Summer Southern Tour

So after graduation Butch spent the summer with us in Vermont. It was wonderful having him here, but at the end of summer we had to take him back. 😭 We decided to have a family vacation as well as going to the Lane Family Reunion. Luckily Bubba was transferring to Vermont so he also had time off to go with us. So I set off with the younglings in the van with me and Butch was driving in his car by himself (Joe decided to bypass the extra time to go to Tennessee). It was a long journey, but we dropped his car and stuff off in Tennessee, picked up Bubba and headed to South Carolina and North Carolina for the reunion and beach respectively. After a fun time seeing family and hanging out at the beach all week. Then Joe headed back home by himself while the kids and I went back to Tennessee. We dropped off Butch, finished packing Bubba's stuff and then Bubba in his Exploder and me and the younglings in the van made the trip back to Vermont! Whew! What a long two weeks!!

 We stayed at the Hotel Florence in Florence, SC before the reunion.

 Lane Family Reunion

 Ebenezer Southern Methodist Church in Marion, SC

 Beautiful sunset on Holden Beach, NC

 After a traditional dinner at Dockside Restaurant in Calabash we 

headed over to Calabash Creamery for dessert!

 Headed to the beach prepared for serious digging!

We were one week early for this sea turtle nest.
I was hoping to see some baby sea turtles!

 We found lots of great shells on our beach walks

We went to Oak Island to see the Oak Island Lighthouse. We walked to the end of the

island to see Old Baldy Lighthouse which is the oldest standing lighthouse.

Another trip to Dockside and a picture of all the kids on the dock

 After Dockside we usually head to Sunset Beach, NC to play before heading back to Calabash Creamery to get ice cream. Here's momma and her big boys! 💗

 On our walk together Fox found a bigger shell with several smaller ones inside. 

He carried it around and said they were his "buddies"!

Bear relaxing at GrandDad and Grandmama's before we came back home.

July 4th

So we had a couple of days celebrating July 4th. On the 3rd we went to the state capitol, Montpelier, to enjoy the all day festivities! We left before the fireworks because we needed to get the tired kids home and in bed. On the 4th we were part of our church's float in the Williston July 4th Parade.

 A view up to the Vermont State House

 Vermont History Museum. We toured inside and they had crafts for the kids.

 Heading up to the Vermont State House

 A view down on the lawn from the State House steps

 Joe and the younglings rolling the big beach balls around the course

 This man came to be in the dunking booth. Joe was waiting until he got there after we saw him. Joe was first up to try to dunk him and got him on the first throw! 

 Montpelier Parade. We got to see most of the state officials: Governor, Representatives, Congressman, and of course they had Bernie Sanders leading the parade.

 Librarians did a little routine with their carts during the parade.

 We stopped in Waterbury for supper at the Prohibition Pig (BTW they do claim to have "Southern Sweet Tea", but it's not. Just this southern girl's opinion!)

 They did have some yummy BBQ pork

CMC's float in the Williston 4th of July parade

 

 After the parade we headed down to Fort Ticonderoga in New York.

 We ate in Vergennes, VT at the 3 Squares Cafe on the way back

 To end the day we went to Maple Street Park to watch the fireworks

Spring Break Vermont-style!

So I thought I should share about Spring Break when the big boys flew up to visit us. Most high school/ college age kids head to warm destinations, but not our boys! They came up just in time for Winter Storm Stella to drop the 2nd largest record snowfall in Vermont's recorded history! Between Tuesday and Wednesday we got around 25-30 inches of snow in the area! So we stayed inside some, but in typical Vermont fashion the roads were cleared and we were out again in a couple of days. We took our first ferry ride as a family across Lake Champlain (Grand Isle, VT to Plattsburgh, NY), the big boys stood out on the frozen lake, and we visited Plattsburgh (Five Guys Burgers and Sam's), then drove down to Essex, NY to take the ferry back over to Charlotte, VT. We also played Mexican Train Dominoes and watched movies together. It was a good time together. It was hard to let the boys go back to Tennessee, but school needed to be finished.

 Gold Brook Covered Bridge, Stowe, VT

 Lake Champlain

 Essex, NY to Charlotte, VT ferry

biggest snowfall of the winter