I started vacationing up in Maine, right outside of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, ever since I think I was able to drive. A good friend and his family have a house on a lake up in Ellsworth and once they offered the house to us once, it became a family tradition. I started dating my wife Sandi when I was 19 and I took her up with me a year after we started dating. We traveled up there just about every year after, skipping a year here and there, but not many. In 2016, after 7 long years of struggling with infertility, Sandi was 8 months pregnant with our son when we decided to head up again before having him.

That year, which was 3 years after my Mom passed, we drove out to a tree that she had always taken pictures of. It’s a tree that sits all alone in a wide open wild blueberry field. It’s the most picturesque looking scene I think I’ve ever seen. There was always something special about that tree for me, and I wanted to give it an even more important meaning in my life… in my family’s life. I took a few maternity photos of Sandi at the tree that year and had the idea of going back to take a new photo every couple years of the two of them. This year, 2018, my son Luke turned 4 while we were up in Maine. I will admit, we had a busy year and were originally not going to go, but it was because of this one single photo that I decided to make the drive anyways. Luke turns four today, September 30th, but we celebrated his 4th birthday while we were up there with him. On Wednesday, we drove out to the tree and I was able to get the shot of Sandi and Luke together. You can see all three shots below. Not only did Luke get bigger with each photo, but so did the tree, interestingly enough.

We had a great week and stayed at a new place right in Acadia this year, just to switch things up a little. Having been two years since Luke had last been there, it was pretty neat to see just how different this trip was for him. Much better on his feet compared to the last time, he was a lot more adventurous and if anything I had to constantly keep my eye on him as he had no fear. Both Sandi and I bring our cameras with us no matter where we go when we’re up there. We also make it a point to only have them out for short periods of time. Each and every year while I’m there, I tell myself to put the camera down. Each and every year once I get back home and see the edited photos in a gallery, I tell myself I should have taken more.

2016 Adventures