Snow and Ice

One day in Vermont, the kids got to spend an afternoon playing in the snow.  They were having a good time and once our neighbors let their dogs out, they had a GREAT time!

The whole time the kids were playing, I enjoyed the view of Stowe Mountain, where Thom John was downhill skiing and Grummy and Pop Pop were cross-country skiing. After we'd had enough playing, we drove up the mountain to meet up with the others.

We took a gondola ride from one mountain to the other so we could go ice skating!

Taking a break for the zamboni:

Just playing and skating

Today at home it's super-cold - almost Montreal cold - which reminds me of the afternoon after we visited the Cider Press on our trip to Vermont.  After a good lunch, the kids just wanted to play outside in the snow and they got a bonus playmate - the family in the condo next to ours had not one, not two, but THREE friendly dogs.  Only one really wanted to play with the Sooy kids in the snow, though and the kids were happy to play with him, too!

After an hour or so, Daddy let us know that he would be done skiing at Stowe Mountain in a little while.  So we got into the car and met up with Thom John, Grummy and Pop Pop (who had been cross-country skiing all day) and explored the resort at Stowe Mountain.  We took a gondola from one part of the resort to another...

and we rented ice skates for Mommy, Daddy, and the kids!

It was slow-going at first but the kids were starting to kind of get the hang of skating towards the end of our time at the ice.  Plus, after awhile the kids were getting pretty hungry - the cold will do that to you!

Cider

One day during our Vermont trip, Thom John went up to the Stowe resort to go downhill skiing, I took the kids to a Cider Press to watch how fresh Vermont apple cider is made.  During the drive to the cider mill, I let the kids have a turn with the camera. Seany took some nice shots of the town of Stowe:

And when Clare got her turn with the camera, she took about 75 selfies!

When we got to the mill, we watched a short video about how cider is made, then we watched the actual press in action!

This mill uses a cloth and rack press to squeeze out tons of cider every day.  The kids were mesmerized by the whole process and we watched a few racks get pressed all the way through.

Cider getting squeezed out:

The chopped up apples getting spread on the racks before being wrapped in cheesecloth, then topped with another rack with chopped up apple wrapped in cheesecloth and again and again...

There were free samples of the freshly-pressed cider, of course which the kids thought was delicious!

Bears and Burlington

One day in Vermont, we took the kids to Burlington for the day.  The day was snowy which was pretty exciting for the kids :-)  Our first stop the day was actually a little south of Burlington in Shelbourne for a tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear factory!

As usual, we had to wait a little while for our tour to start so we browsed around the factory store looking at and posing with all manners of Vermont Teddy Bears...

We saw every part of the teddy bear making process from start to finish - all bears are made right there in Shelbourne and even broken bears can be sent back for repairs there, too.

After the tour, each Sooy kid chose a bear to take home and both opted to make their own.  Clare chose a pink bear and Sean chose a cute brown bear.

While the bears were getting their finishing touches, I checked out this silly display:

After the bear factory and a good lunch, we met up with Grummy and Pop Pop to walk around Burlington to see what we could see...

The spot of Ben & Jerry's original store:

Just as it was getting dark, we stopped at the Ethan Allen Homestead which looks like a great spot for showshoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking, and jogging.