Vermont: Friday and Saturday

Michael and I slept a solid 12 hours from Thursday night to Friday morning.  We both got out of bed at some point for a bathroom trip, but were able to fall back asleep, no problem.  It's amazing what staying awake for a whole day will do to your body and how much you can sleep when children are not there to wake you up.

After a leisurely breakfast and some chill time at Aunt Sandi's house we drove in to the bustling metropolis of Enosburg for lunch.  I hope you read into my sarcasm, because there were two restaurants for us to choose from.   

After lunch we walked around a bit.  This is one of Michael's cousin's houses.  We sent him this picture (he was at work at Ben and Jerry's) and told him we were going to eat his food, watch his tv and take a nap in his bed.  He wrote back and told us to mow the lawn while we were there. 

After our walk we stopped for soft serve ice cream.  In Vermont these are called "creemees", but I absolutely refuse to use that word.   What's fantastic about this soft serve is that you can order a million different flavors- not just chocolate and vanilla- that they mix up on the spot.  I got espresso and Michael got black raspberry, although it was rather blue.

The plan for the afternoon was to visit with a bunch of different family members at their houses.  And here is where I will fill you in on some important background information.

About thee months ago, after I had a ticket to join Michael, I started sending messages to his cousins to make plans.  And then I decided.....no. I have always, for almost 14 years of marriage and almost 19 years of being together, made all of our plans.  Every party, every social get-together, every vacation, every weekend, every everything has been completely planned by me.  And I need a break.  So I told him that this was his family, his home state and his friends.  I was just along for the ride.  I really didn't care where we ate, what we ate, who we saw and what we did.  So I handed over the reigns and told him to plan the trip.  

OK.  Back to Friday.  We first drove to his Aunt Jeanine and Uncle David's house.  They own a dairy farm and live right next to it.  Nobody was home.

So, we drove down the street to his cousin Pat's house.  Nobody was home.

So, we drove further down the street to his Aunt Louise and Uncle Dwight's house.  Nobody was home.

There were no more relatives right in the vicinity so we sat down on their porch where I asked Michael if he had actually talked to any of the people and made "real" plans with a specific start time.  His answer- "not really".

Aunt Louise and Uncle Dwight actually had cell phone service on their porch (rare in that part of the state), so we called his parents to get the phone numbers of these people so we could call them.

Good planning, Michael, good planning.

After about 30ish minutes of waiting, Aunt Louise showed up, being driven by her daughter Amy (Michael's cousin).  She had been in St. Albans having an endoscopy and was still recovering from the anesthesia.  Amy warned us that she was a little loopy and saying crazy things.  That is an important piece of information for something that happened on Sunday morning, so keep it in mind. 

We ended up visiting with Aunt Louise and Uncle Dwight (when he got home from work soon after) for over an hour.  But I was a blogging failure and didn't take any pictures.

After we left we went back to Pat and Sarah's for dinner.  Another blogging failure, because they built a gorgeous new home last year and I took exactly 0 pictures of it.

I did get these calendar worthy pictures of the sunset from their front porch though.

I think they are presented in reverse order and I am not going to go back in to fix it.  Sorry.

We had a delightful time with Pat and Sarah and their kids Brady and Aliana. But the kids are not pictured, because Sarah and I were busy drinking 2.5 bottles of wine.

On Saturday Michael and I did something in the morning, but dang if I can't remember what.  In the early afternoon we went to part one of the reunion.  This was a "family" event at a park by Lake Champlain .  We went, even though we had no children with us.   If you have ever heard of the lake monster "Champ", this is the lake where he lives.  I looked, but I didn't find him.

Part two of the reunion was held at brewery that night.  We had been told that the brewery had delicious food and was known for their delectable grilled cheese sandwiches, so we didn't eat before we went.  Well, it turns out that this brewery is fairy new and not only do they not have delectable grilled cheese sandwiches, they don't have any food at all.  After two beers I was nearly on the floor. Luckily, the brewery orders 20 dominoes pizzas every night and give the slices out for free, so I was saved from having to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning. 

There was a photo booth with props for fun pictures.

Michael graduated with close to 250 people.  Except for 3 people that are missing from the picture, this is everyone that came.  It was kind of sad.

Part three of the reunion was an after party at a bar down the street from the brewery.  I don't really know any of these people, so I will not label any of them.  We'll just call all of them "Michael's former classmates who are all now almost 40".

I also didn't take all of these pictures.  I borrowed some of them from facebook.

This is from facebook.  It is also a part of a story for Sunday morning, so remember it.

This girl in the green dress actually recognized me in the brewery without Michael being next to me.  She came up to me and asked if I was Michael's wife.  When I gave her a "look" she said she recognized me from facebook.   That is hilarious!  There were also people who approached me and said they didn't remember me from high school and that they were sorry for not remembering my name.  It was funny to be able to tell them that they had never, in fact, ever met me and that I grew up in Arizona. 

We closed out the party and left the bar past midnight.  Michael was a little bittersweet on the drive home as we talked about how he might not see any of them for another 10 years or, in all reality, ever again. 

Up next: an awesome coincidence on Sunday.