Mini Road Trip

Picnic lunch. I usually love picnics but I managed to plunk us down on the mulch that stuck to everything. I had to bathe Miriam in the bathroom sink because she'd mixed PB&J with mulch and smeared it all over her body. 


The reason I selected that spot though was because they had this natural rock table right  next to it, perfect for making sammitches and such. I don't eat premade sammitches (ew soggy) so I needed a good place. Shockingly, the visitor's center has NO picnic tables anyway. (HELLO, get some picnic tables. Even kind Elder Osborn who showed us around said they needed some.) 

Derek didn't have to work on this past Saturday (SHOCKING, I know), so we decided that rather than stay home and build stuff for the goats, or chickens, or run a million errands and clean the house or whatever, we needed to get outta dodge. We've been plagued with Hand Foot and Mouth virus and we needed fresh air (never fear, no one was contagious at that point). So we headed a bit west to Vermont. It was beautiful and didn't get too hot until the late afternoon.

We stopped at the Joseph Smith Memorial Monument and visitor's center. It was lovely and interesting, and the children mostly behaved themselves. It was a mini-road trip miracle.



The top of the monument is 38 1/2 feet (one for each year of Joseph's life) of polished granite, all one piece. It took the people building the monument in 1905 3 weeks to get it from the train station 5 miles up the road to the spot where the Smith Family's farm house had been.



Then we headed to Queechee Gorge which was busy but really cool. It's this rushing river on Queechee. Vermont (pronounced "kweechee") and has a bunch of little tourist traps right along side. So we enjoyed $18 ice cream and then walked to the visitor's center.



Walkin' to the visitor's center. 



Why do my children give me heart attacks and do things like try to CLIMB the guard rail???




Looking out over the gorge.


Daringly holding my phone (I don't like my phone too much) over the gorge.


Attempt to get a picture of Miriam, who is always in the carrier. Accidental selfie! Should have smiled. 

Poor grumpy baby. She had blisters on her little fingers. :(

After that we decided our mini-road trip needed to come to end because every one was tired and grumpy and complaining. But they managed most of the day.