Mr. Gus

We have a friend who has a little mini farm complete this summer with turkeys, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, a pony named Smokey, and a horse named Gus. We met Smokey and Gus back around April but the ground was still really muddy so we just enjoyed feeding and grooming them and saying hello. Our friend promised though that with better weather Alicia could take a turn riding Gus (Smokey doesn't do rides). With all the crazyness we didn't get around to it until September but both kids got a turn riding Gus. They both had fun and can't wait until we can go over and ride again.

2nd Grade at WS

Alicia started the school year at the end of August but we had decided that for this year homeschooling was going to be the best option for us as a family and especially for Alicia. It's a whole long story that sometime I might do another post about but anyways. She had her first three weeks of 2nd Grade at WS and enjoyed the time with her friends there.First day of 2nd grade with my two little camera hams!

Getting the Home-school Approval Letter

Alicia and some of her friends on her last day at WS. She was blessed with some really great friends there and I think it's been the hardest part so far is only getting to see them once or twice a week now.

Hoffman's PlayLand

It's becoming something of an every other year tradition (is there such a thing?) to go to Hoffman's Playland. It's a cute little fair-like place and nice because you can just go for an hour or two and still have fun.Alicia on the Merry-go-round.

Mark and Alicia at the top of the Ferris Wheel.

Matt and Ry at the top of the Ferris Wheel

Mark and Deb on the train (Matt and the kids were in the seat behind us)

After Irene

Because we live in Vermont a post about Irene is almost mandatory in describing this year....

First off, I'm from Florida... a Category 1/Tropical storm hitting.... not something that I would have taken seriously AT ALL. Thankfully a little of the paranoia of the people here wore off on me though and we were all set. Because I'll tell you I've been through storms much worse than this in Florida that did less damage. I realized the mountains are just not set to handle the massive amount of water like Florida is and what Irene dropped on us along with the insanely wet year we've had really shocking.


The water was high, fast, and muddy, and there were homes, logs, cars, trash, propane tanks, and even at least one hot tub that ended up in the rivers. It flooded out all the low lying areas, and took out lots of roads and bridges and such. Crews have been working overtime since August and still there are roads closed. I just couldn't believe what damage was all around us. Thankfully we were fine although we now have a huge detour to get to town. Some families we know were separated for a couple of days just because the roads were closed between work and home. Another had their entire basement flooded and their supply of wood for winter washed away. So we were pretty lucky and overall things are pretty much back to normal, but it was definitely an eye-opener.