edna and the balloon festible
We (BF and I) escaped to Maine this past week. We surprised mom and dad, j,n, and w in the parking lot of dairy joy. What fun! Wednesday k, i, and m came up and Thursday we all went to Edna's farm on Holman mountain. The farm is no more, but the homestead (dating from late 1700's) was still standing, but uninhabitable. Edna had a trailer placed beside the old farmhouse, and proudly showed us the inside, which was light and bright. It was a beautiful late summer day, warm, dry and sunny with little fluffy clouds here and there. We brought lunch and made sandwiches for everyone. edna's son peter came over and gave tractor rides on the 1950's vintage international to each of the kids. They all climbed in the trailer or on the atv to go down the hill to see Peters horses, Lilly the donkey, two goats, and Mr whiskers the rabbit via the old Holman mountain road. Edna had made an apple pie and we eagerly devoured it - each kid fighting over the size of their piece. It was a truly remarkable day. My grandfather, who was dear friends with Arly (edna's husband) ever since childhood would have been so happy to see us all their visiting the farm. That evening back at the camp I found out that Arly was a relative by marriage to my grandfather (hence: me).
The next day at 6am we were all standing on the green in lewiston watching the hot air balloons take off on a completely windless morning. There were all sorts of different colors, and shapes. The all time favorites were the bees Joey and Lilly, who took off holding hands and a few hundreds yards up, released hands. On the way back to the car, in the bank parking lot, a balloon was touching down. Someone yelled "we need hands!" We all stopped because we could see they needed help. "we need a big strong guy!" "DAD!" we all yelled. And there was Farber, holding the line which held the balloon on the ground. "there's three tons of air in there!" all the kids helped, along with a bunch of other people, to squeeze the air out of the balloon and throw it in a bag. We all toasted (with juice) to a successful launch and landing and learned from the pilot about the history of ballooning. It was quite interesting. Later that day we came back to the fairway and each kid got a ride. I love the color of the fair against the early evening. BF loved the fireworks - she kept saying "beautiful!"
Back to reality, well, with a bit of a detour. Saturday we drove down to Gloucester to take a ride on coco's new boat, a 17" Boston whaler. It was a very nice boat. After a wonderful lunch of shrimp salad sandwiches we took the boat to a beach that is only accessible to boats. Loads of dunes and sand and terms and gulls. Gathering sea clam shells and seaweed and bf having a fun time making "dinner" for everyone. The tide moved fast and we hopped back in the boat to make it home for a wonderful rib dinner (bf had 4 ribs! That's my girl!) and it was late late. After ice cream sandwiches I started babbling about our trip to Maine and how wonderful it was, rapidly putting everyone to sleep. Finally dh says, "I'm falling asleep" and that was our cue to hop in the car and head home. Another long day for bf, who handled it quite well. Sunday was a nothing day, waking up late (9:30) and doing zip all day. Monday (today) we visited the newest William, and brought pesto. In the afternoon we went to see j and brought her mom some pesto for her birthday. I still need to go to the store but I am too tired. I just want to go to bed and it's 7:30. (sigh)
The next day at 6am we were all standing on the green in lewiston watching the hot air balloons take off on a completely windless morning. There were all sorts of different colors, and shapes. The all time favorites were the bees Joey and Lilly, who took off holding hands and a few hundreds yards up, released hands. On the way back to the car, in the bank parking lot, a balloon was touching down. Someone yelled "we need hands!" We all stopped because we could see they needed help. "we need a big strong guy!" "DAD!" we all yelled. And there was Farber, holding the line which held the balloon on the ground. "there's three tons of air in there!" all the kids helped, along with a bunch of other people, to squeeze the air out of the balloon and throw it in a bag. We all toasted (with juice) to a successful launch and landing and learned from the pilot about the history of ballooning. It was quite interesting. Later that day we came back to the fairway and each kid got a ride. I love the color of the fair against the early evening. BF loved the fireworks - she kept saying "beautiful!"
Back to reality, well, with a bit of a detour. Saturday we drove down to Gloucester to take a ride on coco's new boat, a 17" Boston whaler. It was a very nice boat. After a wonderful lunch of shrimp salad sandwiches we took the boat to a beach that is only accessible to boats. Loads of dunes and sand and terms and gulls. Gathering sea clam shells and seaweed and bf having a fun time making "dinner" for everyone. The tide moved fast and we hopped back in the boat to make it home for a wonderful rib dinner (bf had 4 ribs! That's my girl!) and it was late late. After ice cream sandwiches I started babbling about our trip to Maine and how wonderful it was, rapidly putting everyone to sleep. Finally dh says, "I'm falling asleep" and that was our cue to hop in the car and head home. Another long day for bf, who handled it quite well. Sunday was a nothing day, waking up late (9:30) and doing zip all day. Monday (today) we visited the newest William, and brought pesto. In the afternoon we went to see j and brought her mom some pesto for her birthday. I still need to go to the store but I am too tired. I just want to go to bed and it's 7:30. (sigh)
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