Jace's 15th Birthday Party

Jace's birthday this year fell on Thanksgiving. That has only happened one other time when Jace little. I think he remember the food more than the presents, because the next year, he asked if we were going to have that big dinner for his birthday again! So Jace - you finally got that big dinner for your birthday again!!!

Jace's Gifts -

wii remote, nun chucks and wheel -

wii Animal Crossing; City Folk -

Sweater -

Coat -

We didn't have any candles to put in the cherry pie (Jace's request instead of a cake) so my mom came up with a large taper candle for Jace to blow out!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration. We went to my parents home and David's parents and youngest sister and her boyfriend also came to dinner. My brother and his daughter also joined us. It was a fun family gathering!


We all scanned the ads while dinner was finishing cooking looking for those wonderful Black Friday sales!


My mom cooked the turkey and it turned out wonderful!


You can see Marissa and Brynn's new haircuts in this picture.


The family all sits down to dinner together.

Our Trip Back to Richland, WA

Well, I didn't update my blog the whole time we were in WA because we were so busy having fun with family and friends. We went out to dinner with friends, celebrated Thanksgiving and Jace's birthday, David went shooting, Deena went crafting and the kids played with friends - it was the perfect trip. I am already looking forward to returning in 16 days!

Marissa and Brynn had fun playing games with their Aunt Deborah after having a Sunday afternoon meal with family.

Blue Man Group

We had such a good time when we went to see the Blue Man Group! It was an awesome show!!! They do not allow you to take any pictures during the show. It was great though - It plays in a fairly small theater. We had seats on the third row! After the show, you can take pictures with one of the Blue Men.

Walden Pond

Today we went to visit Walden Pond. I was reading L. Tom Perry's talk in the November Ensign and he talked about what a beautiful and peacful place it was and then when I discovered it was only a 20 minute drive from our home, I decided it would be a great Sunday activity to go there and walk around.


It was really windy at the pond. It is a lot bigger than we thought it would be. We were going to hike around a bit, but it was so cold and windy, we only stayed about 15 minutes.


The kids stopped and threw some leaves in the air - it was a fun shot!


Jace took a picture of David and I at the spot were Thoreau built his cabin.

USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young

Today was a cloudy and rainy day but we decided to head out and go exploring anyway. It was an unusually warm day. At 10:30 at night, it is still 69 degrees. We took the T (subway) to the Aquarium stop and then hopped on the Transit Ferry to the other side of the harbor where the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young are docked.


USS Constitution - This ship turned 211 years old in October!


Jace has grown so tall that he could barely stand up on the lower deck.


Chaz posed with one of the cannons. They took 9-14 people to shoot them and they weigh as much as a small SUV.


Marissa and Brynn stood by the life preserver.

As soon as we were done touring the USS Constitution, we walked over to the next dock where the USS Cassin Young is also anchored.


Chaz and Jace posed with the USS Cassin Young life preserver.


Marissa and Brynn wanted to ring the bell, but the "ringer" was gone, so they settled for taking a picture with it!


All of the kids stood under the destroyers gun.


Jace is practicing his aim!


All of the kids looked really small when they pose next to this destroyer!

Salem, MA - Salem Witch Trials

David had yesterday off because of Veteran's Day, so we decided to drive to Salem, Ma and go tour some of the Salem Witch Trial museums.


Our first stop was at this Salem Witch Museum.


This is the first graveyard in Salem. The people that were hanged for witchcraft were not burried here because they were not allowed to have a Christian burial, but the judge that ordered their deaths is buried here.


Marissa and Chaz were so cold, that we had to stop and buy them some new sweatshirts!


We sent Marissa to the stocks!


Jace was locked up in jail!


Chaz the pirate!


Witch, Witch, Brynn's a Witch!

Ice Skating

I took Chaz, Marissa and Brynn ice skating with a homeschool group from Arlington, Ma. Jace decided not to go. I forgot my camera, so these pictures were taken with my phone, so they are pretty bad quality! The kids all had a really good time and said that they would like to go again.

There is an iceskating pond in Boston Commons Park which is about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. It opens up soon, so we will be going there as well!

Children's Museum

I took all of the kids to the Boston Children's Museum yesterday. We had a good time. All of the kids played chess on the large board. Two of the pieces were missing, so Chaz and Jace played the game and Marissa and Brynn "stood in" for the 2 missing pieces.


When the boys were done with the pieces, they put them on the shelves, so when Marissa was captured, she sat on the shelf with the pieces!


When we were done playing chess, the boys left the museum to wander around the water district of Boston. The girls and I stayed for a couple more hours.

There is one whole room at the museum that has a couple of "water play" activities. The girls like playing the water. The smocks did not keep them totally dry!




There is a whole room dedicated to Japan and their culture. The girls were able to dress up in Kimons and pretend to be in a play.

The Center for Future Banking

As most of you know, we moved here for David's work. He is working on a joint project with Bank of America and M.I.T called the Center for Future Banking. He has an office in the Media Lab at M.I.T and in Boston at the Bank of America building. He travels between both offices daily.

This week, the Center for Future Banking launched their website. David is featured on the front page of the website.


http://cfb.media.mit.edu/

Chaz's 17th Birthday

We celebrated Chaz's 17th birthday a little late this year. Chaz went to Washington for his birthday to celebrate with his other family and friends. The boys got back here on Wednesday, but it was "Sponsor Week" at M.I.T. for David, so he had a dinner to go to Wednesday and Thursday night and then Friday was Halloween, so we celebrated on Saturday!

Chaz chose Famous Dave's for his birthday dinner. It was pretty good, but I think the one in Washington State is better. Everything (except traffic) moves at a little bit of a slower pace here. Sometimes it is hard to remember to just slow down and be patient!


Chaz and Jace played their games while we waited to be seated. When we first got to Famous Dave's - we were excited because they weren't busy at all. So it took about 2 minutes for a waitress to come and let us know that they were getting a table ready for us. Then, she came back about 4 minutes later to let us know that it would be about 10 minutes because they were so busy. David and I actually looked at each other and laughed! There were about 10 empty tables and maybe 8 full tables. Around here a family of 6 is huge!!! The waitress said that the servers had to get the table ready and then be ready for us. So we waited the 10 minutes and then were seated. It took our waitress about 5 minutes to get us water and another 10 minutes to come and take our order! Then it took about 30 minutes to get the food! We kept reminding ourselves, that everything moves slower on this side of the country!


All the kids at Famous Dave's BBQ.

Chaz's Gifts:

All of the kids play tennis here a couple of times a week. The rackets that we have are actually real antiques! They were my mom's. She started playing tennis before I was even born!!! So, Chaz got a new racket all his own!


For anyone who knows Chaz, they know how much he loves music. We got him a gift card for 15 music downloads from i-tunes plus $40 cash to purchase a new game he wants. David and I couldn't find the game for sale, so we figured he could either buy it or rent quite a few games with the money.


When we first moved to Boston, Chaz started watching the Stargate DVD's that I got for David for Christmas last year. He really liked them, so he asked for Stargate Atlantis Season 1 to start his own collection with.


Again, for Chaz's love of music we got him a new set of headphones. He goes through a pair every couple of months, so I bought him the same kind that I have. They are the only kind that I like now that I have tried them! They are called Skull Candy.