Last Friday, we jumped in the truck with Max and Mason and took a six-hour drive to Burlington, Vermont. The ride was absolutely gorgeous! Most of the fall leaves had already fallen but what remained were yellow and copper, painted amongst the evergreens and mountain rocks. There was snow at the top of Mount Washington. That was a treat to see! Driving through that part of the country, surrounded by colorful layers of mountains, cascading into the horizon, is beyond description. I was wondering what I’d done good recently to deserve being in that spot at that moment in time. God sure did some special work with his paintbrush on that stretch of highway!

Anyway, later that night, Frank, Matt, and Frank’s friend Caleb met up with us at the hotel. They drove up there after they got out of school. The next day, we took Max and Mason to the children’s show at The Haunted Forest in Williston, Vermont. It was very entertaining and the boys had a great time. We then met Frank, Matt and Caleb for dinner at Pauline’s Cafe’ & Restaurant. The food and service was exceptional. After dinner, we ran by the nearest department store and got four pairs of galoshes, six ponchos and five umbrellas. It was pouring outside and we had plans to go to scary (adult) show at the Haunted Forest at 10:00 p.m.

Later that evening, we met up with BookLocker author Mark LaFlamme and his cool and creative wife, Corey. Mark wrote one of the scripts for the Haunted Forest. They brought their niece, who Max and Mason adore. Not being a horror fan (heh…), Richard offered to watch the younger children so the rest of us could go to the Forest. When we got there, we all donned our boots, ponchos and umbrellas…all except Corey. She didn’t have any galoshes. I sure felt sorry for her over the next hour!

Lucky for us, the rain kept most people away so there wasn’t a huge line. We got to go right on in. It poured the entire time we were traipsing through the forest. Seriously. It wasn’t just raining. It was a deluge! Rivers were pouring off our umbrellas! It was so cool!!!

We spent an hour walking from one skit to another, trying to curl into ourselves to keep the parts of us that were farthest away from the umbrella canopy from getting splashed/dripped on. Mark’s skit was great! The actress had to look up in the sky for several minutes…and rain was pouring onto her face, adding to the, er, ambiance of the show. There were roaring fires lit at each skit area and the actors’ breath was billowing from their mouths during their lines, further adding to the creepy atmosphere. Hundred of lit pumpkins lined our path. Their lids kept most of them from being extinguished by the rain. There was a ghoul following our group, carrying a lantern (probably to ensure nobody wandered off into the really dark forest) and, when I asked her how many pumpkins had been carved for the show, she just looked at me – looked right through me – and didn’t respond. Creepy!

Some of the “puddles” we sloshed through in the forest were about four inches deep. Corey, bless her heart, never uttered one complaint.

After we emerged from the horrific fun, I asked a teenager to take our waterlogged picture. Here it is:

We had a great breakfast on Sunday morning at The Skinny Pancake. We discovered that Mason (age 28 months), who refuses to eat almost everything, loves crepes! You can hide just about any vegetable in a crepe so we’ll be cooking those for him now!

We left town in the early afternoon and didn’t get back to Bangor until around 8:30 Sunday evening. It was once again a gorgeous drive, a fine finale to a fantastic weekend that we’ll never forget.

This week’s Maxism:

During our long weekend drive, out of the blue, Max asked from the back seat: “So…if God’s the Father, who’s the Mother?”

And, later, when we were driving in silence through a particularly breathtaking valley in Vermont, Max looked up from his sketch pad and said, “Hey, look! It’s nature!”

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