Turkey Day in Vermont

Well, I will add words to this later on this week. Until then, you can enjoy looking!

This is a shot of our Thanksgiving Table, my Mom and Nieces (Sierra and Emma) made the turkey place cards/name thingy-ma-bops. They were very cute but I'm not sure where mine ended up . . .

This is Mary Lou climbing up in the antique child rocker that my mom re-upholstered, my sister-in-law, Kristin and my brother, Dana. I love them!
This is a fish tank Waldo that I found in the Attic. It is now hidden, along with 24 sets of googly eyes for Erica to find when she goes home for Christmas. Where's Waldo?
This is a Creemee stand. Yes, that is how we spell it! For those of you NOT from the east coast, a creemee is soft serve ice-cream, but it tastes five trillion times better when called a creemee.

This is an actual, working fire engine for the town of (look and squint) Londonberry. I love the names of towns on the East Coast. So quaint and poetic. Orem, Provo, West Valley City??? Utah's got NOTHING on Vermont!

Yay! Kristin, lookin' lovely I might add, at Aunt Linda (you'll all meet here in a few pics) and Uncle Leon (also to be introduced in a bit)

This is Mica. He is so incredibly funny, he had me in tears at Thanksgiving dinner. He looked over at some younger child in the family who was fussing and said "I'm going to take an egg stick and crack you over the head!" at which point I began to laugh and his father (Dana) scolded him. Realizing that I shouldn't condone such behavior, I pretended I was crying. Mica began to look like he was going to cry b/c he was so upset that he had made me cry. Then someone made me laugh again and he realized I wasn't crying and began to say it over and over. Funny kid, that Mica!

Krisitn, with Skylar. Skylar is a cuddle-bug (as you'll notice in later pictures) but he never warmed up to me. I'm not sure why not. Maybe kids find it offensive that I just call them "kid" rather than using their names. Who knows?

This is my Uncle Leon. Now, in case you can't tell, he is leaning against the fridge, or refrigerator (NOT frigerator. If you're going to say that much of the word, add the 're' for heaven's sake! Right Liz?) Anyway. This IS a full sized fridge, and yes he is that tall. I know you all are wondering, "Where did he get that height?" Well, from his parents. Uncle Leon is married to Aunt Linda (coming up next!!!) and his family owns the Corse farm which has cows, and maple syrup and Christmas trees and Christmas Wreaths and I think Lumber. BUY CABOT! It isn't (usually) died orange!

Here is Aunt Linda. She is my Mom's sister. You'll meet Grammy and Grampy in a bit, I can't wait. I love my family and I'm so excited to be able to share them with all of my friends!

This is my younger cousin, Caleb. He belongs to Linda and Leon, and obviously gets his height from his Father's side of the fam.

This is Lindsay, Caleb's Finance. Oh la la. She is very nice. I'm a little intimidated by her b/c I think she might be smarter than me . . . and Sklar loves her. But she is very nice! I just met her this weekend, and I already think she fits great with the family. Especially Skylar (oh, sorry, that was Jealous Jennifer. Love you Lindsay! I really do! You'll learn that I'm a little crazy!)

This is my cousin, Adam and his girlfriend, Casey. He belongs to Aunt Denise (Mom's Sister) and Uncle Glenn (her husband, and by "her" I mean Aunt Denise, not my mom.) I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Casey, but she is also very sweet. These lucky cousins of mine!

Ah, The Henry. I love this kid. Yeah, I know. He doesn't look like a kid, but he is younger than me, so I can call him that. He is the youngest of Aunt Linda and Uncle Leon's. He has an amazing sense of humor, in case this picture isn't saying that without a thousand words.

This is the barn attached to Aunt Linda and Uncle Leon's house. This is mostly for nostalgic reasons. I used to go every other summer to their house and this barn is good times!

Another shot of the hay, in the barn.

These are the heifers near the house. I really like them, except for when they go into heat, then they are a little bit noisy.

Another shot of a heifer.

Sadness! This heifer had an encounter with a porcupine. Poor thing! Every time she goes to eat something the quills get hit and I can only imagine her pain. :(

This is the barn in the heifer field, and a tree. If you didn't know it was a tree, you need to go to the East Coast. We've got a lot of them!

Ok, the following are pictures of the walk to the milking and calf barns, and the sugar house. These stone walls (some of them, at least) date way back and were used during the revolutionary war as shields and gun stabilizer things. I made that name up, but not the history. Look it up if you doubt me!

Caleb, Lindsay, Aunt Linda, My Mom and Dad, walking up towards the barns and sugar house.

Bundled up Skylar. REALLY bundled up, makes a cute shot, eh?

Yay for those rock walls!

A conifer with a big rock and a picturesque background. Look at that beauty!

Mostly just trying to get back to my photography skills. It's been awhile, so no mockin' of my composition!

A large fungi. Dana wondered if it was a gourmet fungi, but Dana wasn't willing to taste it, and neither was I. I guess we'll all just have to wonder . . .

Photo skill brush up.

This is the Milking Parlor, and I L-O-V-E the smell of it. It brings back so many memories for me!

Ok, for those of you who haven't been to the milking parlor, let me explain. Uncle Leon coaxes the cows in by pulling a handle that releases grain into bins and the cows want to eat it (those crazy cows!). This cow figured out how to get the grain and I caught her as she pulled the string herself. It was entertaining to watch her, but Uncle Leon says she doesn't deserve extra grain because she doesn't produce much milk. Naught 698! (some of the cows are named, but I don't know their names. Good thing they have numbers on tags!)

Yay for the Calves! I love them too. Each year there are new ones. If you want to know where they come from, ask your mother about artificial insemination. I don't want to go into it!

A calf, eating my hand . . .

and some more of my hand . . .

This one is eating my dad's hand.

These are pictures of spore capsules from moss. We used to go into a clearing full of moss and play while others in our family looked for Christmas trees. There was a little bit of snow (hence the white stuff in the picture) so you can't see all of the moss, but I think you can get an idea of how prolific it is.

From a little bit further away . . .

I really liked the composition that this photo had to offer. I love all of the spore capsules and the tree branches. I think Vermont is so beautiful!

Another of the branches, but closer up.

yet another . . . I couldn't decide which was my favorite!

I caught Mica in the act of eating some snow. Cute kid. He is standing next to his Christmas tree!

This is from the driveway of the sugar house.

The Tree! Cut and hoisted on to the back of Mom and Dad's car for the journey from the sugar house to the house. You can see my Mom's little tree peeking out of the trunk.

This is Grammy D., my Mom's Mom. She doesn't like having her picture taken, but I did it anyway. She loves me :) I love her too! One of my favorite things to do when I'm at home is visit my Grandparents. I'm pretty sure they are the funniest Grandparents EVER! I think they've always been funny, but I didn't get a lot of it until I got older.

Grampy D., husband of Grammy D. I love Grampy too! He does woodworking and he is AMAZING! The furniture he makes is beautiful and then he makes toys too. Talented man!

This is Aunt Denise, Mom's Sister. She is crafty. Not like a fox, crafty, Roberts and Michael's Crafty. She also likes tea sets. Aunt Denise and Uncle Glenn have an AMAZING yard with trails and a fish pond and a vegatable garden. Best part, the golf cart. I think that is where I learned how to drive. Hee Hee.

This is Uncle Glenn, married to Aunt Denise. He has an amazing smile, eh? He works for IBM, which I'm pretty sure means he is smart. I've always thought so anyway!

And last, but not least, Uncle Glenn, Aunt Denise and me. I'm really excited to have a picture of us together. I wish I could go home more often. I hope I've been able to show a little bit of how beautiful Vermont is, and how wonderful my family is. I'm so grateful to have been able to see so many of them over the Thanksgiving weekend. Love to you all!

Sadness!

I was going to post another blog update, but my phone isn't sending the pictures to the computer correctly. :( So, this is my post.

Weekends are SO fun!!!!!

So, to start the weekend off, Erica and I went to Target (HO, HO, HO)! I hope I don't have to remind you all that I love a good deal!
Hayden has been having a hard time adjusting to the wood floors in the Great Room (Yeah, that's right. Capital G & R. It is not a great room. That looks so dull and boring.) and the laminate wood flooring in my apartment. The apartment is the hardest adjustment for him. Every time he tries to leave his back paws slip and he gets hurt. I've been thinking about buying him dog boots, but they are a little bit expensive. In the dollar section at target I found these sporting purple socks with pink gripper spots on the bottom. Hayden L-O-V-E-S them. I just have to add some elastic to the tops so that they don't fall off of him.

On Saturday, I promised Hayden we would go to the park and play, but I didn't have any easily portable treats to entice him to return the ball to me, so we went to PetsMart first. Even though I found those AMAZING socks at Target, I wanted to check out the dog booties. Right next to the booties were some . . . Doggles!!!! I kid you not, that is what they are called. For all of you out there thinking it is a crazy name, you don't have much of an imagination b/c it is just a combination of the words "dog" and "goggles" and it makes perfect sense. The pair that he is sporting in this picture are ALSO sunglasses! Amazing. My Dad asked why you would ever need them. I think they are for dogs that ride skateboards and surf . . . and maybe they like to stick their heads out of the car window. Maybe.

I have, on occasion, been accused of being slightly OCD. I don't know where people get these caaarazy (no Brienne, not Lrazy.) ideas from! I just like my Q-Tips (which, in case you were wondering, stands for Quality Tips.) to be orderly. I mean, sure, they are in a cupboard where no one else sees them, but I don't want to try and grab one and have a bunch fall on the floor! That would be very yucky! When they are stacked neatly, you grab one, you get one.

Just another shot of my Q-tip stacking skills.

This is Willard. He is my co-worker Ashleigh's, 3 month old beagle. Ashleigh and I took them on a longish walk and then let them play in a baseball field. Basically, playing consisted of both of them running around for a bit and then Hayden, aka fatty, would lay down and . . . They would doggie play and bite each other. When Hayden would get REALLY tired,

Willard would climb around on his back giving him a nice little massage. Or surfing. We're not sure what Willard intended to do, but it looked to the humans like one of those two things. For those of you who have not met Hayden, his skin is loose so as Willard would walk along Hayden's back the skin would slip and Willard would try to keep his balance.

When Hayden was rested and ready to play again he just let Willard know (sorry the picture is blurry, but Hayden is lifting his head to nip Willard's toes, or ears. Whichever was closest.

For those of you who don't know, I'm kind of on a magnet making binge right now. This is one of my magnets holding up 13 envelopes with two pieces of paper in each (a white paper with a canary carbon copy thingy-ma-bop). Pretty strong, eh?

So, that is what I did this weekend. It was a fun packed weekend, that's for sure!