I’m really inexcusably late in recapping our all-too-brief trip to Maine this fall, but I so want to share these pictures.  I’ve thought back on this sunny, warm, happy weekend many times since our return.  It was just a perfect weekend – filled with friends and family and the wedding of two wonderful people.

At the end of September we traveled to Camden, Maine for my brother Dan’s wedding.  Dan and his then-fiancee (now wife!) Danielle had planned a sweet, personal ceremony that perfectly reflected the things they love most – their friends and family, and nature and the outdoors – and we were so happy that we were able to share it with them.  We arrived on the day before the wedding and Dan suggested that before the family dinner we had planned for the evening, we meet up for a walk on the beach and some shell collecting.  We picked our way slowly along the beach – it was rocky and tough for Peanut to negotiate – while Dan and Danielle ran back and forth bringing Peanut sand dollars.  Once we had collected a handful and gotten our jeans hems thoroughly wet, we headed over to a lobster restaurant for dinner with Dan’s and my parents, Danielle’s parents, and our close family friends.

Peanut rocked her “i love my uncle” shirt.

I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.  Also, who is that poking Peanut’s belly?

The wedding day dawned bright and sunny – perfect.  At Dan’s suggestion, we drove to the top of Mount Battie, a local lookout.  We’d have loved to hike it, but we didn’t have time for a big climb that morning – we had to get our scenery in, grab lunch and get back to the hotel for naps and cleanup in time to be on the dock at 2:30 promptly.  Wouldn’t want the schooner to sail without us!  So we drove.

The view was breathtaking.  This is where Dan proposed to Danielle.  Good work, right?

We did a little bit of exploring at the top of the mountain.  Peanut has adventure in her heart.

She was pretty annoyed that we didn’t let her run free and wild the whole time, but we were nervous – there were a lot of large rocks and… uh… a big hill that we didn’t want her to go rolling over.  So we cut off the explorations when they started to get a bit too adventurous and drove back to Camden.

Camden is a beautiful seaside town in coastal Maine.  We took some time walking up and down the main street and grabbed lunch overlooking the water at the Camden Deli.  Hubby was on a mission to eat lobster at every meal in Maine, so he had a lobster roll.  I went with seafood chowder and a bagel.  Yum.

That view!  Right?

After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a nap; I don’t know if hubby slept, but Peanut and I sacked out for about an hour and a half before hubby woke us up to get ready for the wedding!  We quickly showered, tamed Peanut’s wild mane of ginger curls, and headed down to the Camden Docks to meet up with the family.

Peanut was thrilled to see her grandparents, but a bit concerned about what we were doing standing around the water.

She was even less thrilled when her day included a hat and a life jacket.

Eventually we did let her take off the life jacket, as long as she was in the schooner’s cockpit and within arm’s reach of a parent or grandparent.

She had fun steering the boat with Grandad.  And yes, she is wearing a bracelet.  Can you even handle it?  I giggled at it all day long.  (Carter’s, for my mom friends.  It’s recommended three and up, but Peanut loves wearing “bracelets” – a.k.a. linking rings, plastic donuts and Mom’s ponytail ties – so I knew she’d leave the bracelet alone.)  She kept one hand on the wheel and the other hand with thumb firmly in her mouth.

The rest of us enjoyed the sun and the trip out onto the open water, until it was time for the ceremony.  I took tons of pictures, but I’m not going to post them, because it’s not my wedding.

After the ceremony, Peanut enjoyed some snuggles with Great-Grandmother…

And she pulled this lever, which was the one thing the captain asked her to please, please, please not touch.  Nothing happened, though – whew.  Toddlers, I tell ya.  I don’t even know how many times we shooed her away from the lever, but she found a way.

After the schooner docked, we headed up to a park overlooking the Camden harbor to take some pictures of the new Mr. and Mrs.  Peanut, of course, thought the picture-taking was all about her.  Of course Grandad can’t resist that little face, either.  But we did get some pictures with the happy couple, and I hope they’ll forgive me for sharing just a few.

Isn’t Danielle a beautiful bride?  And Maine is a beautiful place – I’m so glad we made it there at least once.  (Dan and Danielle moved to Colorado just a few days later.)  We had so much fun exploring the Camden area, even for a couple of days, and spending so much time with the bride and groom.  Now I’m scheming a way to get to Colorado to visit them in their new life out west.