Leaf Peeping Adventure, Day 1 and Day 2

My parents flew out to the east coast at the end of September to visit D.C. and then to come visit us in Ithaca. I had been wanting them to come visit us sometime in October because fall in NY is absolutely stunning. And since Dave had his fall break at Cornell while they were here, we decided to take full advantage and go visit New England (along with everyone else in the US...). We had such a hard time trying to find hotels with a vacancy a month before our trip. It was well worth the search though. What better time to visit New England then in autumn?! We have officially become Leaf Peepers! And proud to call ourselves such!:)



The first day we drove as far as Lake George, NY. We were hoping to get off to an early start, but, alas, with three kids we didn't get off as early as we wanted. The kids did pretty good on our car trip, but Dylan, to our dismay, decided not to take a nap on the way, and was pretty cranky by the time we got there. After grabbing some lunch, we headed to our hotel, thinking maybe Dylan would take a nap. An hour and a half later, no such luck. So we headed out to the Lake.

This is Dylan, the calm before the storm...:)

The storm. Dylan is in the midst of the "terrible twos", as they call it. My mom tagged him best, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He can be such a good, cooperative boy one minute and a little monster the next. Hence the above photo. Here, Dave is just preventing him from falling off the sidewalk into the water. Mean parents, I know.:)

This photo is great too, although I don't completely blame him for screaming in his car seat. He was sandwiched between Scott and Madeline, who think it is fun to annoy and tease their little brother. And since it was either Mommy or Dylan in between them, Mommy pulled rank and opted for the middle row seat to keep my sanity.:) Sorry, my love. But we all know, if Mommy is not happy, life is not good for anyone.:)

The next day, we headed to Vermont. Our first stop was Quechee (pronounced like Qweechee).

There was a waterfall there right by a cool, glass blowing, and pottery making store. It was fun the watch them make things, but boy was it expensive stuff, so no souvenirs for us!

After buying some authentic Vermont Maple syrup (yum!), we headed to the Quechee Gorge. It was so pretty to hike down there. And Dylan was a little happier running around the whole time. It was hard getting a picture of him during most of our trip.

Scott's a trooper. He accidentally fell into the creek behind him and got his shirt all wet (luckily not really his pants). Since he wasn't really wanting to walk around in a wet shirt the rest of the day, we took it off and just put on his jacket.

Yes, once again the kids had to hit sticks together to keep the bears away. (Parent Trap anyone!? Love that movie!)

So pretty!

After Quechee, we headed over to Sharon, VT which is the birthplace of Joesph Smith. They had a great visitors center and monument there. Such a pretty place; if you are in the area, worth a visit.

The next day, we headed into New Hampshire and Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains. I will post of that one next.:)