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:

Blizzard of 2016... part two

The kids' schools were closed on Monday and with two kids at home, two feet of snow on the ground, and an "alternate" train schedule in effect, I got to stay home with the kiddies.  We started off the morning pretty lazily, watching cartoons and playing tennis and bowling on the Wii.  On Sunday, I saw posts on Facebook from other local mommy friends that there is a big hill over at the local high school that makes for great sledding.  I took the kids over at mid-morning to check it out and it was AWESOME!  The hill was just the right for all ages - there were kids from toddler to high-school there having a good time.

The kids' last run after two+ hours of sledding and climbing up the hill - they went together this time and wiped out spectacularly!  That was the end our of sledding fun.  Afterwards, we went home and everyone napped for a couple of hours!

Blizzard of 2016

Winter Storm Jonas hit us last weekend and left us with about 20 inches of snow.  The kids were super-excited to play in the snow and help us shovel out(!)

After chores, we went over the playground to play on the snowslide!  Sean got the first turn but then the kids happily took turns...

Sean and Thom John started work on an igloo:

Sunday morning was bright and sunny and the day was actually pretty warm so the snow started to melt almost immediately!

We went to the backyard to make a snowfort

and a throne for the snow queen inside the snowfort

and a Basilisk (or "Basilips") to guard the snow fort.

The kids and Daddy worked more on the igloo and started another igloo so we ended up with a little igloo village in our front yard.

We went inside for hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) and crafts.  Then the boys watched football (Sean's so into the playoffs!) while the girls watched "Frozen"

Road Trip

After a nice Christmas, we packed up the kids and the car and headed up to Vermont.  We left verrrrry early in the morning in order to reach our destination with plans for stops along the way.

One of our first stops after a quick breakfast in Albany was Bennington to check out the Bennington Battle Monument.  The monument was closed for the season but the kids got a chance to stretch their legs around the grounds...

We later stopped near Manchester to see Hildene, the summer home of Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert.  It looked pretty impressive, but we passed on the $30 tickets to tour the home and walked around the outside instead.

This shelter housed a fully restored Pullman car - which required a ticket to tour!

Our next stop was Wilson Castle which sounds like a neat place but it was giving off a super-creepy vibe owing to the pouring rain and old Halloween decorations hanging around the property.  I can believe that people would want to have a murder-mystery party here but a wedding?  Not so much.

We stopped for a few minutes in Montpelier to look at the Statehouse before ending up at our final destination in Stowe.

The kids gave their seal of approval to the place we rented although they were disappointed in the lack of snow on the ground (that would change within 24 hours!)