Toof-wess

Gavin has had quite an eventful two weeks. First grade has started, and he is back in the full swing of his yearly schedule and loving every minute of it. To add to his first weeks of school, he lost a tooth. Then another tooth. Then another. Yep, two weeks into school, and Gavin has lost three teeth. He looks, and sounds, adorable. Of course, just having them fall out would be too easy. Each one needs to have it's own special story.

Tooth #1. We had been wiggling this one for weeks, hoping each day that it would fall out before school started. Gavin was excited, but didn't like me wiggling it cause it would hurt. We tried and tried, until it was half way out of his mouth, and he finally let me get a finger on it. One flick, and it was out. But then the blood started. Gavin looked like a prize fighter, standing in the bathroom, spitting blood all over the counter and mirror as it rolled out of his chin. I laughed. Gavin, not so much. Within a few minutes, he was cleaned up, and the excitement and anticipation of the tooth fairy took over and all was good.

Tooth #2. Gavin and Isabelle have really enjoyed the change over to Fall weather, and in true Fall fashion, have been playing a lot of football in the yard. Gavin had another dangling tooth, but after the trauma of the first removal, he was not having anything to do with my fingers in his mouth. Well, enter Isabelle aka LT. During a friendly game of football in the front yard, Gavin went down, with his sister coming in to offer the final hit, and make sure he stayed down. In the process, she facemasked him, and sure enough, up comes the spitting prize fighter. Tooth sitting in the grass. Thank you Isabelle.

Tooth #3. This one was an issue. It was the first to wiggle, but the last to leave. His adult tooth had already come in behind it, making him look like a shark with two rows of teeth showing. He was adamant about this tooth falling out on it's own, and would not even open his mouth for us to look as he knew we would be doing our best to pop it out. Well, the other morning, Gavin woke up complaining that his tooth hurt and that he couldn't eat. We took a look, and the gums we looking red, white, and swollen. We did our best to explain to him that taking the tooth out was the only way to stop the pain. No joy. We tried bribing him with a trip to the toy store. Nothing doing. So, we went for the forceful approach. Oops. Gavin lost it. Freaked out. Scared to death, and screaming. Couldn't calm him down for an hour. After our efforts failed, we called the dentist. Appointment at Noon. We missed the school bus, so I had to drive him to school. Then it was back to the school at 11:30 to pick him up for the dentist. He was scared, but he went along with it. The dentist was great with Gavin, and after only 10 minutes, he was holding his third tooth in two weeks.

So. After all this, what does Gavin look like? Absolutely adorable!!

Chills

I love music. All types, all forms. I always have. Because if this, I get really excited when I find an example of music that moves me. It may make me dance, sing, stand perfectly still, or in this instance, simply shiver.

I have heard Amazing Grace sung, played, and performed countless times in my life by all sorts of artists. There is no doubt it is a beautiful song. However, when I saw the clip below, the shivers just simply ran up and down my spine as I sat motionless taking it all in. The voices of Il Divo are masterful. Placing them in the Coliseum for this performance. Perfect. The fog rolling off the bagpiper at the key moment, well...see for yourself. This to me, is just one of those musical moments where the sight, sound, and musical story all collide to create something much larger than the song itself. So click on the link below, sit back, turn up those speakers, and let it wash over you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMVxzEueJ6A

The Power of The Tweet

Lance Armstrong uses Twitter. In fact, he is very active at not only posting, but also responding to his followers. I follow him. So do hundreds of thousands of other cyclists, fans, media, and curious folks around the globe. Lance has been in Europe the last few days for the International Cancer Summit. While there, he sent the following, seemingly simple, tweet...

@lancearmstrong: Good morning Dublin. Who wants to ride this afternoon? I do. 5:30pm at the roundabout of Fountain Road and Chesterfield Avenue. See you there.

Click here to read the story, and see what an amazing event transpired.

Thin on top

I laid down a challenge. I wanted to raise at least $2,500 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation this year. With five days to go, I had raised $2,000 and I needed to boost interest. So, i put it out there. If we raised the additional $500 in five days, I would shave my head. Well, friends and family ROCKED IT!! They contributed to raise an additional $1100 in just five days, bringing the total contributions to the LAF to $3,125. So very proud.

So, a deal is a deal.

Happy Birthday Buddy

My little man is growing up. Today Gavin turns six. Man time is flying. Happy Birthday buddy. I Love You.

Road Trip 2009 - Part Two

Our time in Old Orchard Beach was short. After all, it was just a stop along the route to our final destination, Mount Desert Island. We awoke Sunday morning, and followed a leisurely pace. We only had another 3 hrs (according to normal rules) ahead of us to reach MDI, but with the 10 hr experience from Saturday still hanging with us, we were in no hurry to jump back into our seats and head out. After breakfast, a walk, and a trip to the playground, we finally loaded up, and pulled back out onto the road. Destination, Mount Desert Island.

Mount Desert Island, IS Maine. Sure, most people make it to Portland, and think they have been to Maine. And my family is born and bred Northern Maine Potato Farmers from Aroostook County. But, if you ask Donna and Me, the true Maine, the one that we know and love, is contained within Mount Desert Island. Now you may not have heard of MDI before, but I am pretty sure you have heard of some of it's better known features Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Oh Yeah....that MDI.

Our destination this Sunday, and home base for most of the week, was Mount Desert Narrows Camping Resort. Right in the heart of MDI. Well, true to form, our 3 hr drive up from Old Orchard Beach took us 4.5 hrs. We had plans to meet my parents (they were also in state) at the campground for a visit and dinner, and arrived to find they had already been to the campground looking for us. We received our site assignment, and promptly set about making home for the week. The campground is, what we have come to learn, a pretty standard RV Park, with open sites, and wide roads equipped to support the large RVs and Fifth-Wheels. What the Desert Narrows lacked in layout and amenities, it more than made up for with it's view with the entire area set on a hill sloping down to the ocean. We enjoyed a view of the water from our site, and loved being so close to all the things that are "the ocean".

With perfect timing, Bob and Jackie arrived just as the set-up was nearing completion so we could all sit, relax, and enjoy arriving in such a spectacular location with so much still lying ahead. And, it did not take long for Donna to determine that the immediate need was fresh lobsters from the local lobster shack for dinner. Good thing about Maine, if you want lobster, you don't have to travel very far. In no time at all, we were all sitting around the picnic table enjoying lobster, steak, german potato salad, and potato chips. Now that's camping! Dad even demonstrated the "art" of lobster preparing when the civilized tools (crackers and picks) are not available. Years of practice made him an expert with a cooking knife and Craftsman hammer.
After dinner, we all enjoyed a walk down to the water to play on the rocks (no sandy beach up this far in Maine), walk in the frigid ocean water, and let the kids explore the tide pools. We filled our lungs with beautiful sea air and watched a perfect sunset. Everyone was happy to be there, and excited at all the adventures and memories that lie ahead over the next several days. Tomorrow, we explore Acadia.

Gavin and Isabelle hit the beach at low tide
And you thought the water in Marblehead was cold...WOW!!

Hey Mommy, look over here. No, Mommy, look over here. Mommy...Mommy...
Someone missed her buddy Grampa

Breathe in...Breathe out...perfect.

Road Trip 2009 - Part One

Donna and I have missed Maine. True, I have been there every month for work, but that is not the Maine we miss. We miss the ocean views, sound of the birds, sit on the rocks, lobster Maine. So, this year we decided we would make the yearly family vacation, all about Maine. And, we added a twist. We'd bring the camper. True American style family vacation.

For those that don't know, Maine is a long way off from Rochester. And, once you reach her borders, good bet you are still a long way off from where it is you are heading. We trained Gavin and Isabelle for the trip with a few practice car rides earlier this summer. Five hours to Howe Caverns. Eight hours to Boston. Think of it as similar to what NASA puts astronauts through before heading to the moon. So, After much planning, and an insane amount of packing, we hitched up our wagon (er...camper) and headed off on our ten day family memory maker bright and early Saturday morning. Destination for day one, Old Orchard Beach, ME.

After making years of trips past Old Orchard Beach, and the marvels of modern technology, I had carefully calculated that it should take us eight hours to get to Old Orchard. I have a few suggested add-ons for MapQuest. In their Directions Options box, they should include check boxes for Two Kids in Car, Pulling Camper, Torrential Downpours, high winds, and then let you calculate the estimated trip time. Gavin and Isabelle gave Donna and I quite a training session during day one of our Family Memory trip, and we now factor all arrival times as ETA +2hrs to predict our actual arrival time.

After a nothing but pleasurable ten hour ride, with two perfect angels in the back seat, we arrived at Paradise Park Campground in Old Orchard Beach, ME. The clerk at the check in desk knew us by name. Not because we had been there before, but simply because we were the last to arrive, and the only name left on the list. Either way, it was a nice welcome. Since we were only staying the night, we made a quick set up of camp, and headed into town.

Every wondered how to turn whine, into WOW!! in one easy step? Take two very overtired kids, and walk them onto the pier at Old Orchard. Old Orchard Beach, in addition to being a very rare, all white sand beach in the state of Maine, is the Coney Island of Maine. Trapped in time, it is a pier and boardwalk covered with more neon light coated excitement than any child could ever handle in one evening. We promptly dropped our first vacation $50 on ride tickets, and we all let loose laughing and smiling. A worthy way to celebrate our accomplishment of making it to Maine in one day, and one piece.

We enjoyed the Fun House.

Donna and Gavin rode the roller coaster.

Izzy and I kicked butt on the bumper cars.

There were Tea Cups...

And Truck Rides...

And Whales, oh my!
Then, it was back a quick walk back to the camper as we all chattered away about our favorite parts of the night. No one mentioning how exhausted we were, or how long it had taken to get here. We were here, and our fun in Maine had just started.