It's official! Gabe is now a Master at the Fine Art of Creative Writing! Gabe graduated from Goddard College in Vermont this past weekend, receiving his MFA in Creative Writing. We had a wonderful time. It was great to finally meet the professors and friends Gabe has been talking about for the last two years. Here are some (a lot) of pictures from our time there, along with some explanations:
In the airport, just hanging out:
Ellis is a FANTASTIC traveler! Our doctor told us to bring along Benadryl in case Ellis was bothered by the pressure changes. I bought some but found once I was home that it says not to give it to children under the age of 4. So because I didn't know what the proper dosage would be for her, I left it home and crossed my fingers. She did splendidly traveling all day---without the help of medicine---thank goodness!
Here is Ellis' travel bed (thanks Amanda :) all set up. We
brought along her monitor and she slept great every night.
Our hotel was laughably lackluster, as shown by the "art" hanging in our room. This photograph is exactly what the actual picture looked like-- a faded or overexposed, enlarged picture of a mushroom.
On Saturday we toured the capitol of Montpelier, as well as a
Maple Syrup farm. You'll start to notice a theme developing...
Gabe in his element:
Your first clue to the theme (and we used our sling SOOOO much--thank you, Amy :):
Second clue (also it's us in front of their capitol building):
Have any guesses? Here is a MAJOR clue:
I call this one "Four Steeples" --see them all?:
Ummm...Have you figured it out yet?
Here is Ellis in the car waiting patiently for the rain to stop so we could tour the Maple Syrup farm: 
Gabe in a barn during our self-guided "tour" of the Maple Syrup farm (the rain didn't stop):
Maple syrup man...a little creepy...
A barn window full of different syrups:
As part of graduation, Gabe had to do a 10ish minute long
public reading of an excerpt from his book. Here he is just
before or just after, I can't remember which. It was fun to
hear people come up to Gabe on campus later throughout the
weekend and give him great feedback. I was one proud wifey.
WE WENT TO BEN & JERRY'S!!! It was a delicious place to be.
We saw where they make the ice-cream and learned all about the
company's history and such.
Gabe and the peanut:
The theme continues:
Still sleeping...
At least Gabe and I had fun...
Here's our family photo at the entrance to campus, and yes, she's sleeping:
A funny face for her Daddio:
This is Gabe addressing one of his advisors during his graduation speech. Each graduate speaks for 2-3 minutes during the ceremony. It was very personal and fun to listen to. Of course I cried when Gabe was up:
The graduate with his wife and {sleeping} baby:
Heading home:
I took a zillion pictures of the BEAUTIFUL campus, so I'll either post them tomorrow or put them up on Flickr. And despite how much Ellis slept through our sight-seeing, she was awake to experience much of our weekend away. We must have really worn her out because she slept through all three of our flights yesterday, slept on the drive home from the airport, came home and slept until 7pm--ate---slept until 9pm---ate---slept until 5 am---ate---slept until 7am---ate---slept...and she's sleeping again as I write this!
It was a great first family trip!
Our three year anniversary dinner at the Bent Noodle---where we had our first date, our wedding rehearsal dinner, and every anniversary dinner since----first anniversary we were joined by a third.
