Vermont

In early October we had the opportunity to travel to Stowe, Vermont with some friends.  We were eager to experience a "real" fall and really enjoyed the relaxing weekend.

Here is a picture of where we stayed.  Yes, rough life!

A view of the house from across the pond.

This is the creek that was on the other side of the house.

Our first day there we walked up the hill to this Sugarhouse.  The people there made their own maple syrup.  There was a sign telling you to leave your money and take what products you wanted!  Of course we brought some home, it was VERY yummy!

Lichar gave Kai a crab apple off a tree and Kai had a great time playing with it.  He hung on to it for a long time, which is unusual for him.

Us in front of creek

K watching the fire

We drove around just looking at scenery and found this nice pond.

Wow, real fall colors!

(When I was little I remember learning about fall and how the leaves change color.  I remember thinking that really they only turned brown--I'd never seen orange and yellow and red leaves!  Turns out they DO exsist.  hehe)

The REAL von Trapp family--the one that inspired "The Sound of Music" --moved here from Austria.  This was by the Trapp family lodge (www.trappfamily.com).

"Doe, a deer....a female deer...."  (I know you want to sing it!)

Family photo with great scenery!

My little punkin

Yummy lunch at pizza place...

...where we discovered K has some serious hat hair!

Deana and I knew we HAD to visit the Ben and Jerry's factory!!!

Best part of this tour was the free sample, Triple Caramel Chunk.  I highly recommend it!  As you can see, so does Kaiden!!!

He kept leaning towards Deana's sample, so I gave him a taste of mine, thinking he would spit it out, as he had with EVERY other form of "real" food we'd given him to that point.  OH NO, that little dude was loving him some ice cream.  Yes, I know, he's not supposed to have anything in that--turn me in to the authorities--I'm guilty!

And you can see what happened when I took it away!

Beautiful sunset on the mountains that evening.

We stopped here and had some fresh apple cider and apple donuts--very tasty!

Lich and Kai enjoying the gorgeous view out of our bedroom window.

Nice photo op

This is a different bridge, supposedly haunted.  We saw nothing and are not convinced.  :)

John, Lich, Kai and "Emily," the ghost that haunts the bridge.

We went up to the ski resort area and spotted these cool looking icicles.  It was a short little hike to get up to them, but well worth it!

K touching his first snow

Campfire and smores, does it get any better??

 

Even Kai was mesmerized by the fire before he fell asleep.  We enjoyed watching the fire and the stars.  I still can't believe how many stars we saw.  They were so bright, you could see the reflection in the pond.  We even saw some great shooting stars!  Beautiful!!

Kaiden did a great job on the plane as always!

It was such a great weekend, so nice to spend time with friends and just relax!

Here are a few just scenic shots.