to Niagara on our honeymoon, 15 years ago, after baseball games in Toronto and Montreal.  Yes, baseball on our honeymoon because I am THAT awesome!  So it was fun to visit again after so long.  And last time our night pictures didn't turn out - from our $8 disposable camera!  This time we stuck to the US side though, since our passports expired. (The Canadian side is prettier.) We surprised the kids with a ride on the Maid of the Mist. They loved getting wet and the closeup view...

This year our New York family reunion was perfectly timed for us since we were in the northeast. It was great to see everyone again and catch up, since we haven't gone since 2003!  It was especially neat for Matt and Lizzy who we didn't adopt until 2006.  They'd never met any of Grandma's family.  It certainly wasn't the same without Grandma and some of her siblings, but it was a wonderful trip down memory lane.  We drove past some of the houses we used to visit each summer when I was young(er) and I got to tell stories and feel old. :)  It's been nice connecting with many of my relatives on Facebook now too.  I know my parents will enjoy seeing the pictures when we get down to FL.  Here are a few for now though.        We have a fun auction to raise money for the reunions and more importantly, pass around family heirlooms and fun items. Matt helped this year.  Yeah, they watch a lot of auction shows on TV.  Lizzy...

After New Hampshire, we drove through Vermont, which is absolutely gorgeous.  If other states weren't calling our name, I'm sure we would really enjoy hiking here.    We did stop to buy maple syrup, because how could we not?!  We also picked up some maple candy. Sooo sweet.  We stared out the windows and loved the views.  At one point we saw a picturesque farm, but as we got closer, we noticed a house - sitting on top of a silo.  Weird!  Lizzy thought it might have come from Kansas.   

When you're at a campground with a plethora of huge frogs, what do you think? Free dinner!  Oh, you don't think that?  Hm, well that's what Allen thought anyway, and the boys quickly agreed.  Lizzy and I held out, and avoided the whole scene - me because that's just nasty, and Lizzy because the frogs were cute.  Although we did enjoy dinner - after it was fully cooked!  They were surprisingly (to me anyway) quite tasty.  Kind of in between chicken and fish.  The boys of course loved the adventure, being able to hunt for dinner and prepare it too.  (I'll spare you the details, but I did insist on the oft-repeated "nature stays in nature!") Our little providers.  Eww and thank you.  :)

On our way through NH, we went to Corey's house! Some of you won't know who that is, but in many homes across the country, women are squealing! Corey is simply a rock star among thousands of adoptive moms.  She's responsible for literally keeping hundreds of us going in tough times.  And she's an amazing mom herself.  On top of all that, she invited a bunch of us over with our kids!  We messed up her house and yard, ate her yummy food, and just enjoyed our time together.  Some moms were nearby on vacation, so we had ladies from Canada, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and another fulltime RVing mom besides me.  And 25 or so of our kids. :)   The kids had a good time playing and the moms had a great time connecting.  Like our retreat in Orlando, I could just sit and listen to these ladies all day.  My cup was definitely filled, and my belly!

It was hard to leave Maine after a wonderful week of exploring.  We were exhausted, but could have spent another few weeks there easily.  We loved Acadia, Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert Island and spending time with the Nims, Tersieffs, Travaglinos, and McCloskeys too.  But we had friends to visit in NH and a family reunion in NY, so we had to hit the road.  The bay was perfectly still, I think so we could have one last pretty picture.  We loved the area, food, hikes, views, shuttles, campground, everything.  The kids had a blast. Jack got to go on most of the hikes.  There were beaches, mountains, cliffs, woods, trees, lakes, ocean, just everything.  MDI was definitely a hit with all of us! 

On our 7th, and last (*sniff*), day in Maine, I took the kids and some of the Travaglinos and McCloskeys to hike Great Head Trail and Sand Beach.  Allen took this day off to work catch up recover.  I should never listen to his trail descriptions, because he thinks moderate means easy, difficult means moderate, etc.  Yeah, the trails are marked correctly!  So our "easy" hike was pretty moderate with some climbing, and the poor Travaglinos were troopers in their crocks and flip flops.  (They were without their rig as it was in the shop and Maine was a last minute trip!) But we had a great time and enjoyed yet another beautiful perspective of Mt. Desert Island. Another one of the beautiful sights just driving down the road. And as always, a beautiful sunset back at camp. More pics: Links to the rest of our days in Acadia National Park in Maine: Maine Day 6, Precipice, Beehive Maine Day 5, Beech Cliffs, Echo Lake, Cadillac Mountain Maine...

On the 6th day, Allen took our boys (plus Logan) back on TWO of the the hardest hikes we did earlier, Precipice and Beehive! I opted to stay behind to rest recover work.  My official line was that I'd already hiked both.  The unofficial reason was I was exhausted and sore!  Not a bad view from my office window though.  When the tide came in, so did a bunch of sailboats.  When the tide went out, the boys explored a bit.  Of course they came home covered in mud.   Allen sent a few pics from his phone.  Looks like they had a great time! And the sun was out again.          The Travaglinos and McCloskeys arrived and we had more lobstah! And a giant crab that surprised a shriek out of me as I opened the fridge and it was staring at me.