Vermont

Seeing the fall foliage in Vermont has been on my bucket list for a while.  We have never been to Vermont even though it's only 5-6 hours away.  When I noticed we had a handful of half days off of school for conferences I knew we had to do it.  We were a little anxious about the timing since it only peaks for a week or two and the peak varies year to year.  But we got LUCKY!!  We nicknamed this state "Vibrant Vermont"...the colors were amazing, and EVERYWHERE!  I couldn't stop taking pictures, around every turn and hill there was an amazing scenic view.

 We drove up on a Sunday and stopped by Sharon, the birthplace of Joseph Smith.  They gave us a little tour/history and we watched some inspirational church videos.

 Pamphlets...perfect

 We first stayed in a vacation rental in Stowe.  There was a recreational bike path nearby.  We brought our bikes for this trip and got a lot of use out of them.  We put Rachel's and Tommy's in the trunk and then hooked mine and Jake's bike (with bike seats) to the back.  We're really trying to make the most of this stage in life while we can, because it's not going to be this easy for very long.

Playing in the creek

First on the agenda was the gondola ride up to the top of Mt. Mansfield.  Wow! A-MAZ-ING!!!  Although the whole trip was a highlight, this was a highlight of the highlights.  Even Lily loved it!  "A ticket...a ride...wee hoo!"  She threw a big tantrum when we had to leave.

 We did some exploring on top.  The trail and all the surroundings was covered in a moss.  It was so beautiful and it even smelled so fresh and amazing!

 Jumping rocks

 Tommy loved it for the cool "caves" we found.  Sadly I lost those pictures in my fall (details below)

Tommy holding up his pants with all the rocks in his pocket

Consulting the map

 Drive by shooting :)

 We met up with some friends of ours that were also visiting Vermont.  We did this short hike to a waterfall.  I was going a little bit crazy with my kids and all the places it seemed to drop off.

 But a nice view

 Last pictures with my nice camera.

 So this is Bingham Falls.  This is where I fell down a waterfall.  Not the first one you see in the back.  The second one, which was not as big.  We were hiking again with our friends.  I was a lot calmer because there were no drop offs and we were just climbing around on the rocks.  Jake with Lily, Rachel and Tommy, had gone across to the right side and started hiking up the other side.  I was in charge of Kate and I figured I would stay back.  Our friends had two little ones and they were going to stay at first but then decided to go.  I then thought I should follow just in case they looped back to the car and weren't planning on coming back the way we all came.  I helped Kate across (it was only a step) but I somehow lost my balance.  My right foot came back and landed in the water on slippery rocks that immediately gave away.  I landed on my bottom facing downstream.  I think I was able to stop myself for a second as I felt the water build up on my back and then pushed me down a chute.  I tried to stop myself several times, but the rocks were too slippery.  The thought, "how am I going to get out of this" was very frightening.  It spit me out into the next body of water where I couldn't touch and that's where I could swim over to the side where a group of people helped me out.  All I could say was "I'm so cold, I'm so cold"  because it was ice cold!  I came out with a couple scrapes and bruises on my elbows, and a little emotionally traumatized but otherwise fine.  My nice camera and phone, however, didn't make it.  Kind of another emotional blow.  Kate was crying back on the rock I left her on.  I was so grateful she didn't fall in too.  Someone brought her to me and we booked it back to the car to take off some of my wet clothes.  Kate says, "Mom, you went on a waterslide!"  Yeah, something like that.  This is just a picture I found of the falls on the internet.  I lost a lot of pictures I took with my phone but we were able to recover all the pictures I took on my DSLR.  Hurray!

Pictures Jake took when he was on the other side.  I nearly had a heart attack that night when I saw them.

 I took a long hot shower, Jake made me some hot cocoa and took care of dinner and Kate was helping to get Lily ready for bed.

 It was a little hard to fall asleep that night as the event played out in my head a million times but a good nights rest was good and I was able to enjoy the rest of our vacation.  This is the view we had from our rental.

 We visited a local Maple house and although not in production season the owner showed us all the equipment  and how it all works on his farm.  Very cool!

 Helping Lily pick an apple

 It's amazing we didn't get in a car accident, but seriously, it's hard to take your eyes off.

 We spent a lot of time with the window down taking lots of pictures.

We visited the Von Trapp Family Lodge.  This is where the real family settled after they fled Austria. Maria wanted a place that reminded her of home and boy did she find it!  The panoramic views of the mountains from this place was incredible!
We took a tour to learn about the real family.  The tour guide at one point looked at me to tell me she couldn't concentrate because of Lily.  Another person in the group said she couldn't hear either.  The tour guide wanted me to stand in front with her to see if that would help Lily.  I was mortified!  It took everything in me to not burst into tears.  (I honestly thought Lily was being pretty good about being quiet)  So Jake and I took turns and it was a fun tour, ending with an movie interview with Maria.  Then the son of the youngest son concluded the tour.  He said his father usually does it but he was en route to Austria for the 50th anniversary of the Sound of Music :)

 Georg and Maria buried here

 The hills are alive!

 Another bike ride opportunity

 Seriously, what a setting!

 And to top off the experience.  Some delicious apple struedel and other Austrian treats.  So delicious!

 Treats for lunch and ice cream for dessert.  Why not?  We toured the Ben and Jerry's factory where it was fun to learn how they started and how they grew, and to see the whole production line.

 Free samples was the kids' favorite part

 The weather for the week was sunny for the first day and rainy for the rest.  We lucked out with only getting sprinkled on a couple of times.  And it made for some amazing rainbows.

 The flavor graveyard was fun.  All the flavors they have retired because they flopped with a fun little poem on the tombstones.

 The next day was the teddy bear factory.  We told the kids to bring their own bears to avoid them asking for $90 ones :)

 Another fun tour

 We ate at an amazing Mexican place on Church Street in Burlington.

 Stop the car!

 The Island Line Trail in Burlington.  A unique experience heading out on a trail with Lake Champlain on both.

Rachel and I agreed that it felt like riding out to a tropical island paradise...besides the fact that is was freezing.

 The trail ends where a ferry takes you across to reach New York.  But the ferry wasn't running anymore on the off season, so we had a picnic lunch and turned back.

 Next stop, the cider press

 The kids were mesmerized watching this.  They squirt the pureed apples on these platforms, stack them on top of one another and smoosh them all together.  Impressive how much juice falls out of it.

 Famous apple cider donuts.   MMMMmmmmm!

 Why do kids never mind if the water is freezing?

On our last night in Vermont I went outside to take a picture of the red tree outside our hotel window. I loved the color against the grey sky and look what I found.  It was incredible!

 We usually bring our swimsuits on every vacation but for some reason didn't on this one.  When we found out our hotel did have a pool I went to Walmart.  They only had one swimsuit in the women's section on clearance for $3.  I found Rachel a gymnastics leotard, Tommy some sports pants on clearance (that I cut to make shorts), Kate a dance leotard, and Lily a onesie.  Two or three trips to the pool for $20...totally worth it!

 Our family trip was a huge success!