As y’all (that is the handful of people that read this mess that we didn’t actually go see) have probably figured out we were out of town last week. We had gone north to visit various family members.
First off we drove to Vermont to stay with my Mom, aka Nana. It’s a long drive that we broke up with an over night stay in New Jersey, much to the delight of the younger members of our group. I don’t know why, but Max and Rebecca are currently infatuated with the whole idea of staying in a hotel. Every time we drive by one Rebecca begs to stay the night there. Jake, Nate and Rally (yes we traveled with one of our dogs, she’s too old and fragile for extended kennel visits) on the other hand were relatively nonplussed by the experience.
Anyhoo, we were up bright and early the next day and finished off our long trek northwards.
My Mom’s house is a great vacation spot for us. She’s located next to a good sized park, there is more than enough room for us, behind the house is a nice sized fenced yard and (the best part) there are two kids next door that are roughly the same age as our crew. Unfortunately it was also hotter than heck and central air is a rarity in homes in VT. The temps soared into the 90’s during the day, but plunged down into the 70’s and 60’s at night. This however was an improvement over the swamp we left behind at home. It was even hotter in VA and it did not cool down at night. As a side note, I’d like to publicly thank Larry for having the intelligence to turn off our AC before we left. We got to miss out on the special joy of paying for cooling down the house during the hottest weather of the season. Yay us!
The kids got to goof around inside and out while Larry and I helped out my Mom.
The funniest part was the kid’s sleeping arrangements. Originally Max and Rebecca were to share the second bedroom on the second floor, just down the hall from where Larry and I would be staying. The boys would be sleeping in the basement, which my mother has set up as a kid zone. No breakables, a small combination TV and VCR and a ton of kid friendly movies that she has collected over the years. It’s a bit musty down there, but it was nice and cool. My mom lives on the first floor and rarely ventures to the other floors.
When we first arrived Max announced that he was not sleeping with Rebecca. Jake and Nate wanted to sleep in a real bed and not on the sleeping mats in the basement. Rebecca did not want to be alone.
Okay.
We shuffled things a bit and got all four to sleep downstairs in the basement. Max and Rebecca are two young to be down there by themselves and I thought it was too hot and too crowded for them all to pile into the second floor spare bedroom.
The second night they pleaded we us to sleep upstairs and we relented. The boys all piled into the bed.
threeboys
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar. While little Rebecca had her own little bed on the floor.
sleepingrebecca
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar. It was hot and it was stuffy, but they were happy, sort of.
The next night it was too hot for Jake upstairs and after his siblings drifted off to sleep he moved down to the much cooler basement.
The following two nights the rest of the kids moved down to the basement. It might smell funny down there, but it was much more comfortable than all being crammed into a small bedroom.
The rest of our stay was spent with the kids playing in the backyard and the basement. There were a couple of visits from the two kids next door and one from their cousin Annie, who is a few years older, but she still loves to tear around in the backyard with the boys. Here is a grainy photo (it was fairly dark out when I took it and I was afraid to get too close because of all the water play) of Annie, the neighbor’s son and the top of the wading pool.
Annie&L
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar. They also got to splash around in the aforementioned wading pool and in the brook by the park. The older boys even got special daddy time. Nate got to play tennis with Larry down on the public courts in the park, while Jake got to go on a hike on Deer Leap Mountain.
It was a fun visit and soon it was time to pack our bags for our trip down to Grandma’s house.
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