Vermont 2011

When I realized that we had a three day weekend, thanks to Columbus, I immediately started planning our annual Fall trip. Seeing cute little New England towns and beautiful scenery is something that makes me happy so despite the fact that we all had way too much to do--we went on a mini vacation. I started my planning by looking up hotels until Mike suggested we go camping. That sounded like a great idea, plus I had remembered that some friends of mine were already going to be camping up at Camp Joseph that weekend. Camping had many benefits. The kids got to practice their fire building skills, we saved money on food since we cooked our own breakfast and dinner, we had a great time visiting with friends, we enjoyed time relaxing and being together as a family ,

and the scenery at Camp Joseph was breathtaking.

If anyone is interested in camping here--it is a wonderful site. Flush toilets, nice camping sites, beautiful, and right near the visitors center associated with Joseph Smith's birthplace. Plus, it is a quick drive to some great tourist attractions.

I believe our favorite attraction was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where we got to see them making the cider.

That not so attractive looking mush is actually appley goodness. Since we had fresh apple cider donuts in hand and were standing right next to the free cider we stayed and watched the whole pressing process. The amount of cider that comes out of those apples was impressive. The cider, by the way, was the best I had ever had.

Even though we had already had our dessert, we decided to have lunch at the Pie in the Sky.

Since we were in Vermont, we ordered the Vermonter. Ham, apples, and Vermont cheddar, a surprisingly yummy combination. Then we headed out for our second round of dessert. This time we were sadly disappointed. The weather that weekend was outstanding so I think everyone from New England decided to go to Ben and Jerry's to enjoy ice cream in perfect ice cream weather. Since we had already taken the tour the last time we were here, we decided that an hour plus line for ice cream did not sound like fun. Being resourceful, we went to the nearest grocery store and had everyone pick their own personal size container of ice cream. Everyone was happy and we saved both time and money!

We had enough extra time to drive by the Von Trapp Family Lodge and later enjoyed the free samples at Cabot's cheese store.

We also decided that we had to go see the Vermont State House in Montpelier. I think we'd worn the kids out by this time, they opted to stay in the car.

Hurricane Irene was nice enough to leave our area alone but Vermont did not get so lucky. While we were at church we learned that several people in the congregation had lost their homes. Here's a few photos of some of the devastation that we saw. All along the riverbanks, trees were flattened.

Much of the debris had been cleaned up but some remained.

Many covered bridges were closed. This one had a gaping hole halfway through as well as damage to the side.

This area was particularly bad. Around the corner we walked by a storefront where the back of the store was completely gone. It was eyeopening to see the damage first hand and made me very grateful that Irene blew off its initial path which had been right through our town.

On our last day we had a very enjoyable visit to Sugarbush Farm where we had more cheese tasting and quite a bit of cheese buying. Then we saw the Queeche Gorge before we headed for home.

The Fall colors were quite a bit less vivid this year. Some say it was Irene's fault. But even without the colors, Vermont was beautiful and we can't wait for our next Fall trip.

Something Smells Fishy

This fall we decided to sign up for a Community Supported Fishery called Cape Ann Fresh Catch. Every other Monday we go to the drop off location and receive a whole fish-or several if they are smaller. (If only it were a dark alley, out of a white nondescript van--then you could really call it fishy). These fish were caught fresh that morning, they really haven't even had time to smell fishy yet. We could have chosen to get them filleted but Mike wanted the "extras" for a fish stock so I told him that would be fine as long as he prepped and cooked the fish. True to his word, Mike has scaled, cleaned, filleted, and cooked every fish. He has even come home early to do it! (Had I known that the secret to getting him home early was a fresh fish. . . ) So far we have had haddock, hake, grey sole, and blue fish. The kids have been great at eating the fish, their favorite was the blue fish. So now my kids eat seafood, drop their Rs, and use the word wicked in everyday conversation. What's next?

Another Year

Tomorrow is Halloween so I figured I had better post the first day of school pictures. These last two months have worn me out. School age kids are a lot of work! Music lessons, dance lessons, homework help (thank goodness they've finally realized they have to ask dad for math and science help), lists of office supplies and clothes to buy, making lunches for the kids, seminary driving, the to-do list goes on but I'll stop there, you get the idea.Here is the beautiful Miss Rachael.

This is the second picture I took of Geoffrey. I can't remember how I got him to actually smile for this photo because the first one looked like I had just told him that he would now be sharing a room with all three of his sisters.

Miss Lilly-still bouncy, still full of life, still unpredictably passionate.

The first picture is Reagan on her first day of Kindergarten-with mom. We had a great visit together to her classroom. Her teacher is Mrs DeMaria and she is very nice.

This is Reagan for her first official day of Kindergarten. She was a little less nervous this day and quite excited about riding the bus to school.

She was also thrilled that mom had done her hair. Actually I was really good at doing her hair the whole first week of school. Now we have reverted back to pony tails and me feeling pretty happy if I just get all (most) of the tangles out of her hair. I think that's the key for this busy year. I've set high expectations for myself and my kids this year. But when we've done our best, the best has to be good enough.

Family Photos

This summer we finally had a new set of pictures taken. I loved the ones we took in the Fall a few years ago so much that I hesitated to take new ones. But these turned out great too. Here are some of my favorites--okay, so there are a lot of favorites. You'll probably be forced to see these again if we actually manage to get Christmas cards out this year. These were taken at Larz Anderson Park.

Lilly's Spa Party

Lilly decided on a Spa party for her 10th birthday. I did my best to make the dining room look like a spa by putting up lights, lighting candles, and setting out fresh flowers and spa equipment. Half of the girls did facials. . .

while the other half of the group got their toe nails painted by my good friend Jen.

Then they switched. I should have gotten a picture of all of the toenails. They were fabulous with all sorts of bright beautiful colors, stickers and jewels. We also made bath salts. They got to choose the color and scent for their own bag of bath salts. They also decorated a nice Almond smelling bar of soap. The girls decorated them with stickers and coated the soap with Mod Podge. I also sent them home with fingernail polish, a shower poof, and headbands from the facials.

I loved this party so much, I think I want a spa party for all of my friends!

Happy 10th Birthday Lilly. We love you!

Summer Swimming

Much of our summer was spent swimming at Rosemary Pool. I was very impressed with their progress this year. Lilly learned to do the front crawl, passed the deep water test, and went from level three to level four. Reagan learned to jump off the diving board, swim underwater, swim from the diving board to the rope, and went from level one to level three. For the first time ever I didn't have a little kid that I had to watch every second at the pool so I really enjoyed our afternoons at the pool and was sad to see the pool close for the season.

Peaches

I canned my first batch of peaches!! Peaches went on sale for .79/lb and the local store so two of my friends and I got together and canned a giant batch of peaches. We had fun and I am looking forward to eating those peaches while I look out the window at mountains of snow this January.