A cold hike and a cold treat

When we woke up our first morning in Vermont, we found that it had snowed a teeny tiny it overnight.  But it was enough that the kids were super excited!

The day was bright and COLD - only about 17 degrees but we kept warm by going on a hike.

Grummy, Pop Pop, Daddy and Sean stuck together and kept a good pace for a good long time and up some steep inclines.

Mommy stuck with Clare while we went at her pace which involved a few breaks for snacks and to smash any icicles we came across.

At some point, Clare and I decided to turn back since the inclines were getting a little steep and we were going pretty slowly.  We knew the rest of our party would catch up and they did!

The kids had built up quite an appetite on the hike despite all the snack breaks (something about the cold weather...) so we made a stop at the Ben & Jerry's factory for a tour and some samples.

We had to wait a bit for our tour to start, so we walked around the grounds and took photos:

We stopped at the flavor graveyard to mourn discontinued flavors like Aloha Macadamia and Rainforest Crunch.

Finally it was time for our tour and cameras were forbidden in the factory.  The works were shut down anyway since Ben & Jerry's gives its employees the last two weeks of December off anyway.  Finally, we were given samples of Salted Caramel Blondie ice cream.  Sean was a trooper and choked it down (he really only likes Mint Chocolate Chip) and Clare loved it so much she charmed her way into a second sample!

New Trail

We found a new network of nature trails near our house - we spent a (HOT) afternoon exploring one of the trails and we can't wait to go back!

Did I mention that it was a hot afternoon?  We made sure to take a lot of water breaks:

One of the trails took us to a makeshift bridge over a muddy patch:

Another took us to this bog:

Sean helped Clare over/under a fallen tree branch:

Spring Break

Sean had the Monday and Tuesday after Easter off for Spring Break - thanks to all the snow we'd had this winter, Sean had to go back to school Wednesday instead of having the whole week off.  Monday was a beautiful day and we sprang Clare out of school after lunchtime so we could go on an adventure!  I took them to a wildlife refuge in Medford.

Our first stop at the refuge was the reptile room.  We saw many tanks with slithery, slimy creatures such as this little corn snake:

Sean examined this chart of snakes and was sad that an anaconda was not depicted...

After we'd had our fill of reptiles, we went outside to go see the animals and go on a hike.

Pretty views of the lake:

Turtles on a fallen tree:

The first animal we saw was this bald eagle named Orion - the kids were very impressed...

...and inspired!

A red-tailed hawk:

Clare consults the map - she loves to hold the map when we go places!

We walked around looking at more animals when we came upon this American Crow.  She's a very social bird and likes to greet visitors with a cry of "Awwww HELLO!"  The kids were delighted by this and spent a very long time talking back to the crow and trying to get her to say hello to them again.

After awhile, I was able to tear them away from their new crow friend and we watched a keeper play with a racoon...

... and we admired this cute little fox:

Their second favorite animal was this barred owl - Sean liked that we couldn't really see where the owl's face is.

After we visited with all the animals, we went on a little hike on one of the trails.  We started out on a .75 mile trail and I was a little uncertain that the kids would want to hike that long but the refuge had a clever idea - make the trail a storywalk!  They accomplished this by setting out photocopies of a storybook at intervals along the trail.  So we got to hike and read "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen.  The book is about a father and child setting out late one night to go "owling" and they end up spotting an owl!

There were also fun facts about owls dispersed throughout the trail:

I stopped the kids and asked them to pose - Clare was not in the mood, despite Sean's best efforts to get her to smile :-)

After our hike, the kids said they were hot and hungry.  Well, the where's the best place to fix that?  Rita's!!

And where's the best place to work off a water ice?  The town playground, of course :-)

Hooray for Spring Break!