Nana & Grandpa

We had a great weekend with Art and Peg!  The sun was shining and they got to see the kids try the new zipline!

 

Shelburne Orchard

The kids and I had such a perfect fall weekend.  John was on a weekend field practicum with his students and we decided to visit some of our favorite places-- Shelburne Orchard and Shelburne Farms.  We had so much fun!

They don't always get along, but this was a day that will forever be etched in my memory as a lovely day of being their mother. 

Harvest Market

We love Harvest Market.  It starts with a parade and involves tag sales and old fashioned activities:

Climbing the pole

Working on an banner

Playing his newly purchased game:  Battle Ship

Stowe

Hazey got invited to play in a soccer tournament in Stowe.  We decided to make a weekend of it and stay at Jamey and Paula's house in town.  It was a really fun weekend.  Hazey played three games and got his first two goals in a U10 game.  It was so fun to see him play with a bunch of his buddies. 

We also did some mountain biking and enjoyed being tourists in our own state. 

Tunbridge World's Fair

We love the Tunbridge Fair.  It's not close, but it's a great opportunity to see animals and go on some rides.

Unicorn Glow

Playing "school" in an old school house

Baby pigs

Art Hop

One of my favorite events in Burlington is art hop.  Usually, John and I go on our own.  This year we took the kids.  It was super cool!

Labor Day Fun

Labor Day weekend is such a gift.  It comes after a crazy month of work for John and is a welcome break after a quick start for my school year.  Because we had such a fun time at the Waterbury Reservoir last year, we decided to go for it again this year.  It's close, no reservations are necessary, and canoe camping is something we don't do very often. 

John was so eager to make sure we did this that he took part of his day off to paddle out to a site, set up a tent and reserve a spot for us.  It was perfect!

Because Zephy would be celebrating her 10th birthday while we were away, we decided we HAD to take her along.  She's actually pretty terrible in a canoe, but one land, she's wonderful. 

The kids were fired up about new hats they found for free at the end of their art teachers driveway:

We did a whole lot of hanging out:

But a trip across the reservoir to "jumping rock" was a part of each day:

And there were the mojitos:

Mostly, it was wonderful to have unstructured time to just be together:

On Sunday, the Mahoney family decided to join us for a night.  We left a canoe for them and they joined us by mid-afternoon.  The kids immediately wanted to head over to jumping rock, so we figured with life jackets on, they'd be all good. 

They made it across with only a little bit of rocking:

 But on the return, they got "pulled over" by the friendly ranger.  It turns out, Annika, who swims competitively, is required to have a life jacket.

So when the Dads went out to save the day and give Annie a PFD, they almost landed with a citation themselves.  Turns out we only had 5 PFD's and you must have one per person.

Later in the day, several kids and adults swam or were pulled to jumping rock, to avoid any citations. But our exit plan had to involve several trips, just to be sure we didn't get "pulled over" again.