Vermont- Sunday (when I became a world renowned nature photographer)

After sleeping in (which, after having kids never, ever, ever gets old) on Sunday morning, Michael and I planned on driving out to the dairy farm again to see his Aunt Jeannine and Uncle David. We also planned on stopping somewhere for breakfast on the way.  The somewhere was undetermined when we left.

Now, remember when I said that it was important to remember than Aunt Louise was kind of loopy and not making a lot of sense after her endoscopy?  One of the things she mentioned to us was that she was getting together with some of her sisters (there are 6 girls and 2 boys in that family) to celebrate what would have been their mother's 100th birthday on Monday.  Michael's grandma (Meme) was a huge fan of McDonald's so the sisters were going to meet at McDonald's on Monday afternoon and have cones. She asked if we wanted to join her, but we were going to be in New Hampshire by Monday afternoon. I was a little disappointed because it sounded like a meaningful event that I would have enjoyed.

Anyway, Michael had a restaurant in mind for us to go to on Sunday morning.  We drove there.  It was closed.  The restaurant we had gone to on Friday was also closed, so that left McDonald's.  I was not thrilled about eating another breakfast at McDonald's (what a waste of vacation calories!), but there was really no other option. 

We pulled into a spot in the parking lot.  It was raining really hard and the windows were getting foggy, both in the truck and in the restaurant.  Just as we pulled in I got a notification on my phone that I had been tagged in a photo on facebook.  I wanted to see it so I told Michael to wait a minute before getting out of the truck.

It was this picture. 

It's not a terrible picture, so I didn't care that it was on facebook, but it's not a great picture so I wanted to untag it.  I was doing that while Michael sat in the driver's seat.  And then he said, "Oh my God, that's my Aunt Doris...........AND my Aunt Louise.........AND my Aunt Jeannine!!!!!"

All three of them were sitting in a booth together in McDonald's!

We went in and joined them for breakfast.  They had only been there for a few minutes.  It turned out that Aunt Louise, in her drugged state of mind, got it wrong and the plan was not to meet for ice cream on Monday, but for breakfast on Sunday.  So we got to join in after all!

Aunt Jeannine (middle) and Aunt Louise.  Aunt Jeannine is Michael's mom's twin.

Aunt Doris.  She and her husband were in Arizona in March and we went to lunch with them.

Meme, in addition to being a McDonald's addict (seriously, she ate between 5 and 10 meals there a week) was also a big fan of scratcher tickets.  Doris had brought 5 of them along to scratch in her honor.  5 tickets and 5 people.  It's like we were always meant to be there.

She also loved McDonald's apple pies.  Aunt Jeannine strong armed everyone into eating one. 

We were there for a good two hours eating (well, that part took about 8 minutes) and chatting.  Finally, when it was lunch time we went out to the parking lot to release a balloon in honor of Meme on her 100th birthday.  It was a blue balloon because blue was her favorite color.

It was really windy and raining so we were concerned that the balloon might get blown right into the building and fail to launch.  That would have been a bummer.

It launched though!

And how great are my photography skills capturing the balloon and the golden arches in the same shot?

Our original plan was to go to the farm to see Aunt Jeannine and Uncle David, but we were informed that Uncle David was really sick so we decided that our plan was not good.  We decided, instead to go see Aunt Doris' house.  We had never been there before.

They live at the end of a long, steep road in the country.  Not like anybody there doesn't live in the country.

This is the front of the house.  

Everything was just so beautiful that I walked around under an umbrella taking 1,000 pictures.

They are building an addition onto the back part of the house.  It's going to be an extended living room and dining room.

And now, just scroll and enjoy.

I went a little crazy over the peonies.

The road in front of their house.

One single fall leaf.  I wonder if he's really early or really late.

On Sunday afternoon Aunt Sandi hosted a party for us so we could see a huge number of relatives all at the same time.  She had planned on having it in the backyard and everyone could go in the pool and play horseshoes, but it was 52 degrees and rainy, so we ate and hung out mostly in the garage.

One big, huge surprise was that we got to see Michael's cousin Parm.  She moved to North Carolina last year and was coming home to Vermont for her 25 year class reunion but had told everyone she would be there after we left.  Well, that was a lie.  She got there in time for the party and I nearly fell over when she walked into the garage and surprised us.

Parm's brother Jason.  The last time we were in Vermont he was in Afghanistan, so we think that we haven't seen him since 2001. 

Parm and her daughter Grace

I told Michael to lean into his cousin Shawn, because Shawn was not paying attention.

We did the same thing to Shawn's brother Chad.

Amy is also a cousin, but all of the other family at the party was from Michael's dad's side of the family and Amy is from his mom's side of the family.  If you remember Aunt Louise from McDonald's, Amy is her daughter.

Todd (Shawn and Chad's brother, who is exactly 3 days younger than me, and Gabe, Amy's husband).

I actually did a really bad job getting pictures of everyone.  I missed Michael's cousin Jimmy, his wife Jeannette, their daughter Leah, Shawn's kids Jai and Jalyn, Jason's wife Penney and their kids Gavin, Chloe and Myles, Todd's girlfriend Kayla and their son Brantley and Chad's wife Heather and their kids Julia and Maria.  And actually, in the fail of all fails, I never, the whole time got a picture of our hosts, Aunt Sandi and Uncle Ruggie.

I did get another picture of me and Michael though, so all is not lost.

The rain had let up for a while just after we ate, but once everyone left it started coming down hard again.  I took some pictures of the back yard,

and the front yard.

before cozying up by the fire place in my pajamas with a pint of mint chocolate chip Ben and Jerry's.

What a perfect day.