A Weekend Away

We packed up the kids and took a little trip to Burlington, VT to spend some time with family for the extended holiday weekend.  We booked a hotel with a pool hoping it would be warm enough for the kids to practice their swimming skills and boy, are we glad we did!!  It was so hot!  We pulled into the hotel and got into the pool before we even checked into our room.

After our quick dip in the pool we went to downtown Burlington's Church Street Marketplace, one of the many, many reasons I would LOVE to move to Burlington!  If you haven't been to Burlington, Church Street is an open air mall with stores from "Old Navy" to a really awesome second-hand store called "Second Time Around" where I bought a really awesome summer outfit for $16 bucks.  There is a Ben & Jerry's (of course) where we stopped for an ice cream treat.

There are hundreds of things to do on Church Street.  You can eat, dance, shop or just find a quiet spot to rest and read a book.   My kids loved the cow statues.  We had to stop at each one while they posed for a photo.  

Much to my delight we arrived in Burlington just in time for the Farmer's Market and artist showcase.  They set it up right in the park.  There were local growers and artists selling all sorts of delicious and beautiful things!  I love our NH farmer's markets, but I have yet to find one around here that compares to Burlington's.  Just another selling point for moving there!

In the early afternoon we headed back to the hotel for, yup, you guessed it, another dip in the swimming pool.  My kids are fish.  They just love to swim.  

After finally dragging the kids out of the pool (for the second time that day) we headed back to Church Street to meet Damien's cousin Darcy, her husband Keith and their two adorable kids Samantha and Dominic.  On the way to our parking spot we spotted the other two Sevin clans and asked if they wanted to come along.

After some debate we headed down to a restaurant on the waterfront called Breakwater.  We had to bully ourselves into a table, but Keith did a fine job and scored us a really great one.  We later left that table which made Keith a little bitter ;)

After dinner we waited for the fireworks.  There was a bouncy pirate ship, complete with a pirate!  At one point a father came looking for his son Nicholas who he thought was in the ship.  The maidens searched the ship but could not find him.  The pirate had the line of children yelling for Nicholas and the scene started to get a little scary and frantic.  One parent asked what Nicholas looked like.  The father said, "Blonde and he's wearing a red shirt."  "You mean that kid in line right there?"  Nicholas was in line yelling his own name!  A scary situation turned completely hilarious, thankfully!

The sun setting over Lake Champlain is simply breathtaking!

And the fireworks were just awesome!

The next morning it was back in the pool for us.  We had to get our money's worth, ha ha!  Cameron is slowly getting over his fear of jumping into pools, although even with his life jacket on he would not go in the "deep" end.  (The whole pool was over his head).

Then it was off to the July 4th bash at Aunt Dawn and Uncle Brett's house!  This was our second time making the trip to the party, and this year did not disappoint.  There were softball games, volleyball games, water balloons, an egg toss and lots and lots of delicious food.  

The hammock was the hit of the party for the kids.  All the kids in attendance took a turn in the hammock at some point during the party, but I'm pretty sure Olivia was in it the most.  I think we need one for our yard.  

Damien is a super fun Dad, and of course a super fun Uncle too!  Charlotte ran over to him at the end of the game to give him a hug which ended with a toss into the air.

The party was so much fun!  It was great to see family we haven't seen in years.  The food was delicious and the kids were entertained the whole time.  Cameron and Dominic really hit it off and never stopped playing.  Could this be another reason we should move to Burlington?  We left the party just in time to go home for a sunset swim in the awesome pool.

Olivia's new thing when she gets out of the water is to shake herself dry like a dog.  It is so funny!  She does it every time and it never fails to crack me up.

My love affair with Burlington had to come to an end.  Let's review the reasons I would like to move there.  There is Church Street, the awesome Farmer's Market, and cousins.  Did I mention that Magic Hat is my favorite beer and their brewery was two minutes from our hotel?  Plus, all we could find on the radio were 80's stations and country music which made me happy!  I was sad to leave, but we will be back.