Easter in VT

We spent the past few days in Vermont visiting Grandma and Grandpa Alsobrook. The first four hours of our drive from Brunswick to Derby were uneventful, except for passing the World's Tallest Snow Woman in Bethel: She stands 122 feet, 1 inch tall, and her name is Olympia - shameless kissing up to Maine's senior senator.

Unfortunately, we ran into trouble just 5 minutes from Grandma and Grandpa's house. On a small country road near Nelson Hill we encountered a massive whiteout - it had snowed several inches the day before, and the wind was howling. There was a big snowdrift across the road at one point, which we couldn't really see because of the whiteout... so we ended up getting stuck. The grandparents had to come dig us out, with the help of some folks with a big truck.

Finley was cool as a cucumber throughout the whole ordeal.

The rest of the visit was more peaceful - we sat around the wood stove, played some games, and ate some delicious meals. Finley continued his adventures in backward crawling, and had fun playing with a couple of ancient toys that Grandma unearthed - historians suspect that these items were once chewed on by Aunt Jess and Uncle Jake. We also found an old copy of Finley's favorite book, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss. Turns out that this version has more pages than Finley's, and thus contains several heretofore undiscovered sounds: a squeaky shoe, a frying egg, and a hippopotamus chewing gum, among others. Very exciting!

Reading Mr. Brown with Grandma.

To read or to chew: that is the question.

Walking practice with Grandma.
Finley is very cagey about posing for pictures - he fakes you out by looking right at the camera before turning away an instant before the flash.

Always good to see the sock monkey.
Finley in his Easter best with Grandpa.

Helping Grandma with her strategy.