We're Back!

We had a great time in Vermont and Canada and managed to squeeze in 2 days at home before getting back into our regular routine. Our trip was a lot of fun and had some challenging parts also. We drove up to Vermont on Friday night and spent the next morning having a great breakfast(thank you, Libbys Blue Line Diner in Colchester!); bike riding and playing at the lake in Burlington; visiting the new student center at UVM (why couldn't they have built it when I was there!); and showing the kids my summer camp, Brown Ledge, on Malletts Bay in Colchester. I'm hoping to plant the bug early with Shelagh and that she'll want to go there when she turns 10.

We continued north to Entrelacs, which is about an hour north of Montreal. Our friends parents have a beautiful log cabin on the lake with a gorgeous boat house for waterskiing, canoeing, and kayaking; a tennis court; and lots of open space and wooded trails outside for the kids to play and explore. It was our family and our friends family which included 3 boys around the same ages as our kids. All in all it was a wonderful week with friends. Shelagh and Rory both tubed for the 1st time and kayaked with Joe and I for the 1st time. Shelagh tried tennis and ALMOST waterskiied. She said she wanted to do it after watching the boys do it and even practiced on the dock, but changed her mind. We picked raspberries and blueberries from the bushes on their property every day and took a few nice nature walks down some "secret paths" in the forest.

We also had some really challenging behavior from the kids which made things difficult. They started off the week with mild fevers that thankfully didn't lead into anything. Rory also had his last 2 2-yr molars pop through. That and the fact that his day care was closed for the 2 weeks before our vacation causing him to be plopped around to a variety of day care situations started him off on shaky ground. The kids shared a room and both woke very early and Shelagh didn't nap all week. Between the lack of sleep, being out of routine, and Joe and I bending as much as we could to keep the peace, it made for some big tantrums and some not so nice behavior like fresh talk, hitting and pushing, and grumpy moods. As a result, we left a day early, which ended up being the right decision. The drive home, which was 8 hours with a 2 hour stop for lunch, was pretty good and the next 2 days at home brought us back to normal. Everyone caught up on sleep, went back to normal eating, and the naughty aggression is hopefully back under control under the new zero-tolerance hitting/pinching/pushing policy. Rory's blanket is once again relegated to his crib and his thumbsucking and babyish behavior has improved dramatically.

We ended up our vacation with 2 great days in Massachusetts playing at home, going to the pool, and hitting the beach. Next summer, a beach vacation is a must and hopefully we can squeeze Disney in there as well.

Here are some pictures of the fun we had...

* Shelagh looking at the waterfront activities at my camp


* Rory sporting his boat coat on the dock
* Shelagh and I on the boat watching Daddy ski


* Rory as a "mean chameleon" playing in the grass
* Shelagh playing in the lake ("Mommy, it's really 'freshing"...as in REfreshing)


* Shelagh practicing how to stand up on the skis
* Rory having a kayak with Daddy


* Shelagh posing in front of her favorite flowers (purple, of course. or fuschia, which Fancy Nancy tells us is a fancy way of saying purple)
* Shelagh and Rory playing in the grass together and relaxing