Pat's Fishing Trip

Here are the Camp pics. My friend Dan Smith and I went up to my camp to do some 4-wheeling and fishing. Had a great time and caught a bunch of fish.

Dans wall mounter. It's at least 4 inches.
This was a small mud hole on our way up Washington Bald Mt.
A shot from behind.
We found this outhouse at a camping spot. It doesn't hold a torch to ours back at camp. We have a two holer with walls and a door.
This pic is out of order. We both made it through the brook. This is my happy face.
We thought we should try to cross this brook. Those timbers are the old bridge that is no more.
Dan, blazing the trail.
Up wasn't so easy.
Here I go. This was the easy part down.
The CHUB no one likes them but there fun to catch!!
I think this is our first fishing hole we tried we got a couple of nice ones.
I got this shot of a nice brookie. I bagged this one.
My friend Dan Smith with a prize brookie.

Nature Journal: American Dagger Moth Caterpillar

We found this fuzzy little guy climbing up the side of the house today and decided he was a good specimen for our nature journals! He curled up into a ball and didn't move for quite a while so it was a great chance for the kids to get a good look at him and draw him in their journal. We had to look up his name online because we could not find him in our ID books!
Here is a site with more info: Bug Guide Site.

James, Ethan, and Emmy were too busy smiling for this pic to notice our little fuzzy friend escaping! You can just barely see him on the far left top side of the leaf!!

Bye little fuzzy!

Beech Hill Farm and Bison Ranch

On Thursday we went on a field trip with the homeschoolers to the Beech Hill Farm and Bison Ranch in North Waterford Maine. We tagged along with another group from Maine so there ended up being LOTS of homeschoolers! There were about 40 to 50 people in all! First we started out by learning about the Bison and about the farm on their beautiful enclosed sun porch! Here is a photo of some of the kids while listening to the owners talk about their farm:We then went outside to see this cute little 4 month old baby who is actually a twin that was abandoned by his mom so the owners took over care of him and feed him by hand! Here he is anxiously awaiting his milk!He can't get enough of the "white stuff" which is actually goats milk and the owners have to quickly snatch the pail out of the pen when he finished!This is a life size portrait of the big daddy bison Chief! Danyelle and James and posing for a pic:Elijah, Danyelle, James, Hannah and Ethan with "Chief".Next we headed off to the see the big guys! Beckah and Emmy got to enjoy a wagon ride too!This is the real Chief! He is about 2300 pounds!!!

All the kids got to feed the bison apples by rolling them under the electric fence!

Emmy and James posing with one of the smaller bison.Mrs. Jette and Bekah were tired out by the end of the trip and had to be rolled back to the car in the stroller! (Just kidding!-)
A group photo at the end of the day:

Maine Wildlife Park

Sunday afternoon after camping with Nana and Bumpa we headed to Gray, Maine to the Maine Wildlife Park. There we met my mom, which was a surprise to the kids! Here are some pics from our afternoon!

Mimi with Emmy, James and Ethan.

Daddy and Mollie!

The first stop was an educational building with all sorts of activities involving the animals in Maine. Here James is enjoying the furs of different small mammals:

Here Ethan is testing his knowledge with a sorting game:

There were more than 25 species of Maine wildlife! Here is one of the Bobcats: A fisher cat:This one is a little blurry but he is a very LARGE mountain lion!
Posing in the gazebo: We got to feed this bear by tossing food over the top of his pen!
And here are couple of very strange looking bears:
We also took a break and enjoyed some ice cream sandwiches, Mollie had one all to herself which was a special treat because we usually share with her!
There was a big deer yard with lots of does, fawns and a couple of bucks! We even got to feed this one some corn!
Emmy posing in front of the flowers on our way out! Mimi then treated us to Texas Roadhouse in Portland! The ribs there are the best!!!! Thanks Mimi!!!!!!!!!!

Trick or Treat???

I know this is the wrong time of year but the campground where Nana and Bumpa Kelley stay during the summer had a fun afternoon of "trick-or-treating" and dress-up on Saturday! Here are the kids in their costumes from the 4th of July parade which worked out great for this!

The boys pulled the girls around the campground in the wagon! Everyone thought they were too cute!!Smile little buck-a-roos!We then had a great time at the Lobster bake and camping in the tent! Thanks Nana and Bumpa for a fun weekend!!

A Day at the Ocean

A couple of weeks ago we visited Crescent Beach with some of our friends. It was a gorgeous day in the 70's with a nice breeze! Here are some pics from our day:

It was low tide so we had lots of fun exploring the tide pools! Here is Mollie checking out a periwinkle:
James looking for creatures:

Here is the tiny little crab he found!

Here is the crew from left to right: Ian, Elijah, James, Emmy, Danyelle, Ethan, Cameron, and Mollie in the front!

Hole digging was a big hit too! I think they were aiming for China but didn't quite make it!
Ian and James in the hole!
Emmy with her bucket.
Mollie having fun with a boat!
Elijah and Ethan.
Once the tide started coming in the kids had lots of fun playing in the waves!

Mollie and Mommy on the beach.

Cameron and Emmy had fun digging in someones abandoned hole near the water. This hole was under water before we left and they moved in to the next hole!

Emmy in the new not "underwater" hole!