daverhi

While we were both hoping for a girl we are super exited to be having another boy. The front runner for a name is Eli somethingwith3syllables West.

Ty and I spent 7 days in Vermont.  We were in the Burlington/Stowe area.  We spent the first 3 days with Brad’s mom and step-dad, Brenda and John.  Then we spent the next 3 days with Brad’s step-mom, Kate.  The last day we actually spent in a hotel because we were suppose to leave on Monday but didn’t actually get home until Tuesday night, thanks to US Airways.  Remind me never to fly with them again!  Besides the hassle of getting home, it was a wonderful vacation.  The weather was gorgeous!  It is so nice to be able to play outside and not feel like your skin is going to melt off.  Ty and I played several rounds of soccer and frisbee without breaking a sweat, it was very Twilight Zone like!  It was nice just to sit outside and enjoy the cool air.  Things we accomplished on our trip: saw a beautiful rainbow, spent lots of time outside, had to wear a sweater in July, walked through the woods, saw lots of cows, saw a round barn, witnessed a glider plane fly and land, went to ECHO (aquarium type hands on museum, ate lots of yummy food, rode on atv’s (Ty loved it, I was a bit terrified!), hiked to a waterfall, swam in ice cold mountain water (that would be Ty, I could barely get my toes in it!), had a picnic lunch at the waterfall, went to Ben and Jerry’s, admired the beautiful northern houses, searched for frogs, shot a bee bee gun, soaked in all the wonderful weather, and enjoyed getting to know the new part of our family.  Here are the pictures to prove it!

Brenda and John's house.

Their view.

Cows!

The round barn.

Very Vermont picture.

John and Ty looking at the glider plane.

Ty having fun in the yard.

Extreme close-up!

ECHO, aquarium type, hands on museum.

Digging for dinosaur bones at ECHO.

Sailor Ty.

Very cool flatbread restaurant we ate at.

All the wood they need for the wood oven they cook the flatbreads on.

Ty blending in well with the locals at the restaurant.

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.

The ice cream flavor graveyard.

ATV'ing.

Can you tell he enjoyed it?

Kate's house.

Kate's view.

Hike to the waterfall, Moss Glen.

Feeling the temperature.

The falls.

There was a strange photo shoot going on when we got there, a lady with a giant bear head on!

Balancing on a rock.

We went back the next day for a picnic lunch, we came prepared with Ty's bathing suit this time.

So cold!

Mom enjoying the falls.

Mom and Brad enjoying the falls.

It's shooting time! (have no fear it's just a bee bee gun)

The gun was a bit large for him, maybe kneeling will help.

Maybe laying down will help. Of course when I went inside to use the bathroom, he actually shot the cans!

Nice view.

Looking for frogs.

Brad trying to catch Ty a frog.

Sunset on what should have been our last night!

We had a pretty awesome 4th of July weekend this year.  Unfortunately, we forgot the camera so we have no pictures to show for it!  I think Suzanne got a few that I can get from her.  Anyway, we started our drive down to Key West on Thursday morning.  We were able to get out and on the road about 9:15.  We made it down to Sugarloaf Key by 4:15.  The drive wasn’t too bad, Ty was great, it’s just a long drive.  We unpacked our stuff and settled in.  I made us a quick pasta dinner and then we all pretty much went to bed.

Friday we woke up and had breakfast and played around outside while we waited for the Tow’s to arrive.  They had left Thursday night and were suppose to stop in Miami for the night and should have been to the keys by lunchtime.  Well, they had a bit of car trouble and ended up stopping in Naples, slept there, got a rental car and drove all the way from Naples.  To top it off, 10 miles from being at Brad’s house, Matt got a speeding ticket!  We felt so bad for them!  What a way to start your vacation!  The Tow’s arrived around 3pm instead of lunch but the relaxing Key West atmosphere made them forget all about their “adventure” they had just been on.  We started their vacation off with some excellent Mojitos and some really good sandwiches.  Basically, more relaxing went on and we ate a late dinner of New York Strips. Yum!

Saturday, after breakfast we headed into Key West.  We walked Duval Street, took cover from a short thunderstorm in a coffee/internet cafe (paid 8.00 for a freaking coffee!), Dave got a new pair of sunglasses, we went to the southern most point, had a late lunch at Margaritaville and saw Mallory Square (it was too early so none of the performers were out there yet).  It took us a bit of doing to figure out where we were parked, but Suzanne with her keen sense of direction led us back just in time before our meters ran out!  Ty was definitely ready to go.  They need to have big kid strollers for trips like this.  He would have been much better if he didn’t have to walk so much, we did do a lot of walking.  We got home and had some refreshing drinks and took a dip in the canal.  The water was quite refreshing but it did have a pretty decent current so we didn’t last long in the canal.  After our dip, Suzanne, Ty and I went out on the kayaks.  We had a fun little journey looking at all the beautiful water homes.

Sunday we had more relaxing in the morning.  Jamie did not sleep well the night before so neither did Suzanne.  They both took a nap and after they woke up we headed to Bahia Honda State Park.  Now we finally got to swim and enjoy it.  Ty was having so much fun in the water.  He definitely got to practice his swimming skills.  He didn’t want to get out.  I think we must have been in the water for a good 2 hours!  After we were all done the guys took the kids home and Suzanne and I hit the grocery store to get stuff for dinner.  To our dismay, they were out of fresh mint!!!!  We wanted to make our delicious Mojitos again, we were desperate.  We searched the whole store for some kind of alternative.  We ended up getting peppermint extract.  So, the Mockitos were decent, drinkable and refreshing, but nothing like the ones we had on our first night.  We have to remember to stock up on mint for our next trip to Key West because Publix and Winn Dixie were both out of it!  We even stopped at a scary grocery store on the way back and they had none either!  When we got home Suzanne cooked Dave’s favorite dish of hers.  A pasta dish with olives, tomatoes, chicken and sausage.  She also made his favorite dessert of hers, so Dave really enjoyed his meal.  We all did, it was delicious!

Monday was the 4th and we just decided to stay home and relax for the day.  It was going to be too much trouble to try to bring a 5 year old and a 9 month old into the craziness that is Key West for the 4th of July.  I can only imagine how that would have gone down.  We all did some napping, some reading, some playing of video games, enjoyed the views and the cocktails.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner.  I actually tried a cheese dog, and as I expected, it was disgusting.  Dave insisted I try one of his favorite kinds of hot dogs.  Yucko!  From our view on Brad’s seawall we could see the Key West fireworks, but they were pretty far away.  Sugarloaf has their own fireworks and we could see those pretty good, but we had some damn trees that were blocking parts of them.  Another enjoyable day.  We all turned in fairly early since we were heading home in the a.m.

Tuesday morning we packed up, cleaned up and headed out.  We got on the road by 9:20 and got home by 4:40.  Not too shabby since we hit some traffic in Key Largo and had to stop for lunch and gas.  We missed having mom and Brad there, Ty really wanted to go fast on the little boat, but they were having a blast on their Alaskan cruise.  Maybe we can sneak in one more trip down before we go back to school!