An End to Summer!!!

It is over, done, finished complete. And I must say I am a little depressed about it. Labor day has come and gone, and now Summer is over. :(

To finish the summer off we took the kids to Dixfield camping. We camped with the entire Derouche family. I love those times. It is always so nice to get away from home and just relax. And for once the weather agreed, no rain during the day.

We all had a chance to spend some time with Jenn and Mariana at Memeres house also. Mariana has finally softened up to Gage a little bit. She actually put her arms out to him after a nap and cuddled with him for quite awhile. I know she doesn't look too excited, but they both seemed to enjoy their cuddle time.



Then the day arrived. It was too soon for me, but not soon enough for them.



THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!! They were so excited to pick out that first outfit, pack their back packs and get on the bus. Don't they look excited?!?!? I was a little sad, as was Ethan. Gage started 4th grade, and Olivia is in 1st grade at Bowdoin Central School. I will miss our long lazy days together. I enjoyed just going with the flow each day. Now it is back to the grind.

Good bye summer, we will miss you :(

Furbush Wedding!!!

This weekend was full of excitement. My cousing Michelle married her high school sweetheart Kevin. It was a much anticipated event. We were especially excited because Gage was asked to be the ring bearer. He was excited, but scared to death. He insisted that he would not walk down with "some girl", but was convinced when he realized she was only 2 and nobody would think that she was his girlfriend. We even bribed him with $5 and 2 Cokes if he would
1. Look up when walking down the isle
2. SMILE!!!
We have no pics of the isle walk, but he did look up:)

Here is a picture of Gage at the reception with Valerie, the Maid of Honor, Jason, the best man
and Kylee, the flower girl.

Gage swore that he would NOT dance. Poor guy did the right thing and EVERY person there decided to take their picture. He was such a good sport.



















I was very excited to see that my brother and his wife could make it. They live in PA and don't make it up as often as we would all like. I forgot just how much fun we can all have together. Aren't they a beautiful couple.
















Jenn and Allen brought their 2 oldest, Keanna and Alyssa. They were so excited to be there. Big Memere also had an awesome time. When she was ushered down the isle, Kevin , the groom, walked her. It was very touching. I am pretty sure she cried from the time she stepped into the church until she was at the reception. Love you Memere.














And for those of you who don't know, Micheal Phelps was at the wedding too. He took time out of his Olympic schedule to make this special wedding. Here he is just a few hours before his 8th gold medal race. Who would have thought that his training would include so much drinking and dancing!?!? It was a great night.














I can't believe that I forgot to put a picture of the couple. Hopefully I can find a good one and add it later.

Mt. Blue Vacation

Well, a few weeks ago we had our "relaxing camping vacation". We look forward every year to this one week when we can go to Mt Blue and do NOTHING!! This year it didn't work out quite like that. This year Gage was just too good of a baseball player and made the Mt Ararat all star team. He was so excited, and so were we. Most of the kids on this team have played all stars before. His State tournament started on the first Friday of our vacation. The game was at 5pm, so we drove the 1.5 hour trip to Mt Blue in the morning to set up, then back to Bowdoinham for the game. After many rain delays they won, which was great. Back to Mt Blue we went (we arrived back at 10:30pm). Winning ment we had Saturday off from baseball. We had a wonderful day at the beach Saturday. Everything that Mt Blue should be.
Sunday Gage had a game at 9am, which ment we had to be in Bowdoinham at 7:30am. We were up and on the road at 5:30am. Olivia was able to stay at the campground with everyone (yeah Ivi!!). They lost the first game. Now this was a double elimination game, so they played again at 3pm. We had time to shower, do laundry and give Ethan a nap. They had an awesome second game and won that. So, back to Mt Blue for 7:30pm.
Monday was the next game. Now it was mid week, so his first game was at 3pm. This game was awesome!! Gage got on base, stole secondbase and then scored off a double hit by his best buddy Kyle. The game was called in the 5th inning due to the Mercy rule and we were on to the next game. There was a significant rain delay. The next game was due to start at 5:30pm. I think it finally started around 6:15. The fields were so wet that the other teams postponed until the next day, but our teams decided to play. We were initially ahead, but started to fall in the 4th. At the end of the fourth we were down 6-4. Then, they called the game due to DARKNESS!! Bummer, we lost because it was dark. No, wait!! That isn't how it works in Cal Ripken league. You have to finish the game. That means THE GAME CONTINUES ON TUESDAY!!! So, you say, Why not stay in town, just 5 miles down the road? Well, on this particular day we left Ethan and Olivia back at Mt Blue. Leaving Ethan overnight anywhere doesn't work well right now. SO, trip #4 back to Mt Blue. Arrive at 10:30. Ethan is sleeping. YEAH!!
Tuesday, back to Bowdoinham. Beautiful day! 2 innings, 30 minutes, sad loss and the series is over for us. It was a good time for Gage, but even he was sick of the car and just wanted to get to the beach. Back to Mt blue for one last time.
Wednesday, rain, rain, rain. The kids had fun searching for frogs. The adults had fun trying to keep dry, and we played a few games. There was talk of movies and the such, but we all stuck it out. Uncle James made sex-on-the-beach. YUMMY!!
Thursday we all woke up to destruction. It had rained 3-4inches in an hour and damage was done. Mike's first-up cover was destroyed. High winds had made a mess of things. I think only the kids had slept through the night. That day, for the first time I can remember, the Derouches gave in to the weather and started to pack up early. The Brennicks were the first to pack up, then the others followed. The weather forecast was calling for strong winds, thunderstorms and TORNADO watches. That was it, we had all had enough. Every day except Saturday had been full of Thunder and Lightning. 2 people had even been struck and killed early in the week. So, we made that one last trip to Bowdoin. I must say, it was nice to be warm and dry. We watched movies, ate popcorn, went bowling and to lands end. We even had s'mores one more time.
All in all it was NOT the relaxing vacation we had in mind, but was still some awesome family time. Can't wait for next year. (I believe the all star games are in June next year). Maybe next year we can schedule the weather a little better.

(I will add pictures soon)