Biking in Vermont

This weekend, Hilary, Finn, and I went on a mini-vacation to a magical place... Vermont. We ended up going to Kingdom Trails in East Burke with two other couples. Kingdom Trails is a HUGE collective of interconnecting bike trails that are almost exclusively on private property. You buy a day pass, like skiing, to access the trails. It was incredibly gorgeous. The air was crisp and clear (and freezing), it was sunny, and the views were amazing. The trails occasionally cross huge, green fields of mowed grass with amazing views. It was unlike any other place I've ever biked.

In the afternoon, I stopped biking and met up with Hilary and Finn. We drove to a hill-top monastery with great views and let Finn ride his bike. That's right. Finn is into biking. Before we left, Hilary told him we were going to Vermont to go biking and he got super excited. He kept saying, "biking, ah-mont" and riding his balance bike all over the house. He rode his bike around the monastery about four times and every time we put him in the car, he had a melt down because he wanted to keep riding. The monastery was also a popular rest stop for people biking. Every time a big group of (usually French-Canadian) bikers stopped to rest, Finn would walk right into the middle of their group and lay his tiny, red bike next to their rigs. Then they would laugh, say something in French, and Finn would get embarrassed and run away. It was really entertaining.

All in all, it was a great trip. Good friends, good biking, and post-ride pizza always make for a good day. And thank you, Steineckert family, for hanging out with the Finn-meister in the back seat. He (and we) enjoyed the company.

Etsy Treasury

I have been missing the Utah mountains lately, and decided to make a mountain/forest etsy treasury.
Here is the link to the treasury: Mountain Sound

     Named after a song I like:

Acadia National Park

For our big trip during Dennen's break, we decided to head north to Acadia National Park. Any of you who know us can testify that we love national parks! It was only a 3 1/2 hour drive from where we live, so doable with Finn. All he needed was a sucker to keep him occupied. He is also a sleep eater just like his dad (as you can tell in the pictures). When Finn wasn't eating or sleeping (or doing both together), he was either playing games on the ipad, or saying, "all done, down," over and over. That car ride must have seemed like an eternity for him...

We got there on a Wednesday and had perfect weather! A really neat mountain that we hiked was Dorr (yes, it's spelled that way) Mountain. We were able to get an amazing view of Acadia and all of the surrounding islands. Finn was a trooper and humored his parents by letting them hike while riding on his dad's back. Dennen and I both really enjoy hiking, and Finn does too, most of the time. He just wants to get down and hike with his own two legs (which we let him do sometimes, but not when the sun is setting and we need to get a move on).

This video of Finn and Dennen cracks me up! I love how Finn says, "yeehaw," and then procedes to give me a crusty at end of it. Anyway, isn't the view gorgeous?! I love how you can see all of the little islands. And yes, I hike in a skirt. It is the best thing ever. Cool breeze? Yes please! I am officially hooked on stretchy skirts. Plus, shorts just look ridiculous on me because I'm not very tall. Side note: I like the picture below. I think it's funny, especially Finn's face.

After our hike we went to Bah Hah-bah (Bar Harbor) which is a fun little town right next to Acadia. We got ourselves some tasty ice cream and enjoyed the beautiful views. And see that yacht to the right of Dennen's head? Some old dude took us for a cruise in it! Not really... But I've always wanted to go on a yacht.

Unbeknownst to us, a storm was headed our way. As soon as we got all snuggled down in our sleeping bags, it started raining. And when I say raining, I mean torrential downpour. It was like the sky was dumping buckets of water on us. We slept decent though, and decided to make the best of our next day. After we packed up all of our sopping wet gear, we headed to the visitors center, Sand Beach (Dennen even swam), and the Thunderhole. As you can see, Finn is jumping for joy in this picture.

We had such a blast, rain and all! Maybe we'll go to Acadia again... I sure hope so! But if we don't make it, I'm glad that we had such a great time and that Finn was even able to enjoy it (for the most part).

Oh, and don't forget... Tomorrow is the giveaway, so make sure to enter!! I'll have the details posted on our blog.

South Dakota

I pretty much discounted South Dakota and put it in the same category as Nebraska and Kansas. Boring-ville. I was pleasantly surprised when it was actually pretty cool! We were able to go to Deadwood, which was an old mining, cowboy, outlaw town. It is in the Black Hills which is really pretty. Who would have thought there were trees in South Dakota? Not me.

Next, we hit up Mount Rushmore. We were able to take some pictures from the highway and were going to leave it at that because to park and get closer was $11. Absurd (well... not really, we're just cheap). We bit the bullet and parked to get some better pictures and check out the museum. All-in-all Mount Rushmore was neat to see.

Custer State park was by far our favorite! We went to a lake and hiked around for a bit. It was gorgeous. There were really neat rock formations and we even drove our car through some of them. Definitely a must see place. We even said that we may like to go back someday.

Hiking

For me, nothing heals my soul and body more than being outside. As a family we have been taking advantage of the Spring weather and have been hiking quite a bit. It helps me clear my mind of all the irrational thoughts that I've been having a lot of right now. I'm able to think of how much Rowan has changed our lives for the better. And that makes me happy.

Checkin' out an airplane

First camping trip

We took Finn on his first camping trip this past Thursday night. We went up AF Canyon and stayed at Timpanookee. Finn loved it! He was a big fan of how many rocks there were to play with. If he saw a trail, he'd start going on it and would swing his arms (a sure sign of happiness). He also loved sitting by the fire and eating dill pickle Pringles, and chocolate.

When he started getting sleepy, we put him in his pack-n-play with his lion and he conked right out. He even slept the whole night without a peep!

The next morning when we finished packing up, we saw 3 big moose! Finn kept saying, "eeee, eeee," (his word for any hairy four-legged animal). I don't think we'd been camping in over 2 years. Going, definitely made me realize how much I miss it. Hopefully we'll be able to go on another camping trip with him before it gets too chilly.