Vermont- Day 2

I think I will soon be up for a Nobel Prize in Literature for the creativity of my blog titles.

Here we are. Day 2. July 1st. We started the day with a trip to see Michael's grandfather. This is the only other great grandparent Spencer has. Sadly, Michael's grandmother died (after a very brief illness) just 2 weeks before we got to Vermont. I got some better pictures of great-grandpa and Spencer later in the week.

We spent the rest of the day with Michael's mom's side of the family. One of the best parts about this trip was that Michael's brother (Raymond), his wife (Jennifer) and their kids (Bryant, Cameron and Alyssa) were in Vermont at the same time as us. They live in North Carolina and we hadn't seen them in over 4 years. They had never met Spencer and we had never met Alyssa (she just turned 3).

Spencer and his cousin Cameron.Jennifer and Raymond Spencer and his cousin AlyssaSpencer with Aunt Jenn All the family without the pesky daughter-in-laws All the menMichael's mom is one of 8 siblings. Both of her parents are now deceased. One of Michael's aunts (Laurette) now lives in the home where they all grew up. On day #2, 7 out of the 8 siblings and some of Michael's cousins all got together at Laurette's house.

Years ago, Michael told me that he had never been upstairs at his grandparents' house. I thought he was lying. It was all just a huge exaggeration when he said they weren't allowed upstairs. I told him that I was going upstairs when we went to visit. We were in Vermont in 2001 and when we went to visit his grandmother I tried to go upstairs. His grandmother promptly cut me off and without mincing words told me I was not allowed upstairs.

I had been telling Michael for weeks that I was going upstairs when we went to his aunt's house. Here are the infamous stairs.And here I am walking up them. I kid you not, after I did this, a collective gasp went through the house and I heard no less than 12 people say that nobody is allowed upstairs. I was the talk of the house. People will be gossiping about me and my rule breaking for years. It was actually quite nice up there.The brothers with their kids. Michael's cousin Amy with Spencer (the same Amy I didn't get any pictures of on day 1)Raymond and AlyssaSpencer, Kayla and Emma Uncle Raymond pretending to eat Spencer's arm. This was their little game all week.I will win a Nobel Prize in Kick-Ass Photography for this sunset shot. Day 2 was also a good day. I came close to being kicked out of the family with my brazen going up stairs antics. Spencer met about 480 new family members. It was cool for the last day before a killer heat wave hit the state.

Please return for Day 3 and I promise to work on my post titles.