Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Farmington this year. It had been ten years since we'd been down to share the holiday with Nana and Grandpa, so we decided to see what we had been missing.  Peg has hosted Thanksgiving for 52 years! 

It was a gorgeous few days in Farmington.  John and I got to get out to meet some of his old friends for a drink on Wednesday for cocktail hour.  We came home to cook dinner for the hosts and then we went on a date to Ikea in New Haven.  I know, kind of random, but we wanted to avoid traffic and we knew exactly what we wanted so we arrived at 8:50pm and were out by 9:00.  On the way home, we stopped through Waterbury to see Mark play at a bar.  It was so great to see him in action. 

We spent quite some time on the bike path over the river

The kids got gussied up and the meal was delicious.   Peg and Lynn spent much of Wednesday preparing for the feast and they took care of almost everything.  It felt so strange not to be cooking.

It was great to see the Jones family:

 

While we were gone, our friends the McNight/Roberts family had stayed at our house and taken care of the pets.  Michael's mom lives in Underhill and they wanted a little more space.  Their son, Dean, is Cally's age so it was fun to have them staying with us for the weekend upon our return.  Dean and the kids have met before, but they quickly bonded and were fun slumber buddies. 

I'm so thankful that we got to spend time with John's family and eat a lovely meal.  Art and Peg were wonderful hosts and the kids loved seeing the Abbott side of the family.  We got home in time to hang out with friends and ski a few days.  Seeing the kids rip turns down the mountain was a major high light.

Birthday Guy

This guy is 52!  And we made it special.  First John and I skinned up Smuggs on a gorgeous day.  Then we went out to dinner with friends and hit a UVM hockey game. 

The day after his birthday, we had a first-- the kids hiked and skied at Smuggs.  We carried their skis, but they hiked. 

And it was so fun!

There was just enough snow at home for this guy to make his first snow man of the season.  He worked hard!

And a birthday wouldn't be complete without a cake from Cynthia:

Happy Birthday Johnny!  Hope all your dreams come true.  We are so glad that you are back. 

Montreal!

It's been a while since we made it up to Montreal as a family.  What a difference a few years can make!  The kids were so much more excited to try new food and explore.  John was up in the big city for an AEE conference (Association of Experiential Educators), so we decided to join him for the last few nights.  I think we had as close to a perfect weekend as we could have had.

We started with dinner at a great Ethiopian spot with a crew of fun UVM students who were up at the conference.  Hazey managed to run into a parking meter on the way, but he survived:

Unicorn bump

 On Saturday morning, we started out with some delicious crepes and then headed to the Old Port to hit the IMAX movie about Predators.  It was a chilly walk by the water, but a gorgeous day.

The IMAX theater is at the Science Museum.  We'd been a few times, but this time the kids got pretty into it.

Pretending to Dog Sled

Making a Bridge

We were having so much fun, but we needed to take a break for lunch.  Hazey had poutine and we had kabobs

 We headed back to the Science Museum to spend the afternoon in the Maker Space.  It was amazing!

Egg Drop Challenge

Playing with electricity

floating a boat

 We had a fun dinner at a small Italian restaurant.

On Sunday, we managed to hike up Mont Royal-- all 400 steps.  It was such a fun adventure.

Our weekend ended with a chaotic trip to Ikea.  It was a first for John.  Quite an experience.