Never a dull moment in the life of the Abbott's. Last weekend we headed down to Ludlow, VT for the wedding of a dear friend from my grad school days in Missoula, MT. Mic Metz was the "Dog Handler" in our wedding and decided to tie the knot with his long term partner, Lorraine. They also included their newly adopted son Brendan (age 7) and Lorraine's daughter Stephanie (age 13) in the nuptuals.
One of the best parts of the event was that the Woottons made the trek up to Vermont from Virginia for the event. Sarah also got to spend some fun years in Missoula in the EVST program and is one of the most loyal wedding attenders I know. For our own wedding, after being delayed for 24 hours getting out of Richmond, VA she hopped in the car and drove with her two small children to Vermont so she could catch the tail end of our wedding-- only to turn around the next day and drive 13 hours home. This time, she decided it might be easier to fly with her expanded brood of three (John-6, Lucy-3, and Henry-1.5) and husband. Unfortunately, there really aren't any airports near Ludlow...... so they flew into Boston and then had to drive five hours through Boston traffic only to turn around 36 hours later and return.
We rented a ski house with the Woottons and had a great time. Cally got to attend her first wedding-- all dolled up in a dress and Nana's homemade sweater. It was a very family friendly event, but even so, Cally managed to be the most vocal through the ceremony. Fortunately, the touching nuptuals were only 10 minutes long, but I cringed for my chatty daughter much of the time.........
This past weekend we were at one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
My dear friend Medora and her husband Spencer just celebrated ten years of marriage. To help them ring in the occasion, I offered to watch their kids and menagerie for the weekend (training began at 8am for the UVM Trek leaders, so John is head deep in that chapter of his year for the next couple of weeks. He was able to hang out with us Friday night, but was otherwise occupied). Addy is 8 and Tanner is 6. They adore Cally, love playing with her, live in a great place and are incredibly responsible.
On Friday afternoon we headed to the Addison Country Fair. First stop was the Children's Barn:
Next stop was the Dairy Barn:
We spotted the same pony ride operation that Cally had so adored in Bristol, VT on the 4th of July and got all fired up for Cally to ride Cookie again (she hasn't been able to stop talking about him for weeks and constantly wants to keep seeing the picture of her on him that is stored on my phone). As it turned out, Cally wanted nothing to do with riding a pony this time. She did, however, love watching her buddy Tanner enjoy his ride:
This year, the rides became a new element of Cally's visit to the fair and Tanner and Addy were so sweet about joining her on the less exciting "little kid" rides:
The rest of our weekend was spent with the menagerie-- which includes a miniature horse, a donkey, more than 20 chickens*, 4 roosters, 4 cats, and 7 dogs (plus Zephy). This is what a simple walk with the dogs looks like:
Cal and I had a great weekend with Addy and Tanner. It's so fun for Cally to get to hang out with such fun, responsible older kids. Most importantly, I know how much Medora and Spencer appreciated being able to get away for a weekend without the kids.
*Unfortunately, there may be a 2-3 fewer chickens after our visit. It turns out Zephy doesn't understand that these are egg layers, not meat birds for dogs :o(
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