I *heart* VT

The kids had sport on Saturday, so we drove up Sunday and arrived late afternoon. Monday morning bright and early I dropped the kids and Matt up at the ski slopes. Given that it was the busiest day of the season, I didn't think I had a chance of getting a lesson, so I took Honey out for a walk instead.

The boys were up the weekend before and they had said that the ploughed snow in the drive was at least 7 feet. The warm weather over the week had really melted a lot. It was down to about 4 feet and the roads were really muddy. Honey and I had great fun sloshing and slipping around in the mud (and where the sun wasn't; the ice).I took some photos of the roads around the house...the branches in the sunlight

The wonderful gaping letterboxes

The rushes by a creek, with the waters starting to flow again
A gorgeous "barn red" house against the blue sky
Little rabbit (?) footprints in the snow
Meanwhile, Matt had his blackberry at the top of the mountain and was taking photos of the kids....Kit or maybe RemiAll 4 of them kitted out. This was the first full day of skiing that Ella had done and by all accounts she really improved. They are all totally, TOTALLY hooked.
That night Ella was beside herself with exhaustion and I started to get the sore throat that the kids had last week, so the next day we took it easy and in the afternoon went down to the local farm for a sleigh ride.Earlier in the year we came and patted these horses, and Ella in particular was really keen to go and see them again. We traipsed through the mud, and because it was late in the afternoon, it was just us on the sleigh. We figured that we'd just go around the paddock a few times, but no. It was off into the forest...
While we were going, the guy told us how his barn had collapsed recently. They (like us) had so much snow over January and then in February they had warmer temps and the sun melted the snow on one side of the barn's roof. They had 110 cows in there and the two horses, and only 2 cows were killed.

Anyway, after a ride through the forest we stopped by a shed and a fire.The guy kept throwing on branches of wood with pine needles to get the fire really roaring...sending smoke high into the airThe kids warmed themselves by the fire, roasted marshmallows and we had the most delicious warm apple cider.Ella even got to have a sit on one of the horses.On the way back, you could see exactly how much Kit had enjoyed himself.

This is what it looked like with the melting snow. Honey loves to catch snowballs

I have no idea how this photo works...I think Ella was flinging snow out of her cup.

Matt took Remi, Kit and Ella skiing. Oscar, like me wasn't feeling too great, but we went out for a drive and a bit of a shop at the outlet stores. That night, after we got home, it started to snow. In the morning we awoke to this:

9 inches of snow. Ella kept singing "walking in a winter wonderland".

Matt had to do a conference call with a colleague of his who lives in Vermont, so we dropped Matt there and then I took the kids into town again.
Look how beautiful all the roads were.

Snow everywhere-down in town it was much warmer (just above freezing) and everything was slushy and melting.

It started to snow again that night and the next day they all went off skiing in the snow and wind. When I drove them up there in the morning it was like a blizzard. They ended up closing a couple of the ski lifts. They finished up early and we drove home that evening. Fortunately the snow was local and we got home in good time.

I have to say that I was sad to come back to civilization. The open spaces, the clean air, the beauty of VT was so hard to leave...

Since then, I've been in bed for 2 days with some weird bug that just makes me feel really tired. Kit and Ella and Matt have broken out in spots. The kids' doctor suspects a mild case of reoccurring chicken pox, or something called hot tub folliculitus...Matt's doctor says it's not chicken pox but he has no idea what it is. Either way, they stayed home today and until we can prove that it isn't chicken pox I have to keep Kit and Ella at home. Fun fun fun.