Next Stop - Acadia National Park

Before we left Boston we attended church at a local ward. The members were really nice. They saw us and their eyes enlarged - a family with five young boys is pretty exciting to a small ward. They were a little disappointed when they found out we were only passing through. Oddly enough, we sat in front of a family with three boys that had actually just moved in. We quickly introduced them to the ward members and all was well in the world again!

After church we were on the road again. Luckily this time it only took us about five hours to reach our destination. It was a beautiful drive. The closer we got the more excited I became. We took the scenic route, so we were able to see some neat towns and beautiful scenery.

We arrived in Acadia National Park about an hour or so before dark. We were camping so we had to hurry and set up camp. When we got to our campsite Chad gave out the orders and the boys set to work. They did a great job. With their help the tent was up in no time!

We were also in a hurry because we wanted to go to The Great Maine Lumberjack Show. It was the last night the show was on while we would be in Acadia. It looked like a lot of fun. We made it to the show just in time.

The show was a little more hometown than we expected it to be, but it was a lot of fun. They had four lumberjacks split into two teams. The crowd was also split into two cheering teams. Our family was right in the middle so half of us were on the red team and the others were on the green team. The lumberjacks competed in several events. They did and obstacle course with a chain saw, axe throwing, speed climbing up a pole, log rolling and more.

Austin was a little unnerved by the sound of the chainsaws. He immediately put his hood up and covered his ears. His hands basically stayed there the entire show!

At intermission they invited the kids in the audience to come up and try to cut a log with the two man saw. Tanner, Kaden, and Trevor were game, but Devon was a little unsure. I went up to the stage with the boys to take their picture, so Devon came with me. Kaden and Trevor went first and then it was Tanner and Devon's turn.

Devon suddenly decided he didn't want to do it. I tried to help him by telling him I would do it with him, but he still wouldn't budge. Tanner ended up sawing the log with one of the lumberjacks.

At the beginning of the show they taught us the lumberjacks call, Yo-Ho! Throughout the show we had several opportunities to practice the call. Near the end of the show the MC picked four people from the crowd to participate in the Yo-Ho Contest. Trevor got the honor of being one of the four contestants. Trevor was the last one to give the call.

He did great and ended up winning the contest! We are so proud of our Yo-Ho Pro!! Trevor was very excited! He received a wooden medallion and skittles!! He was beaming!

At the end of the show the boys got to get all the lumberjacks autographs. Very exciting!

It was a fun night, but it wasn't over yet. We had to run into to town to get some much needed supplies (remember we were camping). One important thing on our list . . . a sleeping bag. Before we left on this trip we checked to see what supplies we needed and we found that we needed some sleeping bags. We looked at several stores and found a good deal on three sleeping bags. Well, when we unpacked the car at the campsite one of the new sleeping bags was missing. Chad was sure he had packed it, but we couldn't find it anywhere, so we had to bite the bullet and buy another sleeping bag (which killed Chad because it wasn't as nice as the one we had already purchased). We did find the missing sleeping bag the next day - it was packed away a backpack. Oh well, Tanner loved the sleeping bag.

Our last stop before retiring for the night was dinner. It was pretty late by then, but we were all very hungry so we stopped at Friendlys. We had never been there before, but the boys loved it. It is just like a Denny's restaurant, but better. The employees were all very friendly - seriously. One of the reasons the boys loved it was because the menus were made to look like video game controllers. The other reason was because of desert. They all ordered different kinds of ice cream. They loved it, you would have thought they died and went to heaven. (These aren't the best pictures, but I had to include them anyway.)