We're back from Vermont

Well we just got back from our trip to rural southern Vermont. D and I had a great time and we loved every minute of it. We had 4 days of relaxation, romance and quiet. The kids stayed with D's mom and we are so grateful that she was able to watch them for that long. Our bed and breakfast was so cozy, historic, and the staff was so accommodating and gracious. We spent our time trail running, shopping, talking, taking pictures, touring small historic towns, and eating delicious food. Our daily routine consisted of getting up around 8:00 a.m. We ate breakfast at the inn and their meals were all delicious overfilling meals. After breakfast we figured out which trails we were going to run we went out on our adventure. We love to run trails because we both love to run in new places and we love that we can go farther by running and faster versus hiking the trails. The last day we did hike the trails around the inn because we were both tired of running and we enjoyed the slower pace of walking the trails. It was nice to slow down and actually enjoy the surroundings and I was able to take pictures of the hike. Rural southern Vermont was so adorable. There would be tiny towns within 5 miles of each other. We would drive for 5 miles on a road then have to slow down to 40 mph then to 30 mph and then it would probably take about 1 minute to drive through the town before we would be back to 40 mph and then back up to 50 mph. There was a really cute town called Jamaica, VT that was so cute and we loved the general store there where we bought homemade desserts and soft serve ice cream. We also went to Townshend where there was the local emergency room in a large house. We stopped by the general store and bought wine and other treats. We went to Fanfare, VT where there was an adorable General Store. We bought lots of souvenirs for our family. They had lots of fantastic handmade quilts. I could have stayed in the store forever. The craftsman ship put into these quilts were amazing. I would have love to buy one, but I did not. I got a lot of ideas from the quilts and viewing all the them made me want to tackle one of the more traditional quilting patterns.

I could go on and on about our vacation. We loved our time and we always become closer when we spend a lot of time together. We missed the kids but we knew that they were in good hands. It is nice to be home and to have them around us. Nathan seemed like he grew and his hair was lighter so that was wired to come home and see him.

The best thing that happened this week was that we have a new extended family member. I have a new nephew. My sister's baby Ryan was born on Monday and he is so adorable and cute. We went and visited him the next day and the girls loved holding him and loving on him. Julianne kept saying that she loved the baby and that she wished that Nathan was that small again. She did not like that Nathan was not as snuggly or loving as Ryan was. I had to remind her that baby's do grow up and are not that way all the time.



He was so sweet. It was hard to tell who he looks like. He looked kind like her other kids but you never know since he is still so young.

Here are the pictures of the largest rock quarry. It was too cold to swim in but it was interesting. The rocks slabs were so large it was amazing to see them stacked on top of each other. There were also faces etched into the corners of the slabs. Can you see one in my pictures?





Here are some pictures of the longest covered bridge. The craftsmanship on this bridge was amazing. The wood beams were so large and they used wood pegs to keep the the beams together. It is now a pedestrian bridge but it was an amazing piece of artwork.



This was another bridge that was amazing. I loved the wood floorboards and the steel construction. It was a sweet one lane bridge that was well used.


This is Jamaica's Town Hall. It was so cute and adorable.


This was the parlor of where we stayed. It was actually an old refurbished barn. The ceilings were so low and the wood in the barn was amazingly old and rustic. So we loved the "duck" signs of which D had to duck every time. I have pictures of the outside of the barn but they did not upload so I will have to post them later.

Here are some of the beautiful flowers from the Inn.


Did you see the chipmunk?


The first day we stayed at the Inn we went running in the rain. So our shoes were wet and we put them in front of the gas stove. The gas stove had a timer on it and we also did not think that it was very hot. However, shortly after I went to bed I started to smell smoke so I looked over and my shoe was smoking. I quickly jumped out of bed and moved my shoe and turned off the fireplace. The next morning I looked at my shoe and this is what happened. I had no idea that my shoe was melting. I felt terrible that we could have set our room, and the historic barn, on fire. I am thankful that my light induced sleep allowed me to wake up and look over at my shoe. We continually laugh about it since it did have a happy ending. Needless to say we spent the next morning driving around southern Vermont looking for a shoe store.

I have more pictures but for some reason I did not upload them. So I will have to post them later.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-the amazing sights and places in Vermont
-spending time with D and loving him more today than I did when we were married
-Having a great MIL
-seeing my kids after 4 days away from them

Lots going on

Well the past week and half have been really busy. I forgot to mention last month that Nathan did not have an asthma episode in April. But sure enough May 2 he had one. Then two weeks later he had another one. These were somewhat minor with only a few treatments each but they were still significant enough for me to take notice and document them. So I think these were more allergy related then virus related. They were minor and our other family members did not have any symptoms. So they must have been allergy related. He still has a runny nose and his legs are starting to itch. So I have been more proactive by using Elidel two times a day. This seems to really help. We have not gone to the giving him Zyrtec yet but we talked about it yesterday. I would love to not have him on that the entire summer but we will see how the itching progresses.

Mallory learned how to ride a two wheeler this weekend. We worked on her skills a little bit last week and then this weekend our neighborhood girl spent most of Saturday helping her out. She did a great job teaching Mallory and she was actually the one that taught Julianne also. So it was great that she could also teach Mallory. She now wants to open a business teaching kids to ride a bike. We told her that in a couple years Nathan will be ready to learn also. Mallory is very proud of herself and it was great to see her determination and drive to conquer this skill. We have already rode our bikes to the park and the library and she did a great job. Tomorrow we are riding our bikes to school so I know that she will have fun doing that. We have a tradition that on the last day of school we ride our bikes to school. I am working on the last day so we will have to improvise and do it tomorrow. I know that Julianne is excited and I think that Mallory will have fun also.


These are the beginning shots where it was frustrating and difficult to "get it".

That's a frustrated look.

I'm still figuring out this balancing act.

I finally got it!

I loved her curly hair.

We all painted our toe nails, yes even Nathan, and I thought it was a cute picture and then he started getting all shy on me so he was trying to hide his toe nails in the later pictures.




There is a reoccurring theme in our neighborhood this spring- getting new concrete driveways. Our neighbor two doors over put in a concrete driveway. That sparked our thoughts in getting ours done. So we used their contractor. Then our next door neighbor decided to finally get their driveway redone so they hired a contractor. So pretty soon we will all have new driveways. So this weeks entrainment was our neighbors driveway.


Our sensitive Nathan wanting to watch the big machines but not liking the loud noise.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-seeing Mallory's determination to learn to ride a two wheeler
-looking forward to our upcoming vacation (details to come)
-getting fresh lettuce from my garden (yes I am producing lettuce)