Musical Moreys: August 2010

We are here in Vermont!!! And it is BEAUTIFUL!!! Seriously, so green and lush and just really picturesque. See: (click on it to make it bigger)

Eli took this photo of Lake Champlain which is right next to Burlington.

We have loved our first week and a half here. We absolutely LOVE our apartment. It's so spacious and bright and welcoming. (I'll take pics later and post them once we are completely moved in.) There is a playground right out our backdoor which Tanner loves. We also have awesome friends who live next door and across the street - we feel so blessed to have them so close! We already feel at home here and have fallen in love with the city. My drive to the grocery store is like driving through the Rocky Mountains. It's just so green and hilly and untouched. I love it! And the area isn't as small town as I thought it would be. We have pretty much every store we could ever need and there are lots more people than I thought there would be.

Eli's school is in Burlington, which is the biggest city in Vermont. We live in a city 5 miles north of Burlington called Essex Junction. (I love the names of the cities out here like Winooski and Stowe and Waterbury!) I like being out of the "big" city because there is more greenery in our city than in Burlington. The bus picks Eli up right in front of our apartment and drops him off at the door to the medical school. Pretty sweet set up, doncha think?! He'll love that in the winter when he doesn't have to wipe off a buried car and drive in the snow. I'll be the one in my boots and coat getting the car ready to go to the grocery store!
We have played a lot in between unpacking. Here are some of the things we have done so far:

Meals with friends
Walks in the forest nearby (or fujist as Tan calls it)
A visit to a large farm nearby called Shelburne Farms. It is a working farm where you can see how cheese is made, watch cow milking demonstrations, etc. The farmhouse is over a hundred years old and is a beautiful structure. Check out the pictures at the end of the post! We even bought a season pass so that Tan and I can go play at the farm with our friends whenever we want!
Spent a day in Montreal, Canada. I felt like I was back in Europe! Everyone was speaking French, the signs were in French, and the buildings were in the European style. It was a fun city to explore and we'll be back lots more since the nearest temple is in Montreal. (We have to use a passport to go to the temple! Sa-weet!)
Tan and I walked around Church Street Marketplace which is a downtown pedestrian street with shops and restaurants. Right now there is an art thing going on with cows. There are statues of cows all over and companies decorated them however they wanted. Tanner's favorite thing was touching every single cow. I liked eating my nutella crepe as I people watched. (Vermont isn't stuck in the lastest fashion - it's pretty much just anything goes. I like that because I don't feel like I have to dress well to fit like I felt like in Salt Lake and Provo!)
BBQ's at the school and by Lake Champlain with Eli's classmates. They all adore Tanner. There is one other LDS family with kids in Eli's year and one family with kids the year above us (both live right by us). There are a couple other kids of students but not many so Tanner was a commodity and all the girls were tickling him and just doting over him. He totally turned on his flirt face around them!
Eli went through his first week of school which was orientation and today is his second day of actual classes! I'm a proud wifey! He's going to do great!

Enough chit chat, here are some pictures from Shelburne Farms, Montreal, and Church Street Marketplace!

Church Street Marketplace

This picture would look a lot better without the crane in it. If I was all powerful maybe I could have asked them to move. But I'm not so what can ya do?!