my-story-page-swas9

=Vermont=

**__Day 1__**
“How much longer,” I complained when we got out of the car to eat lunch. “It won’t go any faster if you keep complaining,” my dad answered starting to get annoyed. “Come on, I’m starving” Leah, my 7-year-old sister whined “I want a hamburger with French fries,” I said trying to change the subject and it obviously worked because Leah chimed in saying she wanted chicken nuggets and apples with caramel. While we were waiting for our meal, the people next to us were ordering there food and guess what 2 of the 3 kids wanted, a cheese burger //without the humbugger part! How in the world do you have that????// The cashier was really confused but just then our food came so I couldn’t find out what they ended up getting. Couldn’t they have gone to a restaurant other then McDonalds? To top it all off, the oldest kid wanted water and his mom wouldn’t let him get it. Aren’t parents supposed to tell you to drink more water, not less? ☺☺☺ When we got back into the car I called my best friend Lauren to ask her what she was doing and she said that it was 80º there, it’s only 30º here! When I told my mom she said that she hoped it got warmer when we got to Vermont. We drove for another 5 hours until we got to our hotel. Then we checked in, put our things in the room and got back in the car to find a restaurant. We ended up eating at a place called Bob Evans and I got a baked potato, loaded with sour cream, butter and cheese. Then we went back to the hotel to end our day by swimming and watching T.V. until 10:30 p.m. It’ll be nice when we get to Vermont tomorrow.

**__Day 2__**
We’re here! We got to the farm around 3:00 and met the new puppy, Annie… She is so cute. After that, my sister and I went sledding. The hill was really tall and it wasn’t very fast so I only went down a few times. Once I got back I ran straight upstairs to choose my room. It was really hard because there are 5 different rooms upstairs and 1 room downstairs, my parents got that one! I ended up choosing the room at the end of the hallway, away from everyone else. As I was putting my cloths in the dresser I heard a car drive by. Since the farm is up in the mountains and no one else lives here, people don’t drive up the road so it’s a surprise when any one comes up at all. To surprise me even more the car stopped. When I went downstairs to see who it was, my cousins Austin and Nathan burst in the door yelling, SUPRISE! Then following them were Emily, Amber, Paige and my Aunt and Uncle carrying the twins Elizabeth and Ella. They’re turning 1 in two weeks. After that everyone wanted to go sledding and I pulled the twins in a sled around the field behind the barn because I already went sledding this morning and I didn’t want to do it again. They got bored quickly so I went to find everyone else to see if they had any suggestions for what to play with the twins. We finally ended up building a fort, without a roof, for them to play in while we all took turns watching them. Once everyone got tired of walking up the hill (like me) we went back to the house to choose rooms. If the twins are good tonight I’ll get to have them sleep in my room tomorrow night, since I am the oldest! Emily is a year younger than me and loves to write so she got the room with the desk but since it’s the smallest she doesn’t have to share it. The room on that same side of the hallway is shared by Andrew, Austin, and Nathan. They have a really cool alcove that one of the twin sized beds is pushed into and there is a bunk bed in the other corner. On the other side of the hall is my room. It’s at the farthest end, and from the outside, it sticks out from the house. There is a twin sized bed, a dresser and a lot of empty space, (that is where the twins pack and play is going.) There’s also a stair case going downstairs in between my room and the room Paige, Amber, and Leah are sharing. Their room has 2 dressers on the side with the door, a queen sized bed and a double bed. All of the rooms have closets except the back room. ☺☺☺ That night we had cheesy potatoes and ham and watched the movie __The Labyrinth__. It was a great day!

**__Day 3__**
Today I got up and had breakfast around 8:00. I would have slept in longer except everyone was being really loud downstairs. Then, we got our snow things on and tromped outside to go sledding. The hill was really fast! I’m glad I got to go sledding again today without having to bring the twins. Then, after a long time of sledding, we went back to the house to find something else to do. In the end, Emily and I went up into the playroom to explore drawers and cupboards. Paige, Leah, and Amber took turns on the “tire” swing (it literally is a tire swing because it’s made out of an old tire attached with a rope to a tree.) Austin, Andrew, and Nathan went outside to play tag in the part of the yard that didn’t have any snow. The twins took a nap. While we were exploring I asked Emily when they were leaving to go home. She answered that they were leaving tomorrow! We soon gave up on finding something to do and went down to see what kinds of food there was for lunch. We decided to find my mom to ask her if she would make Mac and Cheese. I got to ring the big loud bell when lunch was ready to get everyone to come back to the house for lunch! After lunch I didn’t do much besides reading and playing board games with Paige, Nathan and Andrew until in the middle of a game of Monopoly I had an idea. My idea was to camp in the forest! I didn’t announce my idea to everyone because I didn’t want to have to drag them along, if possible. I went to go ask my mom about the idea and she said yes if I took someone with me. So I asked Emily if she would go camping with me and she agreed! For dinner we had steak and home made bread that Leah and Amber made with Grandpa Dave. Then we went to find what we needed to bring with us.

This is the list we made of things to bring with us camping: Flash Lights (2) Lanterns (3) Extra Batteries (10 packs) Winter Coats (1 each) Snow Pants (1 each) Water Proof Sleeping Mats (2) Sleeping Bags (2) Snack (many) Hats (2) Tent (1) Boots (2 pair each) Slippers (2 pair each) Socks (5 pair each)

After we got everything my Uncle Michael and my Dad came with us to help us get set up. The younger kids had a campout in the living room. After we were set up and the parents went back to the house, we got the lanterns and put our snow gear on. I asked the adults if we could explore for awhile, and they said yes as long as we had many lanterns so we didn’t fall off a cliff and we followed the trial. Then we headed outside to explore. I also brought a watch; it was 8:00 p.m. already! As we were walking I noticed a cool rock formation off to the side of the path so Emily and I went to go explore it. When we finally went to get back on the trail we couldn’t find it, even with our lanterns, so we started yelling. After awhile we started loosing our voices so we had to stop. Then we heard something, I thought it was a squirrel but when we turned around I saw a raccoon about 2 ½ feet long and a tail about 1 foot long (ok maybe I am exaggerating a little, but it was huge!) We screamed and ran trying to find our camp. Eventually we ended up sleeping under a ledge in a rock away from the wind.

**__Day 4__**
The next morning I woke up not knowing where I was until I remembered last night. Then I sat up and hit my head on the low rock ledge that I was sleeping under. I rolled out from under the ledge to find Emily sleeping in the snow. //She must have gone outside in the middle of the night and couldn’t find her way back,// I thought. I ran over to her to wake her up so we could look for the path in the daylight. We found it a few yards away by a sign that said:

Private Property: No Fishing, Hunting, Or Trapping N013

Then we made our way back to camp. When we got there I couldn’t believe it was 10:00 a.m. already! We hurried to pack up our things to take back except the big things and the tent. On the way I told Emily to keep the getting lost part a secret. She agreed. We got back around 10:30 a.m. and had to answer a lot of questions like; how did you sleep and, did you see any bears and, what did you do? Then Emily had to get packed up because they were leaving today. After we said good bye to everyone on the Drewek side, my grandparents, my mom, dad, and sister piled into the car to go to Burlin. The drive was 1 ½ hours long! When we got there we went to a place called The Eco Museum. They had one exhibit on frogs and another one on global warming. My grandma bought me and Leah both T-shirts too! After we got done at the museum, we went to a restaurant called The Icehouse for lunch! When we got done with a 1 hour lunch, we went to my grandma’s step-moms house for a fancy “tea” around 4:00 p.m. She lived in Germany for a long time. In Germany they have “tea” around 4:00 p.m. every day and she still follows that tradition. When we got back it was already 6:30 p.m. and no one wanted to cook so we ate leftovers, fruit, tons of bread and peanut butter-filled pretzels. Finally we watched a movie called __The Point__ before we went to bed.

**__Day 5__**
To start off today me, Leah, mom and dad hiked to the top of one of the peaks in the mountain. The view of the mountains was beautiful from so high up and I wished I had a better camera to take pictures with. As we were going back down the hill, I noticed 3 deer standing in the thicket of trees at the other end of the pond. When we got back and changed into nicer cloths we went to a restaurant called Sugar and Spice. I had a waffle with strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream, and real Vermont maple syrup because that’s the only kind of syrup they sell. Next we went to a place called the Vermont Country Store. They sell everything from food to toys to medicine. Most things are old fashioned of course! Both Leah and I both got to choose a toy to take home. I chose a stuffed bird and Leah got a stuffed dog. When we got home we let the chickens out of their coop so they could get some fresh air because the cage hadn’t been cleaned all winter and it smelled a lot! For dinner that night we had pork tenderloin and beans. After dinner Leah wanted to watch a movie so we watched __Finding Nemo__. We also got ice cream with chocolate sauce and maple syrup.

**__Day 6__**
“Wake up” Leah whined jumping onto my bed. No point trying to sleep now I thought so I got up. When I was brushing my teeth I remembered something. We were going to celebrate Leah’s birthday today and we were also going to make things out of clay. With that thought, I finished up and clattered downstairs as quickly as I could. This was difficult since the house has really steep stairs. I was eating breakfast of eggs and toast when grandpa and grandma walked in the door. They said that they had to do a few errands but until they got back we could play with the dogs. Annie was especially energetic because she was in her crate all night. As soon as grandpa and grandma got back, they got the supplies and brought them down to the house we stayed in. I made a mouse, a shell and a hole for the mouse to live in. Leah made a turtle, dog tags, and little planets. Making things out of clay took awhile, so by the time I was satisfied with my mouse and everything else I made it was time for dinner. We had chili, cheese and home made bread for dinner that night. To celebrate Leah’s birthday we had ice cream cake. Leah also got presents. She received a toy called Bella Dancerella and a stuffed bear. I went to bed thinking of all the great things we did this week.

**__Day 7__**
Today we’re leaving. Time goes by so fast! All we had time for this morning was taking a picture on the steps. We had to get driving so that we could get to our hotel in time tonight. This was a great week!

=The End=