Aunt Nif and cousin Will came up to Vermont for a visit. We haven't had an extended spell with the Niquettes in almost a year, so they were thrilled to get ot spend some time together. We had a bunch of items on our agenda for their visit.
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| stream walking at Mills River Park |
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| Tree climbing in Shelburne Bay |
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| Monkey kids |
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| Hikers |
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| Exploring caves at Smugglers Notch |
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| Spiral art at Ben and Jerry's |
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| sad to see a great thing die in the "Flavor Graveyard" |
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| tourists |
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| Playing at the Smugglers Notch Bike Park |
We also swam in the 8 pools at Smugglers Notch (slid and tubed down lots of slides and jumped across lily pads), lounged and played at the pool at Top Notch, made pizzas, had a campfire, and coerced Aunt Nif into helping us stack some wood (in the rain).
I left Nif and the kids on Wednesday to visit with my dear friend from graduate school in Bethel Maine. Her son Toby is my "fairy" god son. They were visiting from Colorado. We forgot to take a picture, but it was great to see Shannon, Toby, and Cassidy.
The following day, Nif drove all three kids to Connecticut and I drove to Bar Harbor Maine for another amazing visit with my college friends. I didn't realize how much I needed this break until I had it. I got to spend four nights and four full days laughing, cooking and eating delicious food, sleeping in, relaxing, hiking, running, and laughing more. Friendship really is one of the most important elixirs of life. Spending several days in a row with these old friends was magical.
Did I mention that the place we stayed at amazing house and woke up to these views of Hedge Hog Island? I am so lucky that my parents were willing to take the kids and friends that are willing to travel far to gather. I felt a level of peace and tranquility that I haven't achieved in a very long time.
And, the kids had an awesome time with Nif, Bumpa and Grandma. They were kept very busy-- swimming at Wee Burn, seeing an IMAX movie, going out on a catamaran, and jumping on the trampoline. Cally came back with a cute back to school outfit and Hazen perfected his flip on the diving board and trampoline.
