Happy Birthday, Jake!! 

He is a ripe-old twenty-four today! We have been celebrating since the wee small hours of the morning, well, for us, which means about 10:30. We went to the post office to pick up some presents from parents, and then headed across the street to Sticky Buns, our favorite little pastry shop right here in town. We really gorged ourselves too: we got a caramel sticky bun about the size of a human brain, a giant coffee cake muffin, and a large piece of strawberry pear torte, all for a whopping price of five dollars. Then Jake had his normal breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt. I just don't know how he fits it all in there. Tonight we are going to Hanover to have dinner and a good time. We are going to get dressed up in silly preppy clothes and strut our stuff. Should be a good time.

Since I have not been blogging very regularly, I 

have a good deal of catching up to do. Vermont is being ridiculously fun for us. A few weekends 

ago we ventured to the Worlds Fair in Tunbridge, which turned out to be only a few miles up the road. It was very animal oriented, and we got separated from some friends we were there with by an hour long cow parade that circled the fairgrounds. They were on the outside and we were on the inside. But the good news is, we saw several members of our ward parading their livestock, which was very fun to see (I have another story about livestock in the ward, which I will save for a later blog...). I loved the crazy looking chickens, they reminded me of the funny-looking birds in Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. 

Of course we got lots of fair food (we worked out hard that morning so we could eat all we wanted and not feel guilty!). The fries were served in a dog bowl, which I suppose is fitting. They were delicious. We also got a caramel apple, ice cream sundae, and fried dough with lemon curd, powdered sugar, maple butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup on it. Don't worry, we didn't mix all those together, they were separate, but we had to try all the toppings! The maple butter was delicious. That's one thing about Vermont, they know maple products. We also watched some pig racing, which is a favorite pastime for fair-goers, or so we learned (it was extremely popular). We saw giant oxen (by giant I mean as big as a Ford F250). Actually and legitimately huge. 

We also saw a cow that looked like Hannah! Look at that beauty spot! The prettiest cow in town, just like Hannah is the prettiest

 girl in town (NOT A COW). 

Last Saturday was probably one of our best days (this is also the day we discovered Sticky Buns). We had been planning on going to the Vermont Public Radio Listener's Picnic at the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm for about 

a month, mainly to see our favorite local band, Banjo Dan & the Mid-Nite Plowboys. We first heard them on our second day here, listening to VPR, and fell in love with them immediately. What else can you do with a Vermont bluegrass band that plays such classics like "Fire in the Sugarhouse" containing such lyrics as, "it's roilin', and it's boilin', and it's fillin' up with steam. the fog is gettin' heavy and it's like you're in a dream..."? 

If you have seen the movie 

A Mighty Wind, then you can imagine all of the characters of the band, and the rest of the lyrics. They are brilliant. Two of the band members actually look astonishingly like Christopher Guest. The horse farm itself was amazing. Jake's mom and my dad would have loved it! The drive out there was beautiful too. It was about an hour and a half away, only forty miles, but in Vermont roads, that means an hour and a half. We drove through Green Mountain National Forest, which Haleigh and Mike need to see sometime. On our drive we saw a sign for an Interfaith Nature Hike and naturally, we had to stop on the drive back. We hiked the Buddhist Path (we were kind of afraid to do the Pagan Path...) and learned some Buddhist teachings on posted placards. It was beautiful and enlightening.

I have so many more pictures, but they will have to wait. Jake is currently indulging in a Birthday Nap, and I might have to join him.