Camping, July 4th, Aussie pics :)

The last couple of days of our trip were spent camping with some of Phil's family down near the farm. We had a really good time, and the weather was perfect (the rain stopped right before we got there)! Phil's cousin Catrina organized the outting... I have a picture below of her little boy, Aidan, with his tent (which was inside his parents' tent!). He's got the bluest eyes I think I've ever seen :) We played with him while we were there, and then went to a concert and fireworks show on the Fourth. The fireworks were great- they lasted forever, and the grand finale practically caused me a siezure ;)

Windmills on the way to the concert:

Boxes of fireworks... TONS of them:

They did a whole 4-minute song with only the sparkly gold fireworks, which are my FAVORITE:

Fireworks over the Statue of Liberty display:

Here's the video of the fireworks grand finale... at one point at the end, there are so many fireworks the screen goes completely white :) It was awesome :)

We broke up our drive on the way home by stopping in Maryland to spend the night with Phil's college friend Andrew. He and his family are probably the most hospitable people I have ever met- they always make us feel SO welcome, and we have such a good time visiting them. I truly think they wouldn't care if dropped in unannounced and stayed for a week- they'd accomodate us and be thrilled about it :) The sunset over their farm was gorgeous the night we were there:

As far as I'm concerned, one of our best souveniers from the trip was some updated pictures of Laura and Michael, our niece and nephew in Australia. Phil's mom had gotten some pictures of them, which we took to WalMart and copied. I tried to scan them at work, so I could put them on here... y'all may not know, but I'm HORRIBLE with anything technical or computer-related. Surprisingly, they turned out alright... not great, but alright at a least :) There were individual shots of each of them, too, but those were too complicated for me to handle ;) Anyways, the kids are getting SO big!! Aren't they adorable?!?!

So that was our trip... shew! Phil had to get right back in the car the next day and drive to Nashville for work. His truck broke down on the way. And our dryer broke at home while he was gone. And we overdrew our bank account b/c of Wachovia's screwy accounting. So it's been quite a welcome home ;) I think we'd both like to be back in the cool weather, camping and playing with the family! Oh, well. At least we got puppy kisses when we got home :)

Saranac Lake- 2nd half (Vermont)

After visiting the top of Whiteface Mountain (see previous post) we picked Kim up from work and headed to Vermont. Add another to the list of states I've visited :) There's a farm there called Shelbourne Farms that does tours and has a petting zoo area for the kids. We had to take a ferry to get there, which was a first for both me and Phil. On the way over, our car was at the front of the boat, and we got out and took a few "windblown" pictures:

(I'm tellin' ya- Caleb is ALWAYS happy!) :

Once we got to the farm, we walked about a half mile to the barn, which was HUGE:

The Henry family, one of my favorite pictures of the trip:

In the petting area, they had 2-day old baby goats, which were precious!!! Noelle was a little afraid of most all the animals, but Madison eventually warmed up enough to hold the baby!! (And you KNOW I couldn't resist it, either!!)

Oddly enough, though she was afraid of all the cute, fluffy things, Noelle was pretty enamored with the baby turkeys! :)

I had seen a horse from afar, so even with the baby goat distraction, I eventually had to find it :) And love on it :)

Phil and Kim took a walk up the hill behind the barn, while Nate and I took the girls to find some candy. The view of Lake Champlain was gorgeous from up there!

Parting shot of the really cool barn:

Saranac Lake- 1st half

PREPARE FOR LOTS OF PICTURES :)

I had to break our trip into several posts, because I have so many pics. And believe me, this is still a small selection of what we actually took!

After Hershey, we drove the rest of the way to upstate NY, to visit Phil's brother Nathan in Saranac Lake. We hadn't seen Nathan, Kim and their family in about a year and half, so it was WONDERFUL to finally see them! We even had a new nephew, Caleb, to meet :)

Our first afternoon, we took the kids to a horse show in Lake Placid. Obviously Aunt Erin was pleased with this activity ;) Here are just a couple of horse pictures, because I can't NOT take pictures of horses!

I wanted this guy to be my trip souvenier, but he wouldn't fit in the car. He was quite gorgeous, though- and huge, just like I like my horses :) He was a nuzzler, too- very cute :)

Caleb, chilling in the backpack at the horse show:

We went to get ice cream afterwards- here's Madison:

Aunt Erin and Caleb (such a happy baby!):

The show tired out Miss Noelle:

When we got back from the dinner that night, Phil and I gave the kids some long overdue presents, to cover missed birthdays. The girls got dress-up princess shoes and dress-up hair (Phil and I joined in the play with the hair, as you'll notice below). Caleb got a truck to help him learn how to walk (the girls liked riding on it, too). Lots of fun play time ensued:

The next day, we drove to the top of Whiteface Mountain, one of the tallest in the area. We had a beautiful view going up, and stopped at an overlook of Saranac Lake. Unfortunately, the summit was in a cloud, so we didn't see anything from there!

This is a tad out of order, but after dinner that night, we took the girls to a playground for a quick release of energy :)

Here's super-happy-baby Caleb, hanging out with Uncle Phil:

The morning we left, Phil and I stayed with the kids for a few minutes while Nathan and Kim ran an errand. It took no time flat for the house to be turned into a tent-fort. It was pretty impressive (even more impressive was Aunt Erin crawling into one of the tents with both Madison and Noelle- talk about tight quarters!!) :)

I must have been upstairs packing when this picture was taken, because I have no idea what Noelle was doing, but I certainly think it's pretty funny :) Sure to embarass her when she's older :)

The Sweetest Place on Earth

We took a week long vacation and drove up to see Phil's family in NY over the Fourth of July. On the way up, we stopped in Hershey, PA to break up our trip. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed the whole town didn't smell like chocolate, as I've heard. Otherwise, it was a fun stop :) The streetlights are shaped like kisses (see below). We took a tour through Chocolate World, complete with singing cows, and conveyor belts covered with Hersheys Kisses. Then we watched a 3-D movie, and got some massive cupcakes to take on the road with us. Next time, I want to spend a few hours at the spa, getting a chocolate massage and soaking in the chocolate milk bath :)