Vermont, oh wait, Canada

So, one of TCR's goals for vacation was to find some gravestones in Canada. He's uploaded details and pictures to Ancestry.com ... if you need details, please ask him.

It was a gorgeous day, we had to seek out markers for the Savages and the Lewis graves ... and we found them by walking every single row. Luckily, we started on the right end, closest to the street, and the first gravemarker was in the first row, the second was in the 7th row. Not bad.

This was the first Silas Lewis and Anna Steven stone, and Silas Lewis and Mary Savage on the reverse. It was nearest to the street. 

We found the second Lewis stone, the white one with orange lichen on it below, and it had a lot of grave plaques next to it ... babies who hadn't really made it past a few months ... we spent some time clearing the flat stones off. 

As you can see, the name of the child was all grown over. We ripped up a lot of dirt and grass. I was sad for little Betsy, Mary, Silas, and Cynthia.

 

OK, Q11 wouldn't get out of the car at this grave yard. Or the next (which didn't yield anything). She was kinds of cranky about it all until we turned around and headed back to Vermont, actually. Although she liked the Canadian candy, of which we should have bought  more (I liked it, too).

However, we did stop at a library on the way home, where I got some books at the library book store, and we stopped at another library that is situated smack dab on the US/Canada border. You walk in via the US, but to get to the teen section you have to go through to Canada. They customs right there in the library (just kidding, they didn't. But they did show the line, it is inlaid marble on the floor of the library!) And Q left that painted rock outside the library by the stone obelisk marking the line. I missed pictures there though.

Vermont. Swimming.

So, one of the goals of this vacation was the same as my goal always is: ice cream every day. But C12 and Q11 especially wanted to go swimming.

So for my birthday back in July I bought floaties for everybody. Q11 got a giant pineapple, C12 got a giant mandala, and I got an average-sized tube floatie WITH cupholder. At his request, TCR did not get one, preferring to experience water in its natural state, unimpeded by a plastic blow-up floatie.

So, first order of business was blowing up the floaties and getting on the lake, which the girls did every single day, despite it being not SUPER warm. High 70s? But the day it was the chilliest, of course, the water felt the warmest. And I did get in, and so did TCR.

This was the view from the lakeside. That was our dock, and that was the across the lake, which was a goodly ways away, about a half mile. You can't see the houses from this photo, but there were some. I'm not sure how you'd GET to the houses, but they were there!

The swimming was good.

The first day we were there C13 and Q11 thought it would be a good idea to get the dog in the water. Because -- she's a dog, she should like water, right? But she doesn't. So they forced her in, were pleased she could swim, although she swam right out of the water and back up on the shore. Because, of course, the water was cold, and Lucy doesn't like the water. The next day, however, we noticed Lucy wasn't herself. She kept looking back at her butt, licking her haunches, and her tail was limp, hanging straight down.  She wasn't wagging her tail.

the girls were quite worried, and for a bit we thought we'd have to find an emergency vet up in Vermont. However, TCR did some searching, and Dr. Google told us we had a case of limber tail, which often happens to certain sporting dogs when they swim too much, or get a bath in too cold (or too warm) water or when they exert themselves too much. So, maybe a beagle mix being thrown into a cold lake? Yeah, that'll do it. Technically, she'd injured her coccygeal muscles near the base of her tail. In layman's terms: she sprained her butt. Really, quite embarassing.

Here she is on the dock, you can see her tail is straight down. It was that way for a few days.




However, even Lucy found something she liked about the water. Ducks. She voluntarily ran into the water and up to her chest (still with the broken tail, as you can see!) to get closer to the ducks.

We never let her get any ducks, but she sure did want to go after them!

Vermont.

This year we decided to go to Vermont for a week.

The drive up was long, so we broke it into two, stopping in Easthampton to visit with K, T, and J11 for a night, then the next morning we drove the rest of the way up. 

I'm betting this picture is from the drive from Maryland to Massachusetts, since that was the leg were we left at 4:30 or something. Lucy Dog is wearing the thundershirt, so she's moderately happy. Not really panting and shedding and smelling exceptionally doggy. Just calm.

We drove up the next morning through Vermont, gorgeous, of course. Even the rest area was nice, and look at these three:

Q11 found a painted rock, which we picked up and took with us to put somewhere else.

And we headed to Ben & Jerry's which was somewhat out of our way, but ice cream? So we went. Although it has changed quite a bit since we were last there ... The tour is much more of a hustling through, now, to accommodate the larger number of people visiting (because, ice cream!). But the ice cream is just as good, and the flavor graveyard is always fun, and the store smells delicious.

Our sample flavor was something caramelly. Maybe Cthen12butnow13 can remind me what it was. I'm sure she can remember. Plus, C12 was annoyed that Q11 got TWO. They were offering two to everybody, because they had a few extra scooped. Q11 went and got one before she was done her first one. C12 decided to wait until she was done. Mistake. She missed out. It was OK, they gave you a LOT.

Yum

Lucy did NOT like this. It was a half-baked idea. Mwwwa-mwwwwaaaa.

Yum.

Anyway, we then kept driving, and arrived in our vacation abode, a yellow house in Barton, VT. It is on Crystal lake, a nice, clear, beautiful lake. 

The house was just across the street from the lake, and we were allowed to take Lucy Dog, which was great.

Apology

I got a little carried away with the animations. Just a few posts have them. If they make you sick, well, it is only from this summer.

I'll stop now.

Denny's

SO, when K13 was with us I told the girls I'd take them to Denny's. I didn't, though. So Q11 got it in her mind to go. And so we went. We had a sleepover with K11 and H11 and C12 came with us, of course.

What I didn't take was a picture of their food at 11pm at night ... we had breakfast, of course. H11 had the grandslam breakfast, which K11 ate half of along with her strawberries and cream kids pancakes, Q11 had funfetti pancakes (only available in kids size) and C12 had strawberries and cream, adult size. MMMM, good.