April of 2019 brought about some pretty big changes for our family. We officially moved to Vermont and Chris and I both celebrated milestone birthdays!
Knowing nothing about the area of Burlington and being a bit shocked at the high housing costs, we took a bit of a risk and rented a 2-BR apartment in the little town of Winooski super close to Chris’s office. In fact, we could see his building from our living room! Apartment living in a (little) city is a new adventure for us and you know we love challenging ourselves… you’ll have to stay tuned to see how it plays out.
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| Uncle Dan & Aunt Naomi were kind enough to host us on our drive up north. It’s always so nice to see them. |
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| Uncle Dan shows off his xylophone skills. |
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| Arriving in Vermont! You can see how happy Ellie is to be on this VERY long road trip… |
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| The light was so beautiful as we came into Vermont. It gave us hope for a fantastic experience here. |
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| The kids check out the view from the new place. |
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| Such beautiful light flooded the apartment. |
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| What happens when your stuff hasn’t arrived yet and your kids are SUPER bored. |
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| I can’t tell if he’s smiling because he thinks he can pack her up and ship her off, or because it’s just fun to play in boxes… |
On April 7, I turned 40. Spending my birthday in a new place with no friends or family to celebrate with, utter chaos in my living space, and cold temperatures outside was not exactly what I had in mind when I envisioned that milestone day. However, my little family is just my favorite and they always make me feel loved and special.
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| Happy birthday to me! |
We spent part of the day driving on the scenic Route 100 that runs north and south the length of Vermont. Chris downloaded a really neat app that used your location to give you fun facts about wherever you were. Such a neat way to learn things about our new area! When we got to Morrisville, we took a short walk on a rails-to-trails path that ran through the little town.
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| How cute is this sign?! |
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| My sweet kiddos. |
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| Ellie insisted on walking “in the snow” which was okay because the rest was mud. |
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| Looking forward to more of these walks when it’s warmer and greener, but I’m always thrilled to be among the trees. |
In honor of our big birthdays, we took a weekend trip to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I had never been to Canada before and it turns out we are super close to the border–a half hour. Jinkies.
Montreal is about 1 1/2 – 2 hours away depending on the time spent at the border crossing and it is such a beautiful city. I can see us traveling there pretty often.
*If you come to visit us, be sure to bring your passport, just in case.
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| James and I walking through the old section of Montreal. Love the light and color in this picture. |
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| The kids and I in front of the beautiful Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. |
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| LOVE this picture of Chris and Ellie. 💕 |
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| My sweet loves all bundled up to walk to the viewpoint at Parc du Mont-Royal. |
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Enjoying a cold spring day hike in the park.
Leave it to James to “need” a walking stick on a paved path. |
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| Shenk Family selfie with the beautiful city of Montreal behind us. |
Back in the real world, we unpacked and settled in to our new life in Vermont. The kids adjusted to sharing a room and we all worked at functioning well together in 1,000 square feet.
On April 29, Chris turned 40. We got dressed up and had a wonderful dinner at
Waterworks, a restaurant right across the street from our apartment that sits on the Winooski River.
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| The birthday boy and his sweet kiddos. |
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| Ellie takes in the view of the river and coincidentally Chris’s office building which was an old mill. |
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| James took this picture of us and I love it so much! Not too bad for 40. |
