Vermont Vacation

This weekend we went up to Vermont with The Munsells. Mommy has been before but I haven't been and neither have the both of you. We stayed in a nice little farm house completely out in the boonies. We saw maybe 2 or 3 cars passing the road by the house the whole time we were there.

The house had a nice view of the valley below. We were perched just under a small mountain called Glebe Mountain.

We arrived late late on Friday night. It took 4 hours or so to drive up after we got home from work. The next morning the Munsell's had made a pancake breakfast and some fresh coffee was brewing. After breakfast we headed outside to look around.

There were lots of pretty flowers in the back yard.

If you look closely you can see yourself playing by the water.

Yeah there was water! A big pond in the back. It had a couple lily pads growing here and there.

Hmm. What does Caden see? That boy has eagle eyes. Something is over there.

Frogs! Lots of them. I thought you might be a little scared at first but Jeffrey, the older boy in the picture, loves catching frogs and grasshoppers and that seemed to get you excited. So much of the weekend was spent catching frogs with little green nets.

Mommy didn't seem too thrilled at first.

You made a lot of valiant attempts but you never caught one. Luckily Jeffrey was a pro and you were able to see lots of them.

Poor Caden will have to wait until next year.

You did catch a snail though. Lots of those in the pond. And they don't move very fast.

Everything in Vermont was picture postcard perfect. Very rustic red barns and farmers markets and wildlife.

Since Caden couldn't catch frogs he practiced his getting into trouble and throwing things at people.

And you and Jeffrey just kept trying to catch more and more frogs.

Almost!

Caden had fun with mommy though.

Ohh! Jeffrey caught a teeny tiny frog. His mom let you put it into your hand. You can barely see it.

Oh no! He got away.

Here's a big one. The really big ones weren't nearly as afraid as the smaller ones. You could get up pretty close to them.

They loved hanging out in the lily pads.

Here's Jeffrey's stash. I'm not sure why he was collecting them.

All that frog catching though is tiring. Luckily we had nothing to do but lounge around all day.

After that we did a little croquet. You needed a little bit of help to move that big mallet.

Mommy also brought some arts and crafts stuff up to keep you all busy.

And then the Munsell's pulled out a couple of remote control boats. You'll have to ask mommy about that. I took a nap.

After a little rest we walked up the road a little. A nice farmer asked me if both of you wanted to see some cows. Duh. He had lots of chickens. This was the prettiest one.

He even let all of you go and grab one egg from the chicken coup. Don't drop it!

Then in the back he showed us his cows. A newborn is on the left. I asked him why he had the cows and he said to look at. He wasn't a real farmer in the sense he made food for people. He just liked the idea of raising some animals and relaxing on his land.

This one had a crooked set of horns. The farmer wasn't sure why.

This one charged up to us when he saw us. Not aggressively. Just to say hello. You were a little scared though.

On the way back we found a furry caterpillar in the middle of the road. You thought he was very cute. At least until we found out that he was stuck to your clothes. It was quite hard to get him off.

After that we headed back for a bath and then of course you all wanted to go outside again.

Still looking for frogs.

After we got you inside, we cooked the food we bought from the local markets. Then we all watched The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginnings. We couldn't get anyone away from the TV.

The next morning we made omeletes for breakfast. The farmer's eggs were bright yellow. They definitely looked a lot better than the ones from the store. We'll have to go back to that farmer for more.

Out on the porch you helped feed Caden which you are good at doing now.

And then you and Caroline started jumping off the porch. Superjump!

Then we went for a drive up to Stratton which is a ski hill. Of course there was no snow to ski on but you could still take a gondola ride to the top to enjoy the view.

It's not a huge ski hill but it was a pretty day to be out.

Obligatory tourist picture.

We did a little hike to a lookout tower.

And you were very interested in picking flowers for mommy.

One last view before we head down.

Here's some footage of the ride up:


And here's one of the frogs we caught: