Your First Vacation

Dear Caleb,

What a week we have just had! You were on your very first vacation! Daddy, Nana, Granky, Auntie Erin, Uncle Sean, Cousin Dillan, Auntie Fallon, Uncle Pat, you and I all went to Maine for a whole week!

You and I left early on Friday morning. We picked up Auntie Erin, Cousin Dillan and Auntie Fallon at Nana and Granky's house and headed to York, Maine. We spent the day at York's Wild Kingdom and had a blast! Dillan loved all the animals and it was fun to spend the day with Erin and Fallon. After a few hours at the zoo, we drove to the lighthouse in York and had a great lunch at a beautiful spot. Once we were done, we got back on the road and headed the rest of the way our house in Limington.

This house has been in Nana's family for a long time. Her father, my Grampy, originally owned it. Now, Nana shares it with her brothers and sisters. Your cousins all enjoy taking their vacations there. I was so excited to take you there for the first time! By the time we got there, Nana and Granky were already there and so happy to see us. Uncle Pat, Uncle Sean and Daddy arrived later that night, after you were in bed. With all those people, the house was pretty crowded, but that was okay!

That first night was a little exciting. Right after we got there, it started to rain. The rain turned into a bad thunderstorm and we lost power. That meant no working stove and no running water. We had sandwiches for dinner and sat around talking by candlelight. This was hard for Dillan for two reasons. First, he couldn't understand why we wouldn't turn the TV on. Second, he wanted to blow out the candles and couldn't figure out why we wouldn't let him. He thought they were like birthday candles. We spent most of the night trying to keep him from blowing them out!

When we woke up the next morning, the power was still out. I made breakfast for all of us on the grill and we talked about what to do. We knew if the power didn't come back on soon, we would have to go home. Luckily, it came back just before lunch time.

Unfortunately, the rain didn't really stop when the lights came back on. It rained off and on for most of the week. That didn't stop us, though. We still did a lot of fun things. We went to a dairy farm that we have been going to for a long time. We got ice cream, bought some homemade cheese and played at the petting zoo. You especially like the goat, which came right up to you and kind of licked your hand. One day, Mommy's friend Gina came over with her two kids and we spent the day playing at the pond. Another day, Nana and Granky took you to Portland to buy lobsters while Mommy and Daddy went canoeing. By Friday, the weather was nicer so we took you to Freeport for the day. We did a lot of shopping and even toured a vodka factory. Saturday was beautiful so we spent the morning at the pond swimming and then left for home in the late afternoon.

We arrived home around dinner time on Saturday night, tired but very happy with how well our first family vacation went. We can't wait for the next one, and for all the fun things we will do together as you get bigger.