Vermont (part 1)

Amelia had two days off of school a few weeks ago so we decided to use the long weekend for a road trip to Burlington, Vermont, to visit my brother Dan and his family. We left Thursday evening (not ideal since we ended up in some evening commute traffic) and drove about half way (4 1/2 hours). We ended up somewhere in New Jersey for the night and then drove the rest of the way on Friday.

The kids were thrilled to see their cousins and had so much fun with them all weekend. It was great to hang out with family, enjoy some winter fun, and explore Vermont a bit. My parents even flew in for the weekend and joined the party.

We drove to nearby Stowe on Saturday for some sledding. The hill was pretty iced over so it was FAST. The kids loved it. Until the cold finally broke them down (I think the high was 15 degrees that day). My phone kept shutting down because it was too cold to function. I managed to get a few photos and a few snippets of video. Unfortunately it shut down during Ben's ride down the hill on the crazy skeleton-like sled. I was kind of a professional sledder in high school so I was sad to miss out (sledding seemed a little unsafe in my current condition).

 

We warmed up at a cute little malt shop nearby where we had a yummy lunch by the fireplace.

Sledding wore all of the kids out. James couldn't quite make it through lunch.

I had to see a covered bridge while in Vermont.

We stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where they make these amazing apple cider donuts (and delicious cider). We loaded up on some of each.

 

We also stopped at the Ben & Jerry's factory for more treats.

Saturday night my parents were generous enough to take over bath time AND bed time with all five kids so Ben, Dan, Rachel, and I could go out. We saw "Lincoln" which was a great movie. We came home to a quiet house full of sleeping, clean children. Date nights with free babysitting are the best.


Sledding in action: