Brightwater!

We're back from a lovely vacation at Brightwater! Nora really seemed to enjoy the change in surroundings this year (since last time we were there she was only 4 months old, she wasn't really taking in the differences between Maine and Connecticut!), and we all had a fabulous time.

The day before we left, Nora saw Mama packing her clothes, so she decided to help by donning her sunhat and putting every single article of clothing in her bottom drawer into the basket.

Playing with Daddy. Nora got these neat links from her Auntie Em for her birthday, and she really likes them. Her favorite game is for you to link them all together and she'll take them apart, but she's starting to figure out how to link them together on her own as well.


Nora's latest trick is to smack herself on the head or face if you say, "Oh, man! I can't believe we did that!" It's extremely cute.
We went to the beach for a picnic on a windy, cloudy day...
But then it started raining, so we had to finish our lunch in the car!
After lunch, the rain stopped, so we went for a walk around Fort Popham at the end of the beach. In this picture, Nora and Mama are standing in front of the rocks where Mama and Daddy got engaged, almost 3 years ago!
We went out for breakfast at our new favorite place, the Starlight Cafe in Bath. They had the coolest highchair ever for Nora to sit in! (You can kind of see in this picture how, on our second night at Brightwater, Nora got three mosquito bites around and below her right eye. It was so swollen up that when she woke up we thought she had a black eye! Poor baby - she has such sensitive skin that only one bug bite causes quite a bump, so three in the same sensitive area was pretty bad.)
Have lunchbag, will travel! Nora quickly figured out how to open the screen door on the porch and get out onto the (no railings, up over rocks) deck. I think she really looks a lot like her second cousin Max in this picture.
She was none too pleased when she realized we'd latched the door to keep her inside!We forgot to bring our camera on our second trip to the beach, but let it suffice to say that this girl is definitely a water baby! She crawled straight into the freezing ocean, and was only deterred by the 4th or 5th wave that crashed up into her face. When we got home, she had a refreshing sunshower to get rid of the massive quantities of sand all over her body.
Her hair is getting too long to dry by rubbing a towel over it, baby style!
Our only (minor!) complaint about the vacation is that since all four of us were sleeping in the same room, when Mica woke up to go outside early every morning, Nora would wake up too. At home, since she's in her own room, Daddy can get up and take the dog out without disturbing her. At Brightwater, 5:15 was the latest we ever got to sleep! Since that's an hour earlier than Daddy usually gets up, and two hours earlier than Mama and Nora usually get up, we were all pretty tired those mornings.

Another (unphotodocumented) highlight of our trip was a free Dan Zanes (kid's music) concert in Freeport with some new friends. Nora really loved meeting Ingrid, who is the same age, and Bridget and Moriah, who are almost 3. Mama had fun talking to their mamas! Then we all went out to dinner with even more friends. It was a great time!

We're already looking forward to next month, when we'll be at Brightwater for a week and a half. Can't wait!