As promised, here is a look back at our summer vacation to Vermont!!  We usually take an early fall trip to OBX, but this year we decided to do something different.  With all the kids getting older, it's getting harder to go during school, and perhaps last year's less than stellar house and lousy weather soured us a little bit on the beach!  So this year, we decided to head north - in July!!

We headed out on Friday afternoon.  The kids and I drove downtown to pick Mitch up at his office and left from there.  This first leg of the drive wasn't too pleasant - it poured the whole time!!

But we managed to make our way to Parsippany, NJ, where we all got a good night's sleep at a very clean, pleasant, recently renovated Hampton Inn.

On Saturday morning, it was time to hit the road again - and luckily, the weather was beautiful.

It was a looooooooong drive, but we finally made it to VERMONT.  We hadn't been up there since Evan was 11 months old.

Of course, making it to VT was one thing.  It was another couple of hours before we made it to our final destination - this 100+ year old farmhouse on Lake Champlain in South Hero.

As you can see, it had a LOVELY, huge veranda.  A lot of time was spent out there!!

Much time was also spent in the back yard where there was a lovely hammock, and a swing.

We all also all spent a lot of time in, around, or near the water!

There was as nice state park a few miles north of where we were with a great beach.

Some major highlights of the week for me were visits with long lost friends.  That is something I can be thankful to Facebook for!

Ok - check out this picture:

The other red head in the picture, standing right next to me is Tina.  My family and hers lived across the street from each other as kids - it's probably been more than 30 years since I've seen her.  Next to her, in the pink shirt is Sue.  She and I were in high school together - she was a couple years ahead of me, but we were good friends because we were in drama together.  It's been at least 25 years since I've seen her.  She ended up going to college with Tina and they have been friends ever since.  On the end is Laurie.  She went to a different high school than Sue and I, but we became friends through drama festivals and another organization we all belonged to called GMTI.  Again, at least 25 years since I last saw her.  Growing up she took years of dance lessons.... with Tina.  Through Facebook, we all found each other and discovered we were connected.  Sue and Tina still live in Vermont, Laurie lives in Georgia.  When we discovered that Laurie and I would both be visiting VT at the same time, we of course had to get together!  We met for lunch at a fun restaurant on the water in Burlington.  It was so surreal, and SO much fun!

This is another Sue!  She and I (and her husband Andy) went to high school together.  She recently adopted this beautiful little girl, Marah Lynn!  Feeling newly connected because the adoption experience, we wanted to get together.  We met for dinner one evening and shared our adoption stories with each other.  Though Tyler is our adoptee, he wasn't interested in going to a restaurant with mommy (too much fun stuff to do and people to hang out with at the house!), so I brought Maddy.

The two girls bonded! :)

Mitch and I got the opportunity to go out alone one night while my sister babysat our brood.  We headed to a dive bar in Essex Junction to hear a fabulous musical duo.  Half of that duo is my dear old friend Shaun.  We were very close friends through junior high and high school, and even went to the same college.  He was a year ahead of me and we lost touch after the first couple of years at St. Mike's.  It's been over 20 years since I've seen him.  He is married and also has 3 kids, but all boys!

Great music and a spectacularly fun night.  Mitch and I had a blast!!

Another fabulous visit during the week was with my friend Julie!!!!!  Julie and I go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.  We were in the same first grade class.  Then I moved away and we didn't see each other until one time in high school at a soccer game - she and I both did stats for varsity boys soccer and my school traveled to her school one game.  After that, we ended up at college together - living on the same floor of the same dorm and studying THE SAME MAJOR!!  So much of our four years at St. Mike's was spent together, and we have remained close ever since.  After college, she moved to NYC.  Then I moved to NYC.  Then she moved to Virginia.  Then I moved to Virginia.  Anyway, over a decade ago, she went to live in Nice, France on a Fulbright scholarship.  She was only supposed to be gone a couple of years.  I told her she was going to meet a nice Frenchman, get married and not move back. She told me I was crazy.

She met a nice Frenchman, got married, and hasn't moved back.  But luckily for all of us that love her, she visits.  And extremely lucky for me that I was going to be in Vermont during her 7 week visit there this summer!  She and her two lovely daughters met up with me, Mitch, and the boys at the state park.

Evan and Estelle played wonderfully together for hours!

Tyler and Lena played around each other!  That's very typically Tyler! :)

After the beach, they came back to the house to hang for a while.

It was a lovely day and I'm so grateful we got to visit!

We also got to see some family!!!  My Aunt Lynda (my dad's sister), Uncle See See, and cousin Todd came up one morning.  It was great to see them!!

Mads took a shine to Toddy - like mother, like daughter! When we were kids, I used to follow Todd EVERYWHERE!  I think I drove him a little crazy :)!

I couldn't spend a summer week in Vermont without bringing Mitch and the kids to one of my favorite childhood places:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!C R E E M E E S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YUM!!!

It was such a great week, and the weather was perfect all but maybe one day.  But sadly, like all vacations, it had to come to an end.  We did the return trip all in one day.  It was a looooooooong trip. 



 

Maddy fussed pretty much the entire trip, save for the maybe 45 minutes that she slept.  It was pretty brutal.  But was it worth it??  Um, yes.  Except for our honeymoon and our 2006 trip to Australia, this was probably my favorite vacation ever.  I hope that everyone else had a good enough time that they'll agree we should return in 2012!!!  :)