Over and beyond fun

This post is not only for the historical record, but to finally put something for Moriah's Fun Mom Friday, because I really went over and beyond Fun Mom last week. I took the kids on a road trip to the north of Vermont to visit our friends. That is approximately 430 miles with almost half of those on state/backroads. With red lights and traveling with kids, it took 10 hours going up and 12 coming down. The stats.

The kids really did great. We went straight up north through the eastern part of New York. The Adirondacks were stunning. I had never been to this part of the country before. We got off the main highway and zoomed around lakes, and came to the top of a mountain, and the valley stretched out with Lake Champlain shimmering at the bottom and the blue silhouettes of the Green Mountains of Vermont stretching out layer upon layer.

Then we got to ride a ferry across Lake Champlain. Little boys + cars + boats = WIN!

It was a beautiful drive, but really nice to get to our friends' house out in the country. They were so far north, we were nearly to Canada. We each have two boys approximately the same ages, so they set about playing pretty quickly. The 5 year olds jumped their hearts out on the trampoline. I think every toy was brought out. And did I mention that my friends have a hot tub? Yea, I think the O fam are keepers.

We were there for two days.
The first day we went for maple syrup ice cream and then a hike in the mountains, passing ski trails along the way. The walk was fairly short. We followed the stream down through the rocks, over the falls. The boys were pretty happy with plenty of water and rocks to play in.

Then the next day, the boys patiently suffered through the mom's shopping and browsing before heading off for a dip in Lake Champlain. Just as clear and beautiful as ever.

Unfortunately, we had to go home the next day. Gallon of maple syrup in hand we bade farewell, and wound our way back to the interstate, ferry trip included.

It was such a beautiful Saturday, though. I saw summer slipping away and thought that we really needed to take advantage of it for just a little bit more. We stopped by the infamous Lake George for one last dip in the mountains before heading back down to civilization. We took a long stretch down the interstate, aided with the handy-dandy DVD player. A quick stop at Princeton for coffee and frozen yogurt on the lawn of the university seemed in order.

And then we were home. It was a fun trip. It was nice to just spend some time focusing on my boys and hang out with friends. Thanks so much to them for a great tim!