Flat Stanley

Last week, we had a fun visitor! Clayton's friend from Vegas, Jessie Day, had to send Flat Stanley to someone in a different state for her preschool class. For those of you who don't know what (or who) Flat Stanley is, it is a children's book about a boy who gets flattened by a falling bulliten board and then travels the country in the mail and learns about all different states and cultures, etc. We got to have him for two weeks before sending him back to Vegas. We had to take him all over town to see and do authentic "Vermont" things. It was a lot of fun. Everytime we left the house, Clayton would ask me if Flat Stanley could come. It was pretty cute. So here are some pictures of the things that we did with him (Clayton and Flat Stanley are pretty small and hard to find in some of these pics, it's kind of a "Where's Waldo" thing):
We took Flat Stanley to UVM to see where Justin goes to school. It is such a pretty campus. It's very green and the buildings (well, some of them) are really old and very cool! We also went to Battery Park because it has an amazing lookout over Lake Champlain (it also has a really great park). I love Lake Champlain. You can take a ferry across the lake and it takes you into New York. I think that's awesome!
We also took him to our favorite place in downtown Burlington, Echo Aquarium!

We also took Flat Stanley to the boardwalk. It was such a great day to go! The weather was gorgeous!
Clayton wanted to walk on the docks. He was fasinated with all the planks and ropes! He kept running without watching where he was going. It's a wonder he didn't fall into the lake!!
This is a view from one of the docks. The boardwalk and downtown Burlington are behind him.
We also took Flat Stanley to the park with us. Noah had a great time trying to bury him in the sand!
Finally, we took Flat Stanley to one of the Ben & Jerry's scoop shops around town. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is based in Vermont and we love it. I had to put this pic in because these employees were so great! They thought it was so cool that we were doing the "Flat Stanley" thing that they gave Clayton and me free ice cream!!!

Here is Clayton and Flat Stanley enjoying their free ice cream (mmm, New York Super Fudge Chunk)! I wanted Clayton to pretend to give Flat Stanley a bite but he looked at me and said "Mom, Flat Stanley can't have a bite. He doesn't open his mouth!" I guess he told me!

Here is our family with Flat Stanley on his last night in town. Noah wasn't too happy to sit for the picture (he wanted to get back to eating Clayton's leftover ice cream).

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of Vermont through Flat Stanley's eyes! Perhaps it will inspire some of you to want to experience it in person! I really love living here. If it weren't for the freezing winters and the fact that my family was on the other side of the country, I would seriously consider spending the rest of our lives here.
It was so great having Flat Stanley visit. Thanks Natalie and Jessie for sending him out to us!! We hope he had as great of a time as we did!