Moving On

Our second day on the farm started out early with Micah calling out for the cows. We let him crawl into bed with us for a few minutes while we woke up, otherwise we would have had to been out the door in minutes. I don’t mind telling you that mornings in the Vermont mountains are quite cool. I loved it. Everyone else was bundled up, but I was in my short sleeves enjoying the 50-degree weather! After visiting and greeting every.single.cow, we managed to get M inside and washed up for our 8am breakfast call. There were some new faces around the table and we enjoyed the company before heading out for the day. I think D had to take Micah on another round of hi-ing and bye-ing all the farm animals, but I was getting some stuff packed up, so I’m not sure exactly what they did. We all met at the van (M had pedaled the little green tractor over to the parking area) and headed down the road to the local river.

M had a lot of fun playing in the water, throwing rocks, catching a frog, and just being outside in the great outdoors. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, too, as the day was perfect, weatherwise. D had the honor of taking M in the river. He wouldn’t let me go past my ankles because the current and the rocks didn’t make for steady ground. I tried anyway because the water felt so refreshing, but he was right, I didn’t have good balance at all. So Baby and I hung out on shore, took pictures, and cheered Micah on. After a bit, we loaded ourselves back up to head into town - first to find lunch and second to find an ATM machine. Can you believe that the bed and breakfast didn’t accept credit cards?! How quaint!

We had lunch outdoors by the main road. The food was great and the view offered so many distractions that I’m sure M would have stayed there the entire afternoon looking at all the trucks and tractors and people going by. I would have liked to walk around the town more, but you can only do so much with a belly like this (you know it’s bad when your maternity clothes aren’t fitting you anymore!). So we contented ourselves with a drive up the road to an organic berry-picking farm. I was craving blackberries, but of course they were just going out of season and had been mostly picked. I managed to pick and eat a few though : ). My second request was for raspberries, but of course they were out of season, too. However, we did manage to pick and eat a few of those, too : ). M, meanwhile, was picking up the cut grass and stuffing it into a bag, declaring, “Hay, cows! Cows eat hay!” He was obsessed with those beasts. While we were on our own adventures, D managed to pick quite a few blueberries (the berry that WAS in season!) and they were beyond delicious. Some even lasted until we got home and made their way into blueberry pancakes…




That night, there were all new people on the farm. We met another doctor (orthopedics, I think) and his wife (a pediatrician) and their seven-year old son. They were from New York City. She was pregnant and due in November, so we chatted a lot while the guys did the same and followed the kids around. We corralled the kids inside when it got dark and I got M’s bedtime routine started. He was so excited to be on the farm that he didn’t go to bed until after 9pm. D and I went to sit out in the living room again and he studied physics for his big test in the beginning of September (which he passed, by the way!!!!) and I read the book we picked up at a library on the way up (no library near us had it, and this library was right off the highway, so D swung into the parking lot, I got out and got the book, and we headed back to the highway. Well worth the stop, it was a great book; true story about a spy in the Iranian army).

We had such a good time on the farm that we were sad to leave that next day. We ate another delicious breakfast, walked around the farm, let M play with some of the kids, packed up, and headed south. We stopped at a pizza place and the Yankee Candle Factory (crazy place!) along the way and made it home in time for another yummy meal, this time made by Mom. She had called while we were driving and invited us over for chicken parmesan. I’m so glad we were able to go on this vacation and that the Lord provided safe traveling mercies for us. M is still watching the Farm DVD we made from the pictures we took and he will always sit for a book about the farm. For his birthday, I made him a book about our farm adventure complete with pictures of him on the farm and text to go along with it. I’m not sure he’ll ever forget it! D and I were happy to get away, too, even if it wasn’t by ourselves. D had been working crazy hours, so he didn’t want to leave M during his time off, for which I’m glad, because we had such a fun family adventure together!