Burlington, VT

After Old Forge, we made our way over to Burlington, VT. We spent part of our first day on Church Street. Which is kind of the famous hot spot of Burlington. 

But, can I be honest? 

We didn't love it. 

It was all high end shops, granola type folks with their sandals and Subaru's, and green living, local produce boasting restaurants and their special recycling garbage cans. 

Which I totally support... don't get me wrong.

BUT... 1. it was no place for kids (boring!) 2. we felt really out of place and uncomfortable.

PLUS, get this. We went into a little candy shop (the one place that appealed to the kids). It was ran by some Asian ladies who we thought were maybe talking about us as we meandered around. Whispering and looking at us weird. Not kidding. The kids, of course, touched a few things, so before they did something to really annoy the Asian women, Josh and I were like "let's get the heck out of here."

As we went to leave, the workers stopped us and were like "aren't you going to pay for this?" 

They had brought a Hubba Bubba bubble tape up to the register that Darcy had picked up. 

I said "why?" and the lady said "because your daughter opened it." 

I got all sorts of annoyed and said "NO, she did NOT." 

And she said "Yes, she did."

So I said, "Look at it, is the seal broken?"

It was not.

I didn't even bother letting her say sorry (if she was even going to)

We turned around and stomped out of there. With our noses in the air. :)

Good luck with your crappy, overpriced candy business. We will not be back.

Perhaps the rest of Church Street was a great place. But obviously, it was tainted by our experience with the accusatory candy shop workers.

I'm over it. Clearly. ;)

Next, we headed down the road to check out Lake Champlain. Darcy had to pee. Twice.

But the bus ride was fun. 

We walked along the trail, sat in a swing, played for a long time in the grass near the water. 

It was peaceful, and enjoyable. Lovely.

Later, we played in the hotel swimming pool. 

Brinks has been in swimming for like, a year, and has made no progress really. 

BUT, throw her in a hotel swimming pool with a noodle and a tube, and we've got a fish on our hands! She did not want to leave! She just kept getting out and jumping in, over and over again.

Guess what Darcy did? Sat in the pool chairs, wrapped in a towel, shivering. 

Again. 

She barely made it past the pool steps before getting out again.

Poor sis. Finally I just took her back to the room to watch TV. 

BTW, our hotel was also a 'green' kind of a place. Our bar soap had a hole in the middle to save the planet. Ha ha. Love it.

Old Forge

In Old Forge, NY there are a bunch of hiking trails. We went to the one we thought the kids could handle. What a lucky surprise! It was a mile and a half of pure awesomeness. 

Brinks handled the trail like a champ. Not to mention Darcy. She had to stay in a backpack the whole time. But she had a sucker. She didn't complain. 

The trail was full of this root system that made climbing really quite easy, which was good because bits of it got pretty steep. It was so green and lovely. I love the east so much sometimes.

Of course the best part was the view from the top!
(not to mention our snack was nutella in a cup)

It was a nice, clear view of these 7 lakes. 

I even climbed this really tall freaky tower to see the full view. I was so scared. But I did it. :)

No body else was scared. Just me. 

I can't tell you how happy it makes me that Brinkley likes hiking. It's a family activity we all love!!! Yay! I'm sure by next year, Darcy will be able to hold her own. She sort of spry and awesome like that. Can't wait.

Water Safari

Straight across the street from our hotel in Old Forge, NY was a water park. 

 Of course we had to go.

I can't remember the last time I went to a water park, but let me tell you, it was fun. 

Never mind the chafing that my thighs suffered (I wasn't the fattest person there either! The place was crawling with chubby Jr. High kids on a field trip)

Brinks was fearless. She went down this huge, gigantic, green, skinny tube of a water slide. 

All by herself. 

I was claustrophobic just thinking about it. 

I was like, are they crazy to let 5 year olds who can't swim go down that alone? 

Sure enough. 

In fact, she had to go alone, they wouldn't let her go with Josh. One at a time is the rule. 

Probably don't want broken legs or something. But 5 year olds drowning at the bottom is okay.

Geez. 

Fortunately, she didn't drown at the bottom, though I just about tossed my camera aside to go save her if the life life guard wasn't watching close enough. 

But she managed. Whew!

Clear on the other end of the daredevil spectrum was Darcy.

She wouldn't try anything.

She wouldn't let go of me. 

She didn't even want to get in the 3 inch water pool for tiny babies. 

She mostly sat on the chairs that people use to get tan. Only she was wrapped up in a towel shivering. 

Because it was actually still kind of chilly. June in the Adirondacks is chilly. 

Seems like a strange place for a water park now that I think about it.

It rained like 4 times. 

But then it would stop and we'd all emerge from under the umbrellas to resume our fun in the sun.

Not only was it a water park, there were rides, and a train and delicious fattening food. 

We stayed as long as they were open. Which, actually, wasn't long. They were open from like 10 to 4. And they are only open for like, 3 months. In the middle of nowhere Adirondacks. Seriously? Who put a water park there? :) 

We really loved it. A lot. I hope we make it back before we move.

:(

 There is Brinks getting off in that water that is too deep for her. But somehow she lived. 

Crazy nut.

Golden Birthday!

Brinkley turned 5 on the 5th.

Can you believe it? 

A 5 year old?

Her birthday was on a Sunday. So, the lucky gal got to celebrate for 2 days! Those are the best kinds of birthdays. My sister and I always aim to have week long birthdays if we can get away with it.

On Saturday she chose to have a picnic at Wegman's park and then go out to eat at Friendlies (the place with the fun ice cream).

On her actual birthday she:

-came down the stairs through a mass of birthday balloons!

-ate Cocoa Pebbles (cocoa peddles as she calls them) for her breakfast of champions.

-wore her new dress and gold necklace from Grandma Ginny

-got to be sung to in primary (hey! that's my job! I'm so cool.)

-got a special coupon to get candy from the bishop which she accidentally crumpled so much that it tore a gaping hole in it... which she then freaked out about because she thought he wouldn't take it. After reassuring her over and over that it would be fine and she could get candy anyway, we forgot to take it to him. So... so much for that.

-skyped with Grandma and Grandpa.

-chose to eat 'meat' for dinner.

(that is what she specified for her special birthday dinner... 'meat.' she's awesome.)

-ate chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and party cake ice cream.

-opened her presents. including a rocking new bike that is ever so slightly too big for her, but it was the only bike in stock anywhere near her size and a wooden castle scored from Craigslist.

-And rode her new bike until bedtime!

At 5 years old Brinkley:

*Loves to draw and is really, really good at it. I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom. She's awesome and draws the funniest stuff. Her art deserves a post of its own. 

I'll get to it one day... because I've been so awesome at blogging in recent months.

*Wants to be a baker/mom/pilot/princess when she grows up.

*Claims to love all the colors, but really just loves purple. Though sometimes she throws in crazy specifics like turquoise and aqua marine.

*Still has a cute little lisp when she says her s's.

*Is better at keeping track of our lives than I am. This girl thrives on routine.

 She knows the following things:

Monday is rice for dinner day, family home evening and dessert day.

Tuesday is pasta for dinner day, swimming lessons and special story from mom night at bedtime.

Wednesday is soup for dinner day. She's most excited when it's black bean soup. She scarfs it up.

Thursday is tortilla day and mom's bootcamp class at the Y at 5:30.

Friday is not a specified dinner day, so she asks what vegetable we're having.

Saturday is kids choice for dinner day. It alternates between pizza and pancakes. She also wears her favorite purple flower panties and ice cream pajamas because it's 'kids choice' day.

*She is a show off for the missionaries. 

*She watches "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a lot and can quote a lot of the lines and sing the songs. (The Tim Burton one, which she can also tell you)

*She loves treats!! 

*She says Dracula 'Draclia." It's cute.

*She is sensitive to sounds and especially hates the vacuum. 

Which works out fine because I hate to vacuum. 

*She follows up her questions with "yes or no?"

For example: "Did you go to the store today? Yes or No?"

"Can we go to the park? Yes or No?"

*She knows lots of songs on the radio (she hears and learns them from riding on the bus). It always surprises me to hear her singing along in the backseat when a song comes on the radio that she knows. It worries me a little too... "mom, I know this song. It's 'sexy and I know it!' Yikes. 

*She is so good at keeping the rules and doing what mom and dad say. She always stays in her bed at night despite her sassy sister who likes to jump on her in her bed.

I could go on and on. But I'll stop there. 

She's such an awesome kid. I feel so blessed to have her as my daughter. 

We love her lots and lots and lots!

Here's some pictures of our 2 day 5th birthday celebration!

Happy birthday little gal.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! 

Even though the girls thought it was entirely too windy and chilly to take a picture, I was able to get a semi-good one. The second one Darcy is like "what do you want me to do?"

I'm glad I got one when I did. It started raining later. 

So, no egg hunt for us! (Not that I was really planning one).

Our Easter was all right. Josh had to work, which always puts a bit of a damper on things for me... but who's a whiner here? Certainly not me. I can't be a hypocrite after all. My girls would be like "mom, we're not going to listen to your whiny voice..." 

We went to church, of course. 

Then we came home and my girls completely  overloaded on candy 

(The sooner it's out of the house, the better, right?). 

I think this is the first time ever in my life as a mother that I let my kids just go crazy with the candy. It was an experiment, just to see how it was to not care what they did with their goodies. I usually let them have like one a day for weeks and weeks and it's such a headache to tell them they can't eat it all at once. 

So I did away with it.

And you know, it wasn't that bad. It kept them occupied all day and they played nicely together!

An Easter miracle!

Granted, they weren't hungry for dinner... but it won't happen again since the candy is almost gone.

Oh! We skyped with my mom and dad (the highlight of my day!)

 And I cooked and cooked and cooked. An enormous meal. A Fancy Easter feast.

But, uh... Josh didn't make it home for dinner. 

So, I ate while my girls pushed their food around on their plates. 

Such a waste of good stuff. They don't even know.

And that was it. 

A wee bit uneventful. 

But now Josh is finally home. And that makes me happy. So, I'm gonna go. 

Happy Easter!

 (The eggs we did yesterday)

The Orange

Josh thought this was pretty awesome. 

He got the girls to watch basketball with him for about 1 minute.

Maple

A new McBride family tradition was born this past weekend!

Critz Farms for the all you can eat maple syrup breakfast.

Pancakes, eggs, thick cut hashbrowns, OJ, and ham cooked in maple syrup. 

All covered in more maple syrup... if your heart so desired... Which ours did.

It was divine. 

We enjoyed our food while reading a guilt ridden poster (seen in the top photo below) about the process of maple syrup. At the bottom it said something to the effect of "if you had to go through all these laborious steps to make 1 gallon of syrup out of 40 gallons of sap - how much would you charge?"

Yikes. Well, that's why I'm not in the maple syrup business. They probably make more money off their breakfast than their syrup sales anyway! So, there. I don't need to feel bad.

I also watched a guy in a red hat and green sweatshirt steal money from the tip jar! Jerk.

After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we went on a tractor-pulled wagon ride to see the sugarbush and listen to our tour guide tell us all about the system they use to gather the sap.

Apparently the poster in the dining hall is outdated. It's all done through tubes! I had no idea. 

You would have guessed we were heading to the forest to cut down a Christmas tree - it just keeps snowing and snowing here. Good thing we were bundled up.

A definite must do next March. Maybe I'll even buy some syrup...