Silver Lake.

 With the a slight chance of a snowflake or two in the upcoming forecast I find myself super relieved that we made it to Silver Lake before winter rears its beautiful head!  I mean I love a snowy hike, but this particular forested path deserves some autumn attention if you know what I mean.  It also deserves to be shared with friends!

Our friends Chris and Corrie and their friend Kerry, with a K, brought their little ones along to kick fallen leaves and breathe the fresh Addison County air...oh my.

We all know that this lovely state is known for its picturesque scenery no matter the season.  However, autumn proves to paint a picture so beautiful it attracts these...

 Leaf Peepers!  Aren't they cute??

After some joking around, Chris and his weary back inspired some off the mat yoga...  I thought it was sweet that the littler ones responded right away!

It seems that the year spent at *At One did sink in a bit.  Thinking we need to revisit this beautiful practice...

...and Noah is always quick to share with an even smaller one than he.

After all that fine hiking and yoga breaks, the great outdoors always requires a delicious lunch. For me this means: 

Whole Grain Bread
Lettuce

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Avocado

Pesto

Pictured here...

 The lake brought a bit of wind to our picnic and I did a lot of cuddling with Mr. Witt and little Witts.  We threw some rocks in the water and quickly began down the trail towards home...

Thank you for having us, favorite lake o' mine...  See you next year!

Top Ten Things I Heart About Hiking

The aroma of the earth dense with green

Inhaling bona fide oxygen 

looking up

rediscovering the connectedness of all living things

watching the children see it as well

Gabi finding her woodland legs

 water breaks and pushing on

walking with the Mr.

the views

and making it to the top, all together.

#11.  Seeing someone we know at the top.  I am finding more and more that Vermont, well...

it makes ya famous!

Shelburne Farms...

My goodness this place is breath taking... 

I can hardly believe that we managed to move a mile down the road from one of the loveliest farms this fine state has to offer... jeez!

The junior Witts have been attending camp here this summer, how lucky are they??  This week is themed 'A Week at Hogwarts'... 

 WHAT?  So jealous of them, more on that to come....

Due to there unique understanding of the farm and its day to day shenanigans, they were excited to show us around.  I was so glad that Kylee and Kris were here for the very thorough tour too!

 

We rode in on what I call the lazy truck. 

I call(ed) it that because I am usually running when it drives by and I am **haboobed by the dust it kicks up!  I made fun of it on the way over and we all agreed to walk to the farm barn... but then, when we got there and saw it, well it looked like a lot of fun!  So I no longer call it names, I just hold my breath as it passes by and smile.

**Haboob is a new term that we have all recently learned thanks to bizarre dust storms in AZ.

 Gabrielle could not wait to introduce us to the ever so sweet baby goats Honey and Crisp.  They are extra special to little Gabi Goose because they were born on June 21st; her birthday and the 

summer solstice.

One of them was particularly fond of Noahs fingers.

These chores are up daily for children and adults to come and enjoy!  We  have a yearly membership and can participate anytime.  Though I do not recommend feeding these...

They stink!

Next up on the tour de witt; a hike to whimsy meadow.  Can you imagine such a place?  Noah says it is straight out of Alice in Wonderland....

Um, which way??

Oh, Phew!  Thanks guys!

Sadly, and gladly, I was so taken with whimsy meadow and all of its wonders I failed to take one picture.  After many twists and turns we found our way in, and then out, and then to this quaint little bench...

overlooking this beautiful vista...

Did I mention I love this place?  Well I do.  So very much.

 We made our way back to the Farm Barn.



Noah and Gabi were insisting on a climb to the top of the clock tower.



They assured us that they had already been up there, like oh my gosh, you haven't??



But it was a tad warm and the older people were feeling like a cold beverage!




So we settled for a peak at the school they attend...

Noah ended our tour with a speech.  He made sure that to tell us that he knows we have a lot of choices out there but wanted to thank us for choosing Witt... now where have I heard that one before???

thanks darlings!!

and for the record... this is what the farm looks like early in the morning, before any of the people are up...

see these lovelies... heavenly.