October 11th

Ahhhh, the vacation is winding down. We saved the itinerary for last. Today and tomorrow are full days. Here we go.....

Shelburne Museum is so much fun. It is acres of Americana and History. There was some cool exibits on while we were there too, Ansel Adams, need I say more. All these things to see and I honestly think things like jumping off a bench were some of the kids favorite moments.

Sign over the entrance to the covered bridge that is now a part of the museum.

Old School House in the museum.

Todd's nature photography.

Can you imagine school like this? They were so fascinated that school used to be held all in one room and was heated by a stove, etc.

Our little Oompah Loompah.

Another highlight for the kids. The very old but well maintained carousel. This was what Dallin asked about all day long. After this though we went into a looonnnnggg building that housed an entire circus parade of miniature figures. It was really cool.

Beautiful Stop on the road.

Then on to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. We were so excited to learn about making Teddy Bears and of course, get one of our own. Dad used to be a "Bear Counselor." What a fun place to work.

Here we are on the tour.

The first in a series of "put your head in the hole" photos. Keep your eyes open for more.

After leaving the Teddy Bear Factory we suddenly decided to hop onto the ferry across Lake Champlain to New York. So we drove to the ferry dock and drove onto the next ferry that left in 5 minutes.....

A view of Vermont from the ferry.

Fun times on the ferry.

Arriving in New York. As we drove onto the dock in New York, Lauren loudly called out from the backseat, "Welcome to Yew Nork!!!!"

We started driving along the road in NY and saw this little open lawn with a beautiful tree and fallen leaves. We pulled over and took pictures and played for a while. I'm sure we were on someone's property but we didn't get shot at so we figured we were okay. It was fun.

So we wended our way along the Adirondaks and then to a different ferry crossing where we managed to make the last ferry of the day from that crossing back to Vermont. We were outside of the car for a few minutes, but it was really cold with the wind on the water so the kids spent most of the ride in the Secret Service car playing with their bears.

Jonah was asleep so we left him in the car. We were only like 6 feet away from him so he was safe. Yes, we can be responsible parents :-)

When we got off the ferry we were starving. We happened to find an amazingly good Churrasqueria, in Burlington of all places. We talked to the kids about the fact that we were taking them to a grown up restaurant and that they needed to behave. I don't know exactly what we said our how we said it (I wish I would have recorded it for future use) but they were so well behaved. We were so impressed with their behavior!! They were calm and pleasant and polite and ate lots of food and lasted for about 3 hours!!!

Hi guys!!! Now that it is time to sleep I am totally awake. Let's play.