Miss Mia was such a happy little traveler. She slept most of the time and when she was awake she played with Nana who was nice enough to come with us and keep Mia company in the back seat. Mia and Nana played patty cake, Mia had the clapping part down before we left, but learned "roll it" on the way to Maine and "throw it in the oven" on the way home. She also learned to say "Mama Mama Mom Mama Mom Mom" over and over. I love that she can say it now, but I'll be happy when she says "Dada" just to mix things up.

Mia got to meet so many people and was really good about it. We stopped in Ohio on the way out to Maine and there she made fast friends with all my cousins' kids and they all loved her. In Maine we stopped at my cousin Brad's house and met his baby Gabe who is 3 months old. Mia just wouldn't stop staring at him. She's never seen a boy smaller than her only girls. She met my mom's two sisters, my eldest cousin, her daughter and 4 year old grandson who didn't want anything to do with a baby. We drove up to Houlton, which is on the border of Canada, to see my dad's youngest sister, her husband and their eldest daughter and her 3 daughters one of which is only a few weeks younger than Mia. Scarlett is the little girl's name which makes me smile a little because they picked the name while my cousin was pregnant not even considering the fact the baby may have red hair (both parents are brunette). 

The real reason for us going to Maine was to give both my grandmothers the chance to meet Mia. My dad's mom, Nan, tried to hold Mia for a little while, but she's just too squirmy. She did have fun playing peek-a-boo with her though. My mom's mom didn't even attempt to hold her. She's going to be 95 in a few weeks and she's very frail so there was no way she would've been able to hold her. She just enjoyed admiring her while someone else held her or while she played on the floor.

The funniest introduction was my uncle Joe. Joe is my dad's younger brother. He's 2 years younger than my dad and looks very much like him, but is not quite as silver, slightly shorter and thinner. When we arrived at Joe's house he was working so we visited with his girlfriend, Lynn, and Nan. When he arrived home Lynn was holding Mia and she saw him on the dark porch through the window on the door and got very excited. When he came through the door and was right up close to her she looked at his face for a second and started to cry. This was the only time she cried when meeting a new person the whole trip and I think it was because she thought he was Papa until she got a closer look and then she was confused. She stared at Joe the rest of the time we were there trying to figure him out, but wouldn't go to him.

We didn't get to do any tourist stuff while we were in Maine at all because we were far too busy running from house to house trying to see all the family we still have there. So we decided to go home through the Green Mountains in Vermont to at least see some pretty scenery. We stopped at one look out where this picture was taken.

We managed to fit everything that we needed to do in, but I don't think we'll ever drive out for only a week's vacation again. It sure would be nice to have more time to actually relax on vacation.