Family Road Trip to Vermont!

Zach was an amazing trooper on our 10+ hour road trip to Vermont. He did some good sleeping, and even when he wasn't, he was pretty amiable to be in the car!

Zach sleeping
(very briefly)
on the drive up

We stayed at a supposed 3 star hotel in Albany, but it was a 2 star at best and felt more like a 1.5 star. Yikes. Luckily, there were lots of other families, and everyone was quiet, so it worked out okay. Zach loved exploring, and he charmed people at breakfast.

Zach at breakfast
at the Best
Western in Albany

We stopped in Burlington on our final leg and had a fun lunch. Zach charmed more people. He got some crayons, which he mostly threw on the floor. We were at the bar, and he loved watching the bar tenders shake martinis!

Zach and Frank at
the Farmhouse Tap
& Grill in Burlington

Frank and I got out skiing on Monday & Tuesday at Craftsbury! Yay! They had great food: wholesome scones, muffins, granola bars, and a kale salad. The facilities were incredibly nice for $10pp. 

Frank and Susan at
Craftsbury

Smugglers' is super-family friendly, and we were just up the hill from the indoor pool, so we went three nights in a row. 

Frank and Zach at Smugglers' pool's slide

On Tuesday, coming back from Craftsbury, it was only 10 miles out of the way to Stowe, VT, so we went into town for lunch. Despite visiting two breweries, Brewster River Pub and Idletyme, we had not found any beers that we liked enough to fill our growler, so we stopped in at Black Cap Coffee and made a local sampler, 4 Vermont beers, 1 beer/cider from VT, and 1 from Maine. The highlights are captured!

A really good,
strong
brown ale

A Russian
Imperial Stout

It snowed on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and amazingly Smugglers' wasn't prepared! We were plowed in at 9am, and three cars and a shuttle had gone in a ditch! Apparently, they hadn't re-sanded. So, we couldn't get Zach to daycare. We spent the day together; in the snow in the morning, and then more time outside in the afternoon. 

Frank, Susan, Zach in the snow at Smugglers'

Frank & Zach

Frank and Zach played around the unit and outside, and I took a second ski lesson. Downhill is scary! Frank got out after I got back from my lesson. The powder of the day's snow had blown off leaving an ice slick for skiing. He fell and had to go to the local hospital for stitches!

The outlier from
Maine, but
pretty local too!

On our final day, we headed back to Craftsbury for a final cross country ski. Though the conditions weren't ideal for them, we enjoyed some new trails that hadn't been open and did Ruthie's Run in the opposite direction from the Monday and Tuesday skis. We ate a delicious lunch at their cafe: a wholesome chicken soup, chicken salad sandwich, homemade granola bar, and a chocolate chip cookie! We got back in time for showers, a hot tub soak, and a nap before picking up Zach.

We headed home on Saturday, and once again, Zach was a great road tripper. We pushed him harder this time with only one short stop near Albany, but he did play a lot in the morning before we left at 1:30pm! Temps were frigid at Smuggs and persisted throughout our drive. We even hit snow storms and a white out (briefly) on I-88 around 6pm. Yikes. Frank was incredible and drove us all the way home. I used Mountain Lion as a pillow and got some sleep with Zach.

Check out all our pics here.  

Winter Updates (even when it wasn't so wintry)

Zach

• Practicing going up and down the stairs
• Still climbing, lately it's been on the coffee table and the upholstered chair
• Still working on his diaper rash, so we've been giving him "air time." See both below!

• Saying "bye, bye" and "Dada" for Frank, but "Mama," seems to mean food. He says that loudly and insistently while he's eating meals, no matter who is feeding him!
• Hugging us (and taking refuge by hugging our legs), and sitting in our laps. So cute!

• Zach is still shutting doors for us: the bathroom door, the fridge door. All doors. Watch those fingers!
• It's amazing what Zach can understand. As I mentioned in last month's blog post, I'll tell him, "Let's go have a bath," and he'll start climbing the stairs.
• Speaking of baths, when I wash his hair, he now closes his eyes tightly as I get to "3" in my "1, 2, 3" count down to dousing him!
• Loves watching the girls from several doors down. They all play on some Saturdays at the playground
• First ride in an elevator at his 15 month doctor's appointment. It surprised him!

Family

• Walks all around Reston and to Lake Anne Coffee House on Saturdays
• Warm weather! I took Zach for a nice, really long walk after work on a Thursday. (It reminded me of our early morning walks in early November.) :)
• The zoo! Zach got to see elephants, zebras, meerkats, seals, etc.

On the merry-go-round at
the National Zoo

Fun

• Date night dinner out at Red's Table and Cherish the Ladies concert
• Brunch at Red's Table and a run with Kathleen. (Thanks to Gamma, Daddy Bob, and Auntie Em for babysitting)
• Meeting Auntie Em at the Lake Anne Coffee House on several Saturdays
• Happy hour with Katie at Lake Anne (How much do we love Lake Anne?)
• Chinese dinner with Michael and Leah and family

Food

• Made very simple bread from scratch! No yeast, mother, kneeding, rising; just mix and bake for 40 minutes. Easy!

Work

• Virtual conference. Great sessions. Huge success. Terrific numbers: 570 unique visitors, a little over 1000 registered. Great conversion since 30% conversion is considered good, and we were at over 50%. Average time in event was high at 3 hours 40 minutes. Almost 1500 documents downloaded. A huge number. Over 1700 views of documents and an average of 7 downloads per person.
• My featured video blog with d'Vinci is here. 

"Nevertheless she persisted."