Tubing In, Buckets Out!

We spent Aiden's actual birthday weekend up in Vermont this year.  It was a work weekend, as we're still trying to prepare for next year's sugaring season by swapping buckets for gravity-fed tubing.  That change should allow my mom to have a snowball's chance in hell of making the whole thing work by herself, with help only on weekends.  Even though we were working hard, Aiden didn't seem to mind.  He got to ride the 4-wheeler a bunch, and helped out installing tubing and playing with the girls and Fisher.  The tubing part was actually finished by the end of the day Saturday, and tanks installed on Sunday morning, so we're slowly but surely getting there.  Now to chop a sugarhouse full of splits to fire the evaporator...

Great Big Sea concert with the Kennedy's on Friday nite- before Aiden and I left for VT!

While others were working, Becky and I (mostly Becky) watched the kids.  They made the forest their playground this weekend... Becky helped them construct them a "fairy tent" and made them fern crowns so that the girls (Fisher wanted no part of a fern crown) could be forest princesses.  There were magic wands and spells, and attacks by mean bears, so I hear.  They also had fun going nudie-pitutie in the kiddie pool - you can do that on the top of the hill in the middle of nowhere in VT- and eating handful after handful of sweet concord grapes from the grape arbor.  On Saturday night, we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Aiden's birthday, and then roasted marshmallows outside on the fire. We didn't make it past 8pm though- everyone was exhausted!

On Sunday we had time for a swim in the clear water of the Huntington River.  We used to take Aiden there when he was a baby, since the best swimming holes are right down the road from our old house, so it was fun to go back and enjoy the pebbly beaches, deep pools and chilly current.  Everyone had fun collecting rocks, throwing rocks, sitting on rocks, or jumping off of rocks into the water, and then we went to the Bristol Bakery for lunch.  It felt great to get a lot of work done and have some fun, all in the same weekend.