2016 Family Vacation to VT and NH

We took another trip up to VT and NH to see all of our family this summer. We rented a Toyota Rav4 and drove up to stay with Diane's parents first for about 4 days. Then we drove over to NH and stayed with my brother Brad for another 4 days before heading home. It was a 2-day drive in each direction. We hit some traffic but the road trip went smoothly over all. The kids and Diane had all their electronic devices and I had some new CDs to listen to (Sevendust, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, and Zakk Wlyde) in addition to lots of podcasts I had saved up to listen to.

We got to see all of Diane's family on July 4th. Her sister (Ellen) and kids (Sarah and David) both came over for a cookout. David also brought his girlfriend. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time but I ate way too much (common problem) and had to take a big nap afterwards. We didn't actually take any pictures when everyone was over (that was silly) but here are some photos of kids at the local river and lake. I enjoyed running trails along the river and lake area first thing in the morning. The weather was perfect.

Drew caught some crawfish in the river!

Having fun wading in the river

Little hoops at the park on the way to river

Hanging with Sarah at the local lake

Here are some photos of a trip Sarah, Emily, Drew and I took to Mt. Zion Zen garden in Hubbardton VT. It is a beautiful garden (large rocks, water, bridges) owned and maintained by Kit Davidson. I believe it is all private property but he keeps it open to the public for all to enjoy. How cool is that?! There is also some cool trails including some challenging ones that I hiked to the top of the mountain. The kids started with me but turned back to hang at the garden. Drew caught (and released) a young frog that still had it tail!



Emily and Drew at the garden
 

Sarah, Emily and Drew

Great view along the trail down to the zen garden area




The zen garden

Narrow and steep section of hike

Steep climb up!



A selfie from the top...it was a warm day

The view from the top

Below are some photos from our visit to Hope Cemetery in Barre VT. This is a beautiful place to visit with amazing granite sculptures and mausoleums. Some of the mausoleums even have beautiful stained glass windows in the back of the room. I saw one stunning one with Leonardo da Vinci's last supper painting in stained glass. You can walk or drive around and we did a little of both.

After we checked out the cemetery we headed over to Montpelier (VT capitol) to have dinner with Mark and Heather at a cool pizza place called Positive Pie. The pizza was very good and I got to enjoy one of the most sought after beers in America for the 2nd time (Head Topper). We had a great time at dinner. I wish we could see them more. Hopefully they will come spent Thanksgiving with us this year.

The legendary Heady Topper IPA

The next day I met Mark at Karmê Chöling in Barnet VT. This is the first and one of only 2 Shambhala land centers in the U.S. I have been spending a lot of time meditating at the Atlanta Shambhala center and taking classes there so I was really excited to at least stop by and see the land center I had heard so much about. If I continue studying in this tradition, I'm sure I'll take some courses or do a retreat there at some point.

View of the center from the vegetable garden

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche memorial



Look at the size of those bows!

The main building

The kids always have a blast in NH when the get together with all their cousins. Brad's house becomes total chaos but it's gotten a bit better as the kids have gotten older. One of the things my kids look most forward to is going to the beach and this year we went twice. The waves were actually really good for body surfing both days but the first day we went was particularly rough - at least compared to what we usually experience there.

All the kids together at Brad's house

All the kids except Wes (he was grumpy after a nap)

 

Pokeman Go was the rage this summer. I helped Emily with this one :)

Emily and Gwyneth...at least she liked Emily :)





I was the first in the water! Cold as usual...look at Drew:)

On day we went up to Manchester with Brad's family to the Great Escape. This is one of those places where you get locked in a room and have to solve puzzles to access keys and get out. I wasn't really sure what to expect but we had a lot of fun. We were in the "circus" room which at the time was their most difficult room with only a 20% success rate (out in less than an hour). In addition to us, we had another family of 3 locked with us. The puzzles were really quite hard and it was really neat how everyone really contributed to different puzzles to help us get out. We were all working on dirreent puzzles at the same time. We ended up getting out in about 63 minutes - not too shabby at all.

Group photo after our escape!

Emily and Gwyneth at the house

Quality time with my bros and Karl! Can't believe I never got a picture with mom.

Will and I with our UNH shirts

The drive home was long as always but it went relatively smoothly and Diane and Emily enjoyed hunting Pokeman at the rest stops. I just like to get in the photos :)

Caught that little bugger

Another great trip. It's a bit sad to think we won't have too many more trips like this now that the kids are getting older. Hannah is a senior and Drew is a Junior. But we are already talking about possibly meeting somewhere at the beach next year. I think it would be really fun to rent a huge house on the beach with a pool. We talk about it a lot but never seem to do it. We'll see if it happens next year. As long as we get together it will be nice. Until then....