studiokusko: June

The end of June and the beginning of July were definitely a whirlwind of activity for us. Here is a quick rundown of things that happened:

Judson's Birthday:
Judson turned three on June 22nd and Sarah and Matt hosted a little party for him at their farm. It was really cute to see him spending time with his friends and eating cake. Judson was a lucky guy. He got two cakes! The end of the party got a little wild when all the kids got naked, jumped in the empty hot tub that Sarah and Matt have in their sunroom and started having a water fight.

July Fourth, Natalie Visits, We move into our new place:
The weekend of the Fourth of July was jam-packed with fun activities. Natalie, our forever friend from youth, came to visit us after going to a friend's wedding in Connecticut. I had to work a lot, but Natalie and Tom got to explore the area a little and pay a visit to the Ben and Jerry's factory (Tom now has a pint a day habit...there's a scoop shop half a block from us...we even got to try the special limited edition flavor "Goodbye Yellow Brickle" in honor of Elton John's first VT performance--yum!). We had an amazing dinner at a delicious and beautiful restaurant in Waterbury called Hen of the Wood, with all local yummy ingredients.

The Fourth of July brought the parade and fireworks to town. The parade passed right below our windows so we watched from above, which was unfortunate for the naked man in a bathtub on one of the floats that passed by. We have no idea why he was in a bathtub, but he was definitely naked and we could see what all the onlookers at street level could not. My favorite parts of the parade were Bread and Puppet and the Shriners with their go-cart-mobile. Bread and Puppet is an amazing art/puppet-making/theater organization up into the Northeast Kingdom. We hope to make it to one of their performances this summer if it ever stops raining. Here are some pics:

That same weekend we watched fireworks two days in a row, both in Montpelier and at Sugarbush Resort. My parents came to visit and we had a fun Fourth of July with them. Here's a picture of some of us at a bar before the Sugarbush fireworks (from left to right: Natalie, Tom, my mom, and my dad):

On July 5th we took Natalie to the airport and Tom and my dad drove down to Plainfield in a U-Haul. Tom, dad, Dave, and Sue packed all our stuff into the van and the U-haul from the barn and drove it up to Montpelier. Sarah, Matt, Judson, and our friend Michael joined us and everyone chipped in to carry it all up the steep 3-floor walk-up to our new apartment. Everyone was an amazing sport and so helpful! We couldn't be luckier to have our family so close now. It was something that was always missing from our lives in California. We all had pizza at the pizza joint right below us, Positive Pie (which has awesome, NY-style pizza--another thing missing from our California lives!).

Fun Weekend Events:
Most of July was spent unpacking and trying to set up. We're finally almost out of our boxes but in need of some furniture and still hanging up art and making this place our own. We love living in town. You wouldn't believe how loud it is at night. I think because it's summer and lots of young kids hang out at the bars or on the streets. We're slowly getting used to the noise of youthful reverie that can go into the wee hours of the morning...ironically we moved to the country but this place feels more "urban" than any "urban" place either of us have lived in! We love being able to walk to the movies or to the local restaurants. And our place is really great. Tom and I each have our own offices which we love! We are about to find a kitten to keep Odin company while we are at work, so hopefully I'll have kitten pictures up here in the next couple of weeks.

We've seen two great movies the in the last week, both at the little local independent theater in Montpelier called the Savoy: Priceless and Reprise. Go see both of them immediately! They are the best movies we've seen in a long while. Both very different but really great. We've seen a lot of movies this July due to the CONSTANT RAIN. There is a thunderstorm almost every day. It has been the rainiest July on record in VT history. We're hoping things dry out in August.

Last weekend we had a really great time attending the Vermont Mozart Festival at Shelburne Farms, which is a beautiful spot on Lake Champlain. The weather held out most of the morning, but on the drive over there it started to pour, and Tom, Dave, and I all thought our night was ruined, but Sue is extremely positive and she bolstered the evening with her optimism so that when we arrived at the outdoor venue the rain had stopped and the sun was visible through a small opening in the clouds and it shown down on the lake and onto us. We had a super picnic of fried chicken, beet salad, cupcakes and really yummy wine that Sue and Dave brought, and it turned out to be a relaxing and beautiful evening with only a few light, intermittent showers! We even got to see a dramatic sunset. It was really a memorable and blissful night, and we felt like hearty New Englanders when the rain passed over us--we didn't budge, but gripped our wine glasses tighter and snuggled into our raincoats.