Big Week, Big Day

In less than 24 hours, we have:

• said goodbye to Gommie, who returned to Texas today;
• prepped for Sis's birthday slumber party;
• begun to celebrate Mama's birthday;
• gone to horse camp;
• spent almost 3 hours at hospice;
• prepped for Bud getting his braces tomorrow;
• hosted a slumber party;
• taken Mama for a special dinner (well, Bud did; I chaperoned the slumber party);
• stayed up way too late . . . and they are still going strong downstairs!

That doesn't include everything in the last week since Gommie arrived on Wednesday.  There have been:

• kung fu practice
• horseback riding
• birthday dinner at the sushi place
• Scrabble
• 5-second rule
• Zentangle
• poi-ball lessons
• piano lesson
• Pinterest lesson
• introduction to the K-pop band BTS
• bad "dad" jokes
• Bud's special lasagna dinner with Eton Mess for dessert
• and VERMONT!!

Yep, we lucked out and got a place to stay in VT for the weekend. So we:

• stopped at the VT visitor's center and managed to get a few cupcakes from the concessions people as they were packing up;
• shopped at the Vermont Country Store for snacks for the weekend and other little trinkets (including some great jammies for Gommie and me);
• had dinner at MacLaomanin's pub, with Scotch eggs, crab cakes, mince and tatties with skirlie, cock a leekie soup, auld reekie stew, bangers and mash, and HAGGIS!  Yep, Bud really likes haggis.  Plus sticky toffee pudding;
• spent the evening outside while Bud practiced his LED poi-balls outside while fireflies twinkled in the trees around us.  We also identified constellations.   Later, Mama and I sat out alone and heard a Great Horned Owl and saw a shooting star right through the Big Dipper.
• While Mama and I were sitting outside having some quite alone time, we were startled and actually quite frightened by a close-up, loud snort.  This was not a raccoon or small animal, nor a dog or coyote or wolf.  I swear it sounded big and scary.  I think it was a bear!  I jumped up and headed inside, forgetting to pull Mama in with me.  She followed pretty quickly and we both quickly shut the door, no dillydallying or discussion.  As we looked out into the dark, I heard the loud snorty snuffle again.  AGGGHHH.  But we couldn't see it.  I began to close windows a bit more, especially because the kitchen where all our VT Country Store food was accessible on ground level!  I even started closing some of the windows in the other rooms.  I was that startled.  It was scary.  I'm only sorry we never saw it.  Whoa, bear!  (The next day, the other three had a a good laugh at us.)
• breakfasted at the Country Girl Diner, in an old 1944 chrome diner, where we had corned beef hash, vegetable omelets, and pancakes--definitely worth the (relatively short) wait;
• tootled around southeastern VT both days, focusing on Hildene (Robert Todd Lincoln's estate, with gorgeous historic peonies in a formal French garden surrounded by VT mountains, a huge player pipe organ, a goat farm, and a restored luxurious Pullman palace car, because that Lincoln made his money on the railroads) and covered bridges (we saw 6 in total, I believe:  West Arlington, Silk Road, Paper Mill, Worrall, Bartonsville, and Hall.)  I loved crossing each bridge and taking lots of photos (which I'll share soon.)  As much as the red bridges are iconic, I think I also liked the weathered natural bridges equally as well.  I was glad to see the Bartonsville bridge had been restored after the original was swept down river by Hurricane Irene.  We also visited the Rockingham Meeting House, from the mid-18th-century (which was open and staffed by a lovely docent) and both the old cemetery there and in Arlington.  I liked the headstones, with the severe angels' heads of the earlier days replaced by urns and willows later.  
• lunched at an Italian deli in Manchester with great sandwiches, pastries, gelato, and groceries, plus a nice woman at the register who is also in a two-mom family and has 3 kids!
• got rained on;
• had pizza for dinner while we all kinda did our own thing;
• had breakfast at Country Girl again!
• did some of the sightseeing I listed above;
• relaxed and left late, grabbing great soups, chili, coconut cake with citrus curd, and White Pyne tea from the Steaming Chili Bowl food truck.  
• Whew!

Ah, it's almost 2 a.m. and it's starting to quieten down.  Maybe I'll get some sleep after all.