Parent's Do New England, Vermont style

If you are a puzzle lover, like myself, you must wonder where those colorful-mountainous farm pictures come from. While driving through Vermont I found out and I will forever have this place pictured in my mind, instead of dreaming about it from a puzzling point of view.

Come on.. wouldn't that picture make a beautiful puzzle?

Visiting Vermont was Lon and Jennifer's idea. They wanted visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial, so why not spend a long weekend in Vermont at a gorgeous Bed and Breakfast. Well we did just that and it was a much needed vacation for us all .

Our Bed and Breakfast was located just a few minutes north of Stowe in Morrisville. If you want to check out the place click here.

The house was huge. It had an indoor pool and jacuzzi, a home theatre, and a beautiful eating area. Our bedrooms were large and comfortable. We had a kitchen and a balcony.

On Saturday we headed out early for adventures. Our first stop was for some Vermont maple syrup.

We also grabbed some maple taffy and a piece of bacon maple taffy. It was surprisingly good.
The trees behind the outlet were so beautiful we had to take a few pictures.

After the outlet we decided to explore Smuggler's Notch. On our way up we discovered this covered bridge. Let's play a quick game of spot the Nick.

Now let's play another game called help Nick out off of the tree before he falls in. If you have read all of my blogs you will know that Nick likes to climb rocks/trees/whatever is near water. This usually results in wet shoes and pants. However, this time was different. I heard Nick screaming, "Help" so I walked quickly through mud to see this...

Nick was hanging upside down, sorry this picture is so bad.. I was laughing so hard and Nick was yelling at me to put down the camera and help him. However, there was a huge hill between him and I and there was no way I was getting down there.

 So I picked the camera back up and took more pictures of him struggling to get up.

 Mom tried to help with a stick..

He made it up!!!! Maybe Nick's luck is changing... Maybe

After this we still had to explore the covered bridge.

 Can you see Nick, Lon and Jennifer in the window's?

Lon and Jennifer at the bridge!
After we explored the bridge we drove up the mountain. We parked near the top to check out the view.

It was worth the climb!

We got back in the warm car and drove through the Notch. The Notch was the peak of the mountain where the road went from 2 lanes to 1. It was very interesting how the road went between two rocks. I was concentrating on the road, even though I wasn't driving.

On our way down the mountain we stopped at the Von Trapp Family Lodge and did some hiking! As we walked the trail I couldn't help but take pictures of Mom and Dad because the were so cute!

We had such a great time stopping to explore. As we got into the car I saw the horses and really wanted a picture of them. Nick grabbed the camera and ran to snap this shot. I love him so much!

We were beat after a fun day so we ate at an amazing restaurant in Stowe and headed back to our Bed and Breakfast for a soak in the jacuzzi. Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for church. We drove to where google maps said the church was but it wasn't there. We finally got out and went inside the church that google said was ours and asked where the LDS church was. Lucky for us it was only a couple more miles down the road. We finally reached it and as we are pulling in we notice the empty parking lot, who knew that it would be stake conference the day of our visit... apparently not us! We settled for some spiritual reflection and  meditation at a nearby waterfall.

Then we drove to the Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial. This place was gorgeous and I wish we had all day to spend there. I would have hiked the trails and taken more pictures. The sun was at the perfect angle to make the monument look like a candle.

I found a quiet place to sit in the grass. My thoughts were overwhelmed with gratitude and love for Joseph Smith and all of the hardships he bore. I'm so thankful that I was able to visit this memorial and learn more about his life. 

Monday we checked out of our Bed and Breakfast and went back to mountain for the Stowe Zip Tour at Stowe Mountain Resort. 

 Getting in the gear.

 Ready to go.

 Up the gondola.

 Nervous funny face.

This was the hardest part.. just dangling there. The view was amazing and scary at the same time. Nick and I zipped at the same time and Mom was a champ and went by herself on the first span.

 Dad took a lot of pictures of mom so Google made a gif.

In total there were 3 spans and we took turns riding with each other. It was a lot of fun and we definitely built some memories. 

After our zip tour we headed back to Boston for a relaxing evening at home. Our trip to Vermont was amazing. We caught the trees as they were changing colors right in front of our eyes. It was so nice to relax and have some fun with family!