Independence Day- Hoooray!

The day began with Pops' traditional patriotic reading of the Declaration of Independence!

And no 4th of July could be complete without Abizella's 50 blueberry flag cake!

I was inspired and made a tart flag as well!

And then I really got crazy and made my own interpretive "Stars and Stripes". My medium, the rice krispie treat. 

Remember Pinners, you saw it here first.

Next it was on to the pool party. We thought with a Hurricane circling it would be a washout. Turns out swimming in the rain is the best kind.

God Bless America.

When in Vermont

Well, you can hardly expect us to drive through Montpelier, Vermont without checking out that state house! Look at the stars in the children's eyes and their anticipation of seeing the bicameral legislature!

 What a beautiful building!

 The Senate Chamber!

 The House Chamber!

 The largest painting in Vermont, which is a Civil War battle

 Jaws' favorite part was definitely the stairs.

 After a hot steamy day of fun, the littles crashed hard. 

Then the rain came, hard.

We topped of the day with a dinner at our family fav, Olive Garden. 

Spaghetti heaven.

Ice Cream Is Love

Disclaimer: If you do not have Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the immediate vicinity of this blog post DO NOT CONTINUE READING! It is not humanly possible to view the abundance of delicious creamy Vermont's finest bathing our tongues and dripping down our chins without satiating your own Ben and Jerry's desire. You simply will go mad.

That being said, I can't believe that we haven't been here before. There is a reason that the Ben and Jerry's factory is Vermont's #1 tourist attraction. We could hardly wait to stuff our heads in a carton of ice cream!

We learned so many wonderful things on the tour. Like how Ben and Jerry's cows are "outstanding in their field". Our tour guide had a lot of fabulous puns. After this particular pun Tadpole yelled out, "I don't get it." He was met with a room of chuckles. Next came the video of B and J's history. Much to Tad's dismay, the video didn't explain the pun either. He yelled out a gain, "I still don't get it!" This brought down the house. He was right. The film had nothing to do with cows standing in fields.

Sorry folks, no camera's inside the factory (top secret stuff), but we did get to pull them out for a photo shoot in the old test kitchen. This is also where we got to taste test the day's factory output.

Waiting for it...

Waiting for it...

Got it!

Sadly I cannot find the name of the ice cream. 

There are over 400 B and J's flavors!

This one had a vanilla base with coconut, salted caramel and chocolate covered truffle clusters. Divine. I have gone nearly mad looking for it so I can re-live that glorious moment.

After the tour, we raced over to the scoop shop to try a few more flavors!

Everything met with our approval!

We literally bathed ourselves in its goodness.

7 cheers for Ben and Jerry's!

We rounded out our tour with a stroll through the old flavor graveyard.

We had a fabulous time reading the epitaphs! Superkid's favorite was on ode to Fossil Fuel.

Superkid recommends sitting down before reading it.

We can't wait for our next trip to Vermont, we'll just tie ourselves over with B and J's until then!

Happy Birthday Pops, Hello Vermont!

Pops' birthday is on the 2nd of July. 

We celebrated by day-tripping in Vermont. We hauled the kids out of bed at the crack of dawn to beat the Boston traffic. Little Chief was not thrilled. When Pops tried to coax him saying, "LC, we're going to Vermont! We're going to see an ice cream factory!" LC rolled over and said, "Vermont! I hate that place. Take Dan Dan instead." We did manage to get all the kiddos in the car. We celebrated crossing the city (rarely done by Bay-Staters) by stopping for a flap-jack breakfast at McDonald's. 

First stop, Sharon Vermont, the birth place of Joseph Smith. We haven't been since LC was 3 weeks old, so it was an all-new experience for most of us.

The kids are standing on the hearth-stone that little baby Joseph was likely warmed on during those cold December nights after he was born...

A picture of the "Joes" 

As you can see, LC was thrilled to meet the guy who inspired his name.

That's more like it. Nothing a bribe couldn't cure.

The big kids got a tour of the visitor's center while the littles and I ran through the gardens...

Next we stood on the stone that sat at the front door of the Smith home.

This is the 38.5 foot monument (1 foot for every year of the prophet's life). 

Next we sweet-talked the missionaries into taking us for a joy ride in their 8 passenger golf cart!

Weeeeeee!

We saw Grandpa Mack's home...

Or at least part of the cellar...

We saw an old stone bridge that was on the turnpike between Grandpa Mack's and Grandpa Smith's house...

Next we visited Uncle Daniel's house...

It took a little imagination too..

Then Sandy's for lunch! A treat for me. Mmmmmm, onion rings!

Fire and Water

Fireworks over the harbor Saturday night! 

We almost missed it. I dropped some cookies off at the Andrus' and they mentioned they were on their way out to see the fireworks. It totally took me by surprise, the 4th of July wasn't even on the radar! It was 7:50 when I pulled out of their driveway. By 7:52 I had completely disregarded all reason and decided to go despite the lack of Pops presence and the risk of melt downs after running ourselves down at the primary activity earlier that day. By 8:10 we had packed the car with the double stroller, blankets, snacks, bug spray and juice (forgot the jackets!) and were headed to town center to park and walk about a mile to the harbor.

As soon as we got there we bumped into Tadpole's best friend and his dad. His dad shook his head and said he couldn't believe it. M told his dad he had to go see the fireworks because he wanted to see Tadpole. It was meant to be!

We embraced and congratulated ourselves for making it!

And then rolled around waiting for the sun to drop.

What a view!

It didn't hit me until we were about 3/4 mile into our walk to the beach that the baby might not like the fireworks. None of his siblings did at his age! When the first fireworks went off he was startled and laughed. When they didn't stop he got really worried. I just pulled him onto my lap, stuffed him in his favorite pillow case (more on that to come) and snuggled him tight. He didn't make another peep. He didn't even use his sucky fingers, just wonder and amazement out of that kid. 

We made the right choice!

Trek to the Temple

Our Stake had a "Trek to the Temple"activity. The adults and youth did temple work for their ancestors while the primary kids had an awesome activity! We did crafts, had song time, story time, played games, danced, pulled hand carts and toured the temple grounds. 

Any event that encourages cowboy hats and boots is A-Okay in our books!

Tadpole and Little Chief were naturals at hopscotch! They definitly get this ability from me. Best recess activity ever!

All of the kids enjoyed the country dancing!

Tadpole photo-bombed the missionary's hand-cart pic.

The kids want their own handcart. 

We'll see how they feel about it after they go on Trek as youth!

Abizella made anew friend from Cape Cod!

We ended the activity at the temple and it happened to be Pops' shift! Now the kiddos know where Pops is once a month when I tell them he is working at the temple.

He is a rock star!

Superkid was impressed by the time capsule tucked away by the corner stone.

A wonderful day...

at our beautiful Boston Temple!