This Olde House: Molly's New England Tour

Molly is still in the midst of her New England Tour - Summer '10 (sorry, all commemorative t-shirts and posters have already sold out), but we thought we'd share a taste of what we've been up to.

Falmouth, MA:

As you saw from our last post, the trip didn't start out the best as we made our way up to New England. Molly made her hatred of the car seat well known and what should have been a roughly 8 hour car ride turned into a 12+ hour car ride thanks to traffic and the more frequent stops a baby requires.

Eventually we got to Falmouth and it was all worth it. The weather was beautiful on race day and TEAM HOULI made a strong showing. While the final numbers aren't in yet, as of race day the team had raised over $22,000 for the Foundation! Thank you to all who contributed.

New Harbor, ME:

Once again Molly decided we needed to get up earlier than we planned. So instead of waking up at 5:30am, we were on the road somewhere between 5am and 5:30am (Molly woke up at 4:30). This worked well as Molly slept for the first hour of the trip and then was relatively peaceful for the next half-hour. Unfortunately, that's about when she realized she was in a car seat. Again. I'm sure Molly was quite shocked to realize this as she'd made her point about car seats just a few days prior. Just be safe though, she made her point for the remainder of the drive to Maine.

While the drive to Maine was not Molly's best moment, her time at the cottage the Poulin's rented was up there vying for the best times of Molly's life. The whole week she was pretty much nothing but smiles, and for good reason. The cottage was amazing. Located right on the ocean, the cottage had a huge, three-tired deck that opened onto the rocks, a beautiful porch (part of which was screened in), wireless internet (not that anyone spent much time online), ceiling fans in every room (a favorite of Molly's), and more. Even when the weather was "bad" it was beautiful. The sound of the waves crashing and the fresh ocean air were a perfect combination for relaxation.

As you can imagine, between the two of us, Katie's parents, and her brother and his fiance, there were more than a few photos taken. Here is but a smattering:

The above shot was taken from the porch of the cottage.

(Thanks to our friends Mark and Courtney for the awesome outfit)

Molly and Mike spent a fair amount of the time in some variation of this pose. Between the two of them, I'm not sure which one was more content.

Molly had her first Maine lobster, courtesy of Uncle Nate and Aunt Ellete...

...but that doesn't mean she wasn't still a little skeptical of Nate.

While the audio is not the best, you get the idea.

Winslow, ME:

Eventually though, every good time must come to an end. Well, that's not completely true. While we did have to leave the cottage, we were still able to enjoy ourselves and the additional help with Molly for a few days longer back at the Poulin's. Molly did relatively well with the third brand-new places in just over a week. She also did really well with the drive from the coast inland. Since the Poulins' were the ones driving her, they couldn't believe she didn't like car rides and were relatively pleased with themselves. Little did they know...

Bangor, ME:

Luckily our visit coincided with a surprise house-warming party in Bangor for Katie's cousin. It was great to see family, show off Molly, and enjoy in celebrating the successful step of becoming home-owners.

Keene, NH:

On the way up to Maine Molly had passed through New Hampshire, but had not really officially been there. It was just as well that we were able to add NH to Molly's list of states with a trip to see my grandmother in Keene.

The car trip was more than Molly's limit of about 1 hour, I'll leave it at that.

It was great to be able to introduce Molly to more of my family, especially because we aren't able to get up there as often as we'd like. The visit was wonderful, and despite not having the best trip there, Molly did her best to impress yet again (and she did impress). Molly showed off some of her tricks including rolling over and practicing to become a brass player by buzzing her lips (she could probably amuse herself for hours doing this). Molly even proved she knew how to nap.

Arlington, MA:

Molly's nap in Keene meant she was well rested for the trip to Arlington to meet her other uncle and aunt and her cousins Jack and Nate. Thankfully Katie had figured out that episodes of Sesame Street on the iPad could keep Molly's mind off the evils of the car seat for awhile. So, thank you Apple (we just wish we'd thought of this earlier).

The visit with Molly's cousins was brief yet fun. Jack was especially excited to finally meet Molly. Seeing a three-year old and a 13-month old full of energy though was a bit scary. If it were possible to somehow harness their energy the energy demands of the US would be met for years.

We were able to calm everyone down enough to grab a picture or two of the cousins.

Winslow, ME:

Unfortunately, the combination of a long day of driving and it being well past bedtime meant even the power of the iPad was not able to stave off Molly's displeasure for the ride back to Winslow. While no real good came of this, the Poulins were able to witness first hand what Katie and I had been talking about for the past week and a half. I'm pretty sure they believe us now.

The other unfortunate thing about the drive back to Winslow was that it meant my vacation was at an end. I stayed the night at Jack and Nate's house and headed back to DC the next morning. It was great to spend more time with everyone, but I was exhausted even after just a few hours - I'm not really sure how Steven and Lauren do it.

If you've noticed a theme throughout this retelling of the trip, it's that Molly does not like to spend long amounts of time strapped into the car seat. And really, who can blame her? I wouldn't enjoy being strapped in to something and traveling backward for hours on end. Especially when I'm used to being able to move about. So with that all in mind, the plans for getting Katie and Molly back to DC changed and instead of driving (for what would likely be a 15 - 16 hour trip), Katie and Molly are going to fly back. Luckily it won't just be Katie on the flight with Molly, as her mom will also be coming down. Hopefully the extra set of hands will make the trip a lot less stressful.