::post thanksgiving in Vermont pt 2::

After the lighting ceremony we headed back to White River Jct. Most of us stayed in the Econolodge there. And it was great! It was probably the nicest Econolodge I've stayed in. It had a pool and everything (much to Max's delight).
After the kids were in bed the grownups all played canasta in the lobby. It was really fun, but we had to quit just about when we got the game figured out which was too bad.
In the morning we got up and we all had breakfast together (accidentally) and then headed out to do different things and head back home.
I had heard about a cool gorge not too far from where we were staying, so I had looked up directions and stuff. We tried to follow them and ended up totally lost. So we looked up the town on the GPS and found it, but it wasn't anywhere near where we were really supposed to be. When we finally found the gorge it seemed that maybe it was just a bridge to drive across. There was noplace we could see to get out and check out the scene on foot. But then we found a little trailhead of the side of the road. So we decided to brave it. We headed out to see what we could find.

We didn't find the gorge. Of course.
We found a lot of other stuff though.
We found a dam. It wasn't a particularly cool dam, but the river was cool looking. It was scenic enough for us to feel the need to take some pictures. Pictures of ourselves in front of it that is.

(why is Max making that face? I'm not sure. He was pretending to be surprised about something. What I don't know.)

(could it have been the same thing that surprised me in this photo? could anything really be that surprising? Bigfoot sighting? And Max is way beyond being surprised by whatever it is at this point)


The rest of the walk/hike Max spent finding and picking up pinecones. There were some pretty impressive pinecones on the ground, that's for sure. We thought it was cute to watch him running around picking ones to stick in his pockets.

Cute little boy gathering pinecones.

He ended up with so many they were spilling out of his arms and he couldn't keep ahold of them at all.
So I helped him. I was carrying some in my hands, so I had Kris hold the camera for me.
With which he proceeded to take a picture. And yes, I'm only wearing one earring. Wardrobe malfunction?

Little pinecone boy was just adorable until we got down to the car and realized that each and every pinecone was covered in sap. And not just covered, crusted and dolloped with sap. Max's arms and hands were full of them, his coat pockets were full of them. We were in so much trouble.
We went in to the little giftshop where we'd parked, hoping to scrub our hands. They only had freezing cold water. I got most of the sap off of my hands, but Max was still as sticky as could be. We got in the car and he had to hold his hands straight up in the air and not touch anything--no easy feat for a 5 yr old. It didn't go so hot.
We finally found a little hardware store, bought some industrial strength handcleaner and scrubbed him down in their bathroom. He was clean. But his coat was useless for the rest of the trip!

After that little adventure we went to a nearby town and did some shopping at cute funky way too expensive stores. WE didn't buy anything but it was a really fun place.
After that we headed home--with only one puking scare on the way we made it in time to pick up Sultan from the kennel and watch the BYU vs UT game. Which I have to say ended up very satisfactorily (before the press conference, of course).
What a great weekend!

::three-dee::

All summer every time we went to the store Max would spy out this package of sidewalk chalk that said it was "3D." He wanted it so bad. And I didn't want it bad enough to pay $5 for it. Plus he had a whole bunch of other sidewalk chalk. Non 3D I guess.
I also thought it was a gimmick. I mean, seriously? 3-D sidewalk chalk? So anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was at Target and saw that they had marked the 3d chalk down 50%. Now that's more like it. So I snagged a package and brought it home to Max. Needless to say he was excited and headed out to try it right away.

He was very diligent about following the instructions. You were supposed to use certain colors next to each other.



The package came with these little 3d glasses. I guess the way it works is that certain colors look like they're raised up higher than others when you're wearing the glasses.

And truthfully, it sort of did look 3d through the glasses. I tried to take a picture through the glasses, but I guess since the camera doesn't have two eyes it didn't work. Ah well, that's the breaks.
The best part was, I got out his old chalk and drew some stuff and all that looked just as 3d as the special expensive chalk. Hah.



But despite the over hyped 3d chalk we all had some fun outside together, and that's all that really matters. And plus, I blogged about it. Does it get better than that?

::halloween tradition::

Max and I made a batch of halloween sugar cookies for the first time four years ago, in our first house in Kansas City.  It was a bit of an ordeal, making cookies with a two year old, and I just wasn't that good at cooking back then (I'm only slightly better now.)
But they turned out so delicious and cute that we had to do it again next year. Or maybe it was the fact that Sultan ate most of the cookies that year--we accidentally left him in the house and the cookies on the counter when we went to deliver some to friends. We needed to make up for that.

So we've made cookies for the last four years, and the crazy thing, in four different kitchens. You think that sounds like too much moving? Why yes, yes it is.

So we made our traditional batch this week. I added a few new cookie cutters last year taking advantage of after holiday sales. It was fun to get to use them. Max's new favorite is the ghost.

I like him because he only requires white frosting, yay.

Max is getting better at helping--at least he doesn't just spill all the cookie cutters on the floor and roll them around in the flour like he did the first year.
He's my decorator now. Last year we got M&Ms and candy corn and he made faces on all the pumpkins. I wish I would've done that this year, instead we just did the standard sprinkles and such. But it was still fun. I only had to yell at Max 10 or 12 times for dumping the whole tube of sprinkles on one cookie.

Fun to make with my Max, but even more fun to eat. Which is what Kris thought when he came home from work to a kitchen full of delicious cookies! Mmmmmm.

::look what i made::

Look!
Marilyn's muffins.

I made a couple of tiny adjustments. I used a "I can't believe it's not butter" stick instead of normal butter and I used Trader Joe's white whole wheat flour instead of white. They turned out delicious!
A pumpkin:


A silly fish:




I made him too. It was a while back, but I still take plenty of credit. He's the best thing I've ever made.

::day off::

What does the best dad ever do right after he wakes up on his day off?
He makes pancakes for his little goofball boy, that's what.

Max's eyes lit up when he realized pancakes were cooking in the kitchen.  He was way excited.

I didn't mind the pancakes either.
The rest of our day off included driving an hour to Costco only to find it was closed, as well as hanging out together, eating and having fun. Nothing too productive. Just nice mostly.