Vermont

We're back finally!  We got home on Saturday and I'm still buried underneath dirty laundry, miscellaneous camping gear, wet towels (yes, ick!  I forgot them in the van until today), and a bunch of red reusable Target bags full of who knows what.  I was lucky enough to leave it in there until today and pretend that my house was still clean after vacation.  Well, Red's friend wanted to come with us to story hour at the library so it all had to come out so I could set up the third row seat for her to ride in.

Vermont was nice.  It's so hard for me to get into vacation mode anymore.  I'm always thinking about what needs to be done at home, what we need to do next schedule wise that day, what we're going to make for dinner that night...ugh.  I wish I was better at living in the moment and sitting still, but I'm not.  I'm hoping that one day I can be all Zen and just wash dishes to wash dishes. 

We stayed in the rented house which was fine.  Nothing special, but a place to lay our heads.  It was a "camp", which means no insulation and the tap water came untreated directly out of the lake.  Don't want to be drinking that stuff!  We had a good laugh about the appearance of the neighbors' yard.  Picture a shed made of unpainted plywood with a burnt out Budweiser sign hanging on it.  Next to that is an old refrigerator with the door open with an empty bottle of liquor on top.  All this loveliness was surrounded by a ton of pieces of wood with an axe sticking out of it.  No grass either.  It was all on top of a pile of gravel along with a Bobcat and an old trailer.

We ended up spending most of the time at the campground anyway swimming and hanging out.  Red overnighted at the campground every night, splitting her time with her grandma and her aunt and cousin.  She loved it so much she cried and cried the night before we left.  My mother-in-law is already trying to get us commit to going again next year and staying on the campground this time.  I told her we'd think about it.  I told the Cobbler that in order for me to be comfortable I need somewhere to pee at the campsite (I'm not walking 10 minutes down to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  Ever since the kids, I have to pee 1-2 times in the night.  A chamber pot?), I'd need earplugs and a sleep mask (I wake at the drop of a hat at home and sleeping outside I'm sure would be louder than my own bed), and we'd need to work out a cooking schedule and menu.  Every night someone would be making something that someone else couldn't or wouldn't eat and I felt like we were wasting so much food.  It definitely could have worked out better.

Besides the normal campfires and S'mores making, we took a day trip to Bennington and Manchester.  Good times.  Here are some photos:

About a third of the crew at my mom-in-law's campsite for a campfire.

Catching salamanders with Auntie Sandra

After riding the Minniehaha Steamboat on Lake George

All wet from riding the Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls on the way home.  Even with the ponchos on we got soaked!  That's what a little wind will get you.

Now on to the rest of summer!