JULY FAVE FIVE

 

Welcome to the Friday Fave Five.  To learn more about this weekly gratitude writing exercise, head on over to Susanne's.  I'm back after being in Vermont most of last week.  It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation even though a week ago today we climbed the highest peak in that state!  It was glorious!  

Here are my five faves from the past 2 weeks: 

• CARDS AND MORE CARDS!   I was so blessed to receive so many cards from my teaching colleagues, 2 of my sisters, blogging friends, and  church friends. It was a nice surprise to come home from vacation to 2 more cards in the mail!  I'm thankful so many kind people honored my retirement. 

• CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING:  We came back to NYS late Saturday evening and it was HOT and HUMID!  I don't do well with temps over 85 degrees F and we've had some temps climb to 88-92 and the high humidity makes everything so sticky.  I'm super thankful that my husband was able to change the filter after we spent about an hour figuring out what was wrong with the piece you put it in (we spent Independence Evening on our hands and knees in the basement taking apart a piece of the air  conditioner unit......thankfully Dave knew what he was doing!).  I'll never take central air for granted.  Super thankful for it this past week. 

• SUMMER BLOOMS!  Our youngest daughter came over one evening while we were gone, to water my indoor plants and check the house.  I'm very thankful for that. Our oldest daughter was going to do the outdoor plants but because last week was so rainy, she didn't need to.  I came home to full blooms and bright colors.  Now that things are drying out, I need to do the watering myself. I'm thankful the rain stopped in time for us to get home and for bright summer blooms that thrive in heat. 

A corner of our backyard

Deck Flowers are thriving!

• VERMONT VACATION:  Dave and I had such a relaxing and fun time away.  We went to Stowe where neither of us had been before.  We popped into the capital city of Montpelier.  We ate good food, took long walks in the village and in the woods and climbed Mt Mansfield, Vermont's tallest mountain. We met the grandson of Maria Von Trapp and Georg (son of their youngest and 10th child) and had a wonderful history tour learning fact vs fiction between the Von Trapps and the famous movie with Julie Andrews. It was the whole reason I chose to go to Stowe!   We had mimosas on our anniversary at breakfast, and we took a very scenic...and long....way home through the Green Mountains into the Adirondacks crossing Lake Champlain at Crown Point. Highlights of the trip are in previous posts and there are many photos. Here are 3 of my fave photos from the trip. I'm so thankful we had this time together before the busyness of summer and all its activities begin. (a post about the Von Trapp Family and Lodge will be done later this weekend). 

Dave and I on our Anniversary 
Summit of Mount Mansfield: 3495 Feet of elevation
(hike details in previous post: this hike kicked our butts!)

Dave at Moss Glen Falls
tallest waterfalls in Vermont
29 June

We hiked to the tallest waterfalls in the state of Vermont which just so happens to be outside the village of Stowe in the Putnam State Forest area. 

Sterling Falls Gorge
a history/geological self-guided hike

• INDEPENDENCE DAY:  Dave and I slept in......past 7:30 AM!!  We never do that!  I guess all the laundry, putting away vacation items, grocery shopping and reading mail/paying bills the day before made us tired!  Both of our daughters wanted to do a picnic at one of the lakes and kayak but there were pop-up thunderstorms forecasted and it was so humid.  We all decided to have a picnic in the family room and the girls came over from their respective apartments for the afternoon of food and fellowship.  We ended up watching one of our fave family movies and I had made all natural (think healthy!  and vegan!) chocolate peanut butter cups.  Think Reeses PB Cups only way better with hardly ANY sugar!!  They both had to work the next day and one had plans with friends so they didn't stay past 6 pm. A bonus:  Dave and i were able to see a wonderful fireworks display right from our front porch due  to someone a few roads over having a huge party. I'm thankful for a fun family day and for our nation's freedoms. 

image courtesy of etsy site

I hope your summer is off to a great start!  

ENJOY THE WEEKEND!