This is the first time I’m going on a business trip that my kids did NOT cry. I dreaded telling them thinking they’ll cry and be all sad for weeks even before I leave so I told them just two days before I was leaving. So when I told them about my trip they went from: “What? Again? How long? Oh man, do you really have to go?  Can I go with you? When do you come back? I don’t want you to go. What are you going to do there?…” To… Ok. Bye. I’ll miss you. See you later~

I mean… yes there were thousands of hugs and kisses when I was leaving… but. but. there were no tears. NO Tears.

Why do I feel so so so sad…

When I got to my hotel room, I opened my suitcase and there it was. Surprise! A letter from a mystery man. And I felt a little better. At least I still get letters… Sniff sniff. :*(

Dear Future Chloe,

I want to have less messy hand writing. I think it’s good because people can actually read it. Awesome, right! And to add punctuation because in 3rd grade, you (you not me) had trouble with it, and you want to become better. Also proof read(.) you have to do this cause it might have so much mistakes you’ll get bad grades. Don’t rush bad things will happened.

From Past/Present
Chloe

Bar

“I woke up in the dim room of my hotel. I stretched my aching muscles after a long night. I washed up and awakened my groggy comrades. Later we stepped out into the clean crisp Maine air, the wind blowing the salty smell of the ocean. A soft breeze blew my hair in my face. The sun shone rays of golden color, birds tweeting their soft sweet song. There was islands near Bar harbor ( Bar Island, Sheep, Porcupine Island and Bald Porcupine Island). In that heavenly morning, the tide changed marking a path to Bar Islands.  Rocks glistened in the sun. We raced to the path way. We raced among rocks overjoyed we explored puddles, snails were everywhere, tiny crabs were as white as snow. I found a huge crab shell colors like
a rainbow. Rocks of every color barnacles sticking to everything. The water was blue beautiful fresh clean water. I did not realize that we reached Bar island when we went in the emerald green trees beautiful birds singing then we went to the top. A breathtaking view of Bar harbor! It was lovely.”

Shane

“Come on Chloe get the belt hurry up” exclaimed by brother Shane. “Okay okay” I replied. I hurried up to my brother’s room took his belt and rushed down tho the kitchen/dinning room. He opened the window. I took the chair and dragged it near the window. “wait Shane, I need to tie it first. Don’t jump out the window yet.” “Okay fine then hurry up” So I tied the belt to the chain and threw the rest of the belt out the window. Then Shane sat on the window sill and … Jumped.
Just kidding. My grandpa stopped us and that was the end of that.

We’ve been looking forward to coming here again since we visited last year.

These grapes are the sweetest!

So glad we were able to bring my parents here this year!

Corn maze

Today happens to be their Octoberfest so we decided to stay afterwards and ended up having BBQ dinner with live music.

Love my family!

We are celebrating Shane’s 8th birthday and we are having a camping party in the backyard. 🙂 My sweet boy didn’t even ask for a party and even though we didn’t do anything special on his birthday, he just thought that was it. So when we surprised him with our little “camping trip” in the backyard today, he was thrilled!

Chloe’s an awesome sister. She bought him walkie talkies with her own money, wrapped beautifully with a card and gave it to him on his birthday. Shane said it’s “the best gift ever”, and they’ve been communicating through it all week. Andrew got him a brand new bike but who cares about that . ;P Actually he’s been riding it a lot and he’s very happy to ride a big boy’s bike.

Chloe’s praying for the meal.

My mom made Kalbi and Japchae. So yummy!

To the best 8 year old boy Shane,

Sweet, smart, kind, athletic, funny and bright. That’s you!

I am so proud that you are my son. I hope I tell you that often enough. I love how when you wake up in the morning (only during school week) all tired and needy and have to come to find me in the kitchen to sit on my lap hugging me for a while before you start your day.  When you outgrow my lap I’ll be really sad. I love how you randomly call me to say you love me throughout the day. You are a sweet sweet soul… You have so much love to give and I hope you love your God the father the most before anything else in life. I love you with all the love I can imagine…my son.

At 8 years old:

1. Your favorite color is black.

2. You want to become a football quarter back player when you grow up.

3. You’re going to live next door to us and be our neighbor when you get older but you’re also going to have a house in Bar Harbor.

4. You love to play basketball, football, baseball, soccer, basically all sports and you’re so good at all of them.

5. You find your sister Chloe to be the funniest comedian on earth and you are her biggest fan.

6. You still like to sleep in our bed every chance you get.

7. If we threaten you to take away your video game time on weekends, we can pretty much have you do anything we want…

8. You discovered U2 early this year and it was your favorite band for months. Now you found out about Z100 music station and love everything they play. You’re a music lover.

We got on a cruise to explore the underwater world of Frechman Bay today!

Diver Ed going in the water.

Kids helped him plunge!

Diver Ed’s diving buddy, Mini Ed

Diver Ed & his sidekick Mini Ed dive down to the ocean floor with a video and sound equipment so we could see and hear the ocean floor in real time from the boat deck.

He got a lobster! One of many many lobsters we saw. They should be like $1 per pound here.

Sea cucumber!

Ed & Mini Ed return to the boat with the creatures allowing us to touch, observe them.

Listen up kids!

Kids went wild when he put this sea cucumber in his mouth!

He keeps putting lobsters on her head. LOL.

I should bring this to my dad.

Here’s Patrick.

sea scallops

Never knew they have so many eyes…small black eyes arranged along the edge

What a fun cool experience. 🙂 And no one got seasick.

We came back to the town for some well deserved ice cream! 

Rolling down the hill!

We biked 6 miles around Eagle lake. Great job kids!

From the top, we can see our hotel!

Back to our hotel and tried blueberry soda.

This was yesterday afternoon:

This is today at low tide:

We’re walking to Bar island

Snails and crabs everywhere!