new england adventure - vermont {edited}

Home is where the heart is and for the past 8 days my home has been traveling with Ryan and Keaton in New England!

I thought for sure by day #7 I'd be ready to get back to PA, but we were having so much fun I could have been gone a little longer :) It was our first vacation as a family of 3 and one I would consider a complete success!

Our road trip looked like this: Vermont --> Maine --> Rhode Island & Conneticut

I'm going to start with Vermont!

Maine was our ultimate destination, but since it takes about 12+ hours to get there, we stopped on the way up and back. Our first stop was at The Pointe Hotel in Proctorsville, VT. I loved this hotel, maybe my favorite one from the trip! It was just super cozy :)

When we arrived {late in the afternoon} it was rainy and yucky, so we just unpacked, got dinner, and hung out in the hotel. Thankfully, we woke up to the most beautiful blue sky and sun! It felt like a perfect fall day! 

Since it was fall-ish outside, Keaton sported some jeans for the first time - I died from the cute. 

We were in Vermont for a day and a half. We started our "big" day there, at the cutest Apple Pie and Bakery for breakfast. I got a yogurt parfait and home fries...Ryan got apple pie french toast. By the time I thought of taking a picture {because it did look amazing} it was already gone :) And this is kinda stupid, but they gave me a small wooden spoon to eat my yogurt with and I thought it was SO CUTE! ha! Ryan doesn't get excited about silverware, but he did love his toast:)

Ryan is so funny -- he plans the best trips! Vermont is known for it's cheese, so naturally he had us stopping at the Crowley Cheese House for some original VT cheese and, of course, free samples.

It wasn't crowded at all when we got there, which was really nice!

I watched them make some cheese with K man for a bit, then got busy sampling! It was all good!

After the cheese, we headed north a little to Ben & Jerry's Factory! I was probably a lot too excited about this! HAHA

I actually thought maybe we could take their bus for the rest of our trip and just eat ice cream the entire way...without having to stop. But someone has a car seat. So yeah.

The little tour was....little. It was pretty short, but that's okay! They ended with a huge sample of strawberry cheesecake ice cream, which {naturally} we were all excited about :)

Then after the tour we jumped right in line for a regular size amount of B&J! If this was a picture of us in line, instead of this random family, you bet I'd be smiling as big as that guy! 

Everyone loves Ben & Jerry's!!

I got Candy Bar Pie. It was, to put mildly,

SOAMAZINGLYFANTASTICANDDELICIOUSMYMOUTHISWATERINGRIGHTNOW.

I'd probably get it again. And again. And again.

I almost forgot...

We swung by Rock of Ages on our way back to the hotel after Ben & Jerry's!

 They have a lot of granite here, which they make a lot of tombstones out of 0:-) We were going to check out the huge quarry, but we didn't want to wait around for the bus...so we did a self guided tour!

And found an outdoor, granite bowling lane! I got a strike! The lane was granite and the balls were rubber - it was pretty interesting. Ryan and Keaton would have gotten a strike, but a family was running towards us and we were pressed for time :) 

THEN, we decided to head back to our hotel {about 30mins away} for some dinner and to get Keaton to bed. He goes to bed very early, but I didn't mind at all -- it gave Ryan and I time to relax :)

Next up....MAINE!