Day 109, 110, 111, 112

Family Day

I can't seem to make timely posts anymore. A week ago we attended family day at the local park. It was a great festival. Here's a couple of the highlights:

A great petting zoo - although you had to pet them over the fence - the girls were fine with that - they really just wanted to look. The baby goats were really cute and the llamas were different than most. There were also chickens, geese, sheep, a pony, and a cow. It was interesting watching them all interact in one area.

 Carly is always up for getting her face painted. We know from several other festivals how long this can take...so we planned our whole day around it. We were second in line. Maggie was in line, too. She had big plans to be a kitty - but then decided she didn't want to deal with strangers and couldn't not be coaxed into the chair.

Bouncy blow ups were everywhere. We were a little fearful for Maggie with all of the wild 6 to 8 year old boys jumping about - but she held her own and never saw one she didn't want to try.

Carly would have stayed on these all day.

The place was packed by lunchtime. It was actually one morning that we were glad the girls got us up and going early. The did the bouncy area until we couldn't stand the crowd anymore. Then we stood in line for the horses and ate some hot dogs. The horse line was definitely the longest, but the girls were determined to ride. They sat in their stroller for about 40 minutes waiting for their turn. In the end, the wait was worth the ride.

Lines became longer and longer - but Maggie didn't seem to mind. She was pretty excited to get to walk around in the grass without any shoes on. We ended the festival with a very strange version of Aladdin. Mike and I were a little surprised by the language and story line - but luckily Carly didn't seem to catch it. Before the play, the actors came out into the audience and talked to the children. Here's Carly talking to Aladdin's mother. Apparently, in this Canadian version, Aladdin has a mother and a very obnoxious brother, too.

Maggie and Carly have both requested to return to this festival next year. It was really well done and in the perfect location. We were surpised how much was free - especially since everything here is so expensive.

Day 107, 108

Pictures of Maggie at Sunset

Day 105, 106 - Vermont Finale!

We ended our Vermont trip at Shelburne Farms. They have a beautiful stone barn with tons of animals. The girls even got to collect fresh eggs from the hen house and milk a cow!

To get to the barn, you get to ride on a covered wagon through the farm for about 10 minutes. The girls thought this was a pretty good start to their adventure.

Maggie put in a few minutes of work in between chasing chickens.

Mike was the only one brave enough to hold a chicken. Carly is still a little unsure of them ever since she was pecked at Riverbanks Zoo. It didn't help that later in the day several chickens raided our picnic and stole Carly's bread. She was furious!

On the flip side, her favorite activity was looking for eggs in the hen house!

Waiting in line to milk the cows. Maggie's not so sure about this activity - curious but glad to have big sister go first.

Carly milking Rosie! We left the U.S. smelling like livestock and head back to Canada...luckily they were not offended by our stinch at the border crossing and let us back in.

Day 101, 102, 103, 104 - Vermont Part 3

Sunsets, Mountains, and Water

These pics are from Burlington, VT. The University of Vermont is right downtown and then as you go over a hill you see Lake Champlain and then Adirondack Mountains across the lake in New York. The town is so small and quaint - but does not feel behind the times or out of touch. The girls got to stay up extra late this night so that we could watch the sunset! It was totally worth it!

This is Church Street - pedestrian only for 4 blocks - lined with restaurants on either side. Tons of outdoor seating and live music. Can you spot our table? It was graduation weekend - so everything was packed!

These cows were all over the city. We had fun choosing our favorites.

      This playground was right on edge of the water. It was a great place to wait for the sun to set.

Day 100 - Vermont Part 2

We didn't really do much to celebrate our 100th day in Canada accept to acknowledge it and then also acknowledge that we are coming home exactly 3 weeks from today! We were roasting here today - 91 degrees! I don't think it would feel so hot accept for the fact that we only have air conditioning in two rooms of our apartment.

Now...back to Stowe, VT. On our second day, we traveled to the Trapp Family Lodge. Maria Von Trapp is actually buried somewhere on the property. We never quite figured out what the Von Trapp's had to do with the lodge...either visited frequently - or possibly built the first lodge once they fled Austria and moved to America. Whatever the history, it was impossible not to walk around the grounds and sing "The hills are alive....". So, we sang all morning long. At one point, I had the girls singing and twirling...but then the twirling reminded Maggie too much of "Ring Around the Rosie" and so my vision of the activity was quickly changed to a toddler's vision. It was still cute. There were beautiful sloping fields surrounded by mountains on all sides.  There were only a few areas that we could explore without being a guest. Maggie had fun rearranging all the rocks she could find. Carly enjoyed dancing in the fields and pretending to be an explorer. It would be a great place to stay if we ever visit this area again.

Day 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 - Vermont Part 1

I can not say enough good things about Vermont...what a great state - at least at the end of May. I hope to come back again during any of the warmer months. We went a scenic (aka - longer than planned) route through the mountains to reach Stowe. We had some of the best pizza we have ever tasted at Piecasso and then we rented bikes to explore the quaint mountain town for the rest of the afternoon. The bike path followed a nice stream for most of the route. Mike pulled the girls along in a trailer which they nicknamed the "princess Chariot". Highlights of the afternoon were playing in the stream, biking over 11 bridges, and playing with several dogs in the water. I think the highlight for Mike was returning his bike and Chariot. His legs took a beating that day for the family!

Day 93

Maggie does everything Carly does. Anything and everything. This was her attempt at following Carly on the balance beam. Notice the yellow flower jacket. She's pretty opinionated about it...no other jacket is allowed. In a way, this is progress.  For a while there, she was throwing a major fit anytime we put a jacket on her. For some reason, the flower jacket is permitted - and she wears it pretty much every day.

 Following Carly down an enormous slide....and talking into the telephone just like Carly had done seconds before. Luckily, Carly is thrilled. Hope that continues...