Living in Boston

Catering to Kids!

2009-06-22T10:23:00.001-04:00

I am not the kind of mom who usually caters to my kids different food "wants". But, last Thursday was the last day that the boys would be in Boston before they went back to WA for the summer.

So, we headed out of the apartment and started walking to each one of the places that the kids and I wanted to pick up lunch at.

Deena - Finagle a Bagel - Tuna Melt on a Bagel
Marissa - Au Bon Pain - Chicken Noodle Soup
Brynn - Subway - Cheese and Tomato Sandwich (weird, I know!)
Chaz and Jace - Viva Burrito - Steak and Chicken Burritos

Then we stopped at Tadeshi's (like a 7-11) for a 2-Liter of Rootbeer...Round trip it took about 40 minutes, but we had fun just walking and talking through the streets of Boston!

We spent the rest of the day playing the wii and hanging out playing board games!

Critter Hunting!

2009-06-16T11:37:00.005-04:00

My girls love critters of all shapes and sizes! In the last couple of years we have had, 60 rabbits, 16 chickens, 10 cavies (guinea pigs), 3 dogs, 2 hamsters and 1 very large and loud bird! We had paired down quite a few of our animals and before we moved to Boston we had to give away all of our rabbits and cavies. But my girls love for animals of all kind have never wavered!

So, when we went camping last weekend, the girls went on the hunt for some animals that they could call their pets for the weekend.

Marissa and Brynn's friend Laura went hunting with them.

The first catch of many~

My Parents Trip to Boston - Day #6 - Final Day

2009-06-10T11:15:00.007-04:00

My parent's 6th and final day in Boston was Sunday, so we didn't go out touring the city, but we did play some fun games on the wii - even Grandma and Grandpa played!

Jace and Grandma playing tennis on the wii~

Jace and Grandpa playing tennis on the wii~

Brynn and David boxing on the wii~

It was so funny to watch everyone boxing on the wii! I took this video of Jace and my dad boxing - how funny!

My Parents Trip to Boston - Day #5

2009-06-10T10:32:00.009-04:00

Ok, only 2 more days to post! Needless to say, we were very busy while they were here and we all had a good time. Day #5 was Saturday, so the whole family was available to tour around with us.

The first place we drove to was Walden Pond. It is near Concord, MA only about 25 minutes from downtown Boston. It is a really beautiful and peaceful place, I can see why Thoreau would want to live there!

My parents in front of a replica of Thoreau's cabin.

Marissa inside the cabin at a replica of Thoreau's writing desk.

Chaz and Jace with Grandma and Grandpa in front of Walden Pond.

The kids in the woods surrounding Walden Pond.

After leaving Walden Pond we drove through the town of Concord to go see where the Revolutionary War started.

The first shots were fired across this bridge - The Shot Heard 'Round the World~

Monuments to the people who died in the first battle of the Revolutionary War.

After touring this historical site we dropped Chaz and Jace off at a friends birthday party and then we headed to Cape Cod.

We decided to stop in the town of Plymouth and do a little sight seeing. We went to see Plymouth Rock. It really is just a little rock!

We then visited the Mayflower II - a replication of the Mayflower.

What a fun and exhausting day!

My Parents Trip to Boston - Day #4

2009-06-09T10:49:00.020-04:00

I am slowly getting all of these pictures posted! My next goal is to make a DVD for my parents with all of the pictures. If you have used a program that you like to do this with, send me a note and let me know about it!

After spending a whole day in NYC, plus 9 hours traveling to and from there, you would think that we would take it easy on my parent's 4th day in Boston, but you would be wrong!!!

I didn't take any pictures of our morning activities, but Marissa, David and my Dad all headed to the farmers market and got some salmon, asparagus and baby potatoes to make for dinner. Brynn my mom and I all took the long drive to the Super Joanns that is 35 miles from my house. It is such a fun, huge store!

We all reconvened together later in the afternoon to go on a Duck Boat tour. Duck Boats are amphibian vehicles that can go 50 miles an hour on land and 6 miles and hour in water. What a fun way to see Boston!

We bought duck whistles so we could quack while we were on the duck boat!

We got to see a lot of great Boston sights and architecture.

Then we splashed into the water!

Marissa and Brynn each got a chance to drive the Duck Boat.

After another fun tour around Boston we headed home and David and my Dad cooked us dinner - it was delicious!

Every evening the kids played a card game called 3 Up with Grandma and Grandpa.

My Parents Trip to Boston - Day #3

2009-06-08T23:15:00.007-04:00

After 2 days of touring around Boston, we got on the China Bus and headed for New York City for another fun-filled day of sightseeing!

Time's Square~

We took the double decker tour bus all around NYC.

One of my favorite buildings in NYC - The Flat Iron Building

The architecture in NYC is amazing!

We took the Staten Island Ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty~

My parents Trip to Boston - Day #2

2009-06-08T11:09:00.011-04:00

Our first adventure was to head down to Boston Commons Park and to go on a walking tour around Boston called The Freedom Trail. Our guide dresses up and acts like a person who lived during the time before and during the Revolutionary War. There is so much history here, I have loved being a part of it!

The kids and I had taken this same walking tour in October last year, so Brynn was the only one who decided to join us. It was fun for her to get to spend some one on one time alone with Grandma and Grandpa. In this picture, she is sitting my Paul Revere's grave and listening to our guide tell about the famous ride of Paul Revere.

My parents and Brynn by Paul Revere's grave. You can see all of the little rocks on top of the grave. This is a Jewish tradition. We typically bring flowers to a grave to honor someone. In the Jewish tradition, they bring a rock from somewhere that is special to them and leave it on the grave of someone to honor them.

Brynn and I at the grave of Samuel Adams, another revolutionary hero.

After we finished with the tour we met Chaz, Jace and Marissa at Quincy Market for lunch and then we left to take a ferry trip over to see the USS Constitution. It is the oldest commissioned warship that is still afloat.

My parents Trip to Boston - Day #1

2009-06-08T09:32:00.012-04:00

I have been very remiss this last week in posting anything to the blog. But, I have a good excuse! My parents came all the way from WA State to visit us in Boston! We had such a blast and we did so many activities that by the time the evening was here and I would normally blog about the days adventures, I was just too dang tired!!!

So, in my next couple of posts, I am going to post some of the pictures of our week long adventures. We accomplished a lot in 6 short days!

One of the best ways to see Boston is on one of the fun trolley tours! There is a trolley stop about a block from our apartment, so it is a fun and convenient way to get to see all of the sites! Marissa and Brynn joined us as we toured our way around Boston.

We got to see a lot of great sites like Boston Commons Park and Fenway Park.

This is a cool monument in Boston Commons Park.

We visited the Old Statehouse. This building was built before this land was even a country yet! Now it is run as a museum.

Old North Church~

There is a beautiful courtyard behind Old North Church that I like to walk through. It is a very peaceful part of the city.

Our next stop was the New State House. I think it is funny that it is called the New Statehouse since it was built in the 1800's!

Our last stop of the day was to see The Paul Revere House museum. It was interesting to see how small the house was considering that Paul Revere had 11 children that lived past infancy.

An Amazing Sunset

2009-06-01T12:40:00.002-04:00

We have a LOT of beautiful sunsets here! From our living room window, we get to watch the spectacular show almost every evening. When they are extra special, one of the kids will always say, "Take a picture!"

This is the sunset from a couple of nights ago...

Geese in the Park

2009-05-31T12:33:00.000-04:00

I went to the park with a couple of ladies from my church. As we sat and chatted and watched the sun set, a family of geese floated down the river and then picked the spot right next to us to get out of the water and come catch some bugs! What a cute sight!

Amazing Street Performers!

2009-05-26T13:19:00.004-04:00

We live in an area of Boston that is relatively close to an open air market. We have gotten to see some pretty cool performances by various street performers.

I have to say that the drummers are always my favorite. I absolutely love to watch them play their "drums". The music that they are able to make is amazing! The sound quality of the video isn't perfect, but it will give you an idea of how cool he was!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T19:02:00.007-04:00

David had today off of work for Memorial Day, so after we had a lazy morning hanging around the house, we decided to head out of the apartment and see what we could find to do in the city!

We live in such a technical world and my children are technical children! I had to take a picture of them as we headed out of the apartment. They all had their ipods!

This is the view about 1 block north of our apartment. I love this bridge! It reminds me of the Cable Bridge in Kennewick.

We kept heading along the boardwalk around the bay. We saw a whole bunch of really cool looking jelly fish, but they wouldn't show up on my camera. When Brynn said there were jelly fish in the water, we all thought she was crazy at first - but they were there!

We got to see a really big Norwegian Frigate the Roald Amundsen.

Then we headed over to The Paul Revere House. It was a really neat to see a house set up from this era. We also got to see a lot of items that Paul Revere created while he was a Silver Smith.

The lunch time munchies hit us and we headed over the The Hard Rock Cafe. We got to learn a lot about Rock and Roll history as well as eat a great lunch!

A Fruitful Day at the Farmer's Market

2009-05-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

It was a a fruitful day at the Farmer's Market (pun intended!). I have talked about the Farmer's Market in the Hay Market area a couple of time's on here before. We try to go to the market every weekend. The variety and price is amazing!

Here is what we got for just under $15.00.

We got:
4 lbs. of bananas
3 lbs. of baker potatoes
6 granny smith apples
2 lbs. of baby carrots
8 oranges
1 honey dew melon
6 sweet corn
1 container of strawberries
2 containers of raspberries
2 cucumbers
1 basket of cherry tomatoes (was fuller before Brynn started eating them!)
3 lbs. of snap peas

Sometimes we get more creative and get star fruit, papayas and pineapple, but we stuck with the basics this week. I will really miss the Boston Farmer's Market when we move!

A Day at the Beach

2009-05-21T22:50:00.006-04:00

Today hit 91 degrees, so the kids and I decided that it was the perfect day to check out one of the beaches near Boston! Revere Beach is located about 4 miles north of Boston. Revere Beach was the first public beach in the US and was founded is 1896.

I love this photo - I think it's pretty cool with the seagull in the background!

The girls spent a lot of time trying to build some sand castles.

The boys even pitched in for awhile.

The boys spent most of their time braving the waves!

Getting some sun~

A perfect day at the beach!

Enjoying Dinner on the Balcony!

2009-05-19T18:32:00.003-04:00

The weather has been gorgeous here the last couple of days. I think Spring has finally sprung! It is supposed to hit 90 on Thursday - maybe we are heading straight to summer!

Brynn and Marissa have been eating their meals on the balcony the last couple of days. They love to sit and eat and watch the cars on the road and the boats on the river!

I Have a New Niece - Sarah Lillian Price!

2009-05-18T12:22:00.002-04:00

My sister-in-law had a baby yesterday! We are so excited to be able to welcome Sarah Lillian Price into the family!

Both Deborah and Sarah are doing well. Sarah has had a few breathing problems, so she is spending some extra time in with the nurses, but she is doing great now!

Look at all that hair!!!

The Carousel at Boston Commons Park

2009-05-14T12:54:00.007-04:00

Today Marissa, Brynn and I went to Boston Commons Park and met up with some friends of mine from church to play at the park and ride the carousel.

We played at the Frog Pond.

After the kids were done playing at the park, we headed over to ride the carousel!

We stopped to take this picture on our way out of the park. Boston was founded in 1630.

The Fabulous Celtics Game

2009-05-13T09:53:00.005-04:00

I have been very spoiled this week! I have gotten to go see two amazing championship teams in one week!

For everyone who knows that I NEVER wear t-shirts, I have broken my own rule twice now. You just can't attend a game here in Boston without wearing a team t-shirt! I also wore a ball cap to hide my hair that needs coloring!

We decided to go see the Celtics play again last night. They were in the same situation as the Bruins - where they needed to win this game or they were out of the running for the championships.

What an AMAZING game!!! They were 5-12 points behind until about the last 4 minutes on the clock (20 minutes of play time). They pulled ahead and the crowd was on their feet and we never sat down. The sounds was truly defining!!! I took the video on my camera, so it's not perfect - but you can feel the excitement in the air!!!

The Amazing Bruins Game!

2009-05-11T21:33:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, I got to go to an amazing Bruins game! The game was really high tempo because if they didn't win, they were out of the running for the Stanley Cup! They rocked the ice!!!

LIGHT THE LAMP!!! We all had Yellow towels and every time the Bruins scored a goal we would shout and wave our yellow towels and Light the Lamp!

There was a lot of good hockey and a few great fights!

Hockey fans are very passionate! There was one call that was made, that was so bad that people started throwing things on the ice. The refs reviewed the tape and reversed the call!

Happy Mother's Day to Me

2009-05-10T21:06:00.001-04:00

I had an awesome Mother's Day weekend. I have such a thoughtful husband and children that they really made me feel special! On Saturday, David and I got up early and went downstairs to the Etc. Cafe for a marvelous breakfast. Then we headed back upstairs and woke the girls up. After we all got ready to go, David and the girls dropped me off to get my nails done and to get a pedicure while they went shopping for me.

After I was done getting pampered, David met me at the salon and we headed to one of my favorite places to get lunch - The Paris Crepery! We had crepe wraps for lunch and then headed back to the apartment for a much needed nap!

We spent the evening watching movies and ordered in Chinese food. When we woke up Sunday morning, the girls sang a Mother's Day song to me and then cooked me a fabulous breakfast!

Marissa and Brynn made me the neatest gift! They definitely got my "crafty genes"!

David also got me some awesome new craft stuff. Chaz and Jace are back in WA visiting family right now, but I got to speak with them on the phone. I have such an amazing family!

Women's Conference Weekend

2009-05-05T12:54:00.006-04:00

Wow - what a weekend...(it was actually 5 fabulous days!). This last weekend was our annual Women's Conference in Provo, UT. Diana (my mother-in-law) and I go every year and we are always excited when other people are able to join us. This year Dara (my sister-in-law) was also able to come!

We were able to attend lots of classes and we heard some amazing speakers! I am always amazed at the powerful feeling of joining with so many other women all for the purpose of gaining knowledge.

Here is a picture of one of the first classes we attended -

The Silly Side of Women's Conference -
I have to admit that when all of us women get away from our kids and the responsibilities of being a mom for awhile, we get a little silly!

There was no garbage in our room, so I designated this drawer as our garbage drawer. Dara thought it was so gross that I had to take a picture of it!

The last night that we were staying in the dorms, we decided that we wanted to watch a new movie that I had bought, but...we didn't have a tv in our room. So....we high-jacked a TV from the rec-room downstairs and put it in our room. Dara moved her bed in our room and we had a sleep-over!

I rented a car for us to drive while we were running around Provo. I didn't know that we would get such a cute little sports car....emphasis on little! Dara rode in the back and had to be "let out" by someone every time we stopped because there were only 2 doors. One time I decided to tease her and take a picture...she was yelling, let me out!

Dara decided that it would be easier to climb in the trunk of the car instead of through the door.

Happy 10th Birthday Brynn!

2009-05-04T22:00:00.009-04:00

Today is Brynn's 10th birthday and I just realized that all of my kids are in the "double digits" now! Wow - where did the time go???

Brynn chose to go to Chuck E Cheese for her birthday. We all had a good time and the food was even better than we expected.

Hanging out at Chuck E Cheese -

Playing Games and Winning Tickets!

Chaz and Jace gave all of the tickets that they earned to Brynn for her birthday. She had a blast picking out her prizes!

Brynn and her gifts -

Littlest Pet Shop -

Pink Scrapbook Kit - I got Marissa a blue scrapbook kit so we can all make scrapbooks together!

I made each of the girls a decorated wooden letter. I really like how they turned out!

Brynn loves to play with her Barbies!

Marissa gave Brynn a cross stitch kit, some candy, body spray, and a ceramic horse she painted for her.

Brynn loves webkinz and chapstick!

Brynn loves cute skirt outfits. When I saw this one, I just knew that Brynn needed to have it!

Brynn loves to make cards and crafts, so I got her some of her own supplies to get started!

Happy 11th Birthday Marissa!!!

2009-04-24T18:57:00.002-04:00

Marissa says that she had the best birthday ever! I took her shopping for some new clothes and a new swimsuit and then we went out to lunch.

We have a tradition that on our kids birthday they get to pick where they want to go out to dinner. After David got home we went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Then we headed to the theater to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D.

Then we hopped on the subway to head back to our apartment and open gifts.

Marissa had never seen chapsticks quite this big! I am hoping their large size will keep them out of my wash!

Marissa's favorite color is blue, so I couldn't resist getting her this cute blue webkinz hippo.

New t-shirt, sweater and leggings.

I made Marissa an "M" to hang above her bed. I really like how it turned out! Instructions for Tutorial

Brynn got Marissa a package of M&M's, Tic-Tacks and she painted her a porcelain dog.

Scrapbook Kit...In blue of course!

Littlest Pet Shop Horse -

My crafter in the making...Stamp pad cleaner and cleaning solution and a set of 30 inks and 15 brush tip markers.

Chaz got Marissa 4 new books -

Jace made a coupon for each of the girls for a slurpee!

Happy 11th Birthday Marissa!!!

Easter

2009-04-23T18:45:00.001-04:00

I know that Easter was a couple of weeks ago, but I am back in Boston and I finally have time to sit down and post these pictures! Each of the kids got a new beach towel, a pool toy, a new movie and various Easter candies.

Washington Trip and Time Out for Women...Long Overdue

2009-04-23T17:50:00.002-04:00

This post is long overdue! I hadn't planned on posting anything to my blog while we were back in WA state...so I didn't, but a lot happened while we were there. Here's a quick synopsis.

~We stopped over in the Seattle area to visit Nathaniel and Dara and Dan and Susan. We had a great time and the kids all got to hang out together. Susan, Dara and I all went to Time Out for Women together - it was a blast.

After that we headed to Tri-Cities and David and I decided that we wanted to look at some houses for sale in the same price range as the house that we were planning on building out in Badger Canyon. We contacted our Realtor and drove by about 45 houses and walked through 22 of them. We weren't really planning on finding one that we would fall in love with, but it happened...

Link to New House
It has everything that we want plus more. We are excited at the thought of having a pool and a basketball court plus 2 acres!

At that point we decided we needed to extend our trip for 2 more weeks and get our home on the market. So after lots of painting and some cleaning up - We got our home up for sale as well! If all goes well, our house will sell and we will get to purchase the new house and move straight into it when we move back to WA in July. Link to our Current House Our house is the 2nd one down from the top.

We had a crazy trip and with lots of help from family and friends we were able to get 3 months of work done in 3 weeks!

Maple Sugaring

2009-03-09T10:43:00.008-04:00

On Saturday, the weather was a balmy 50 degrees, so we took Marissa and Brynn (Chaz and Jace were taking some classes at M.I.T.) and headed North to go learn how maple syrup is made. It was an awesome day!

We learned how to tell if a tree was a Sugar Maple. Marissa and Brynn got to help the leader with her demonstration.

We learned the different ways that are used to collect the maple sap. They can use tubing and gravity with a large collection bin or individual pails.

We also learned how you drill a hole in the sugar maple tree to be able to collect the sap. A tree needs to be at least 40 years old before you can drill your first hole!

We then hiked up to the "Sugar Shack" where they use a boiling process to make the sugar maple sap into maple syrup. Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup???

At the end of the tour, we got to go into the barn and they had lunch for sale. They had hot dogs that they boiled in the maple sap (97% water, 3% sugar), so it gave the hot dogs a slight maple taste - they were delicious!

Of course, we had to buy a bottle of real maple syrup before we left!

A Brisk Walk to Mike's Pastries

2009-03-04T15:10:00.005-05:00

After dinner last night, I had a craving for a delicious pastry from Mike's Pastries! This shop is famous all over the country - they are amazing!

The girls played in the snow while we walked to Little Italy.

We all picked out a pastry and then headed home!

Shopping in the Underground Black Market Purse Shops of NYC

2009-03-03T15:53:00.003-05:00

If you know me, you know I love purses - ok, maybe that's an understatement - I LOVE purses! So, ever since we have been living in Boston, I have had people tell me that I have to go buy purses in China Town in NY. They sell lots of great "knock offs". I am not at all a "purse snob". I don't go specifically for brands, I just love a really cute purse.

When we took the boys to NYC this weekend, I just had to go check out the underground purse markets! It was pretty crazy!!! The people that want to sell you purses just come up to everyone and ask if they would like to buy a purse. David told one of them yes, and she asked us to follow her. We followed her pretty deep into China Town and then she went to this very non-discript door and unlocked it. We walked down a very narrow hallway to another door that took us down a very steep flight of stairs, where she unlocked a little room filled with purses. I bargained with her for awhile and ended up with these 3 cute purses!

Knock Off Gucci

Knock Off Dooney &Bourke

Knock off Coach

NYC with the Boys

2009-03-02T20:55:00.010-05:00

We flew Trent; one of the boy's friends, in from WA to come and spend 5 days and hang out with us. Yesterday, we took all of the boys to New York City to spend the day. We had a blast!

We started out by taking the Chinese bus, called the Fung Wah bus from China Town in Boston to China Town in New York.

We rode the subway all over town. The NY subway is WAY more complicated than the Boston subway, but we figured it out - for the most part!

One of the first things we did was to head out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty.

When we got off of the ferry, we found this sculpture. This piece of art was located by the Twin Towers, but it was damaged when the towers fell. When the workers were cleaning up the wreckage, they found it again and placed it in the park as a memorial.

We then headed to Time's Square!

We then headed to Rockefeller Center to see the view from the "Top of the Rock"!

After eating dinner and wandering all over New York, we headed back to China Town to catch our bus. When we got on the subway it wasn't snowing, but buy the time we got off in China Town, the snow was coming down! This was definitely a sign of things to come... like our bus breaking down, catching on fire (very small brake fire), us standing on the highway in a snowstorm and getting home 2 hours later than scheduled because we had to wait for a replacement bus! Always an Adventure!!!

3 Months of Food Storage

2009-02-22T23:00:00.002-05:00

David and I did not bring any of our food storage with us to Boston. After being here for awhile, we changed our mind and decided that it would be wise to at least have a small amount of food storage on hand here in the apartment. So, we ordered 18 of the 1-month food supply boxes from church distribution so that we would have a 3-month supply. When it showed up David had to wheel it up here on the cart!

David's Birthday

2009-02-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

David turned 33! A couple of days before David's birthday, he was complaining that "getting old sucks". That gave me a great idea! I arranged to meet David for lunch and brought him this bouquet!

We all went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then headed back to our apartment to have lemon bars and birthday cake and open presents!

Calligraphy Set~

Season 3 and Season 4 of The Office~

Seed Sprouting Kit and Indoor Herb Garden Kit~

David also got a pasta maker and recipe book, 2 pair of cords, a tortilla press and cast iron pan!

I Made Butter!

2009-02-17T21:23:00.003-05:00

The girls and I got interested in learning to make our own butter when we took a colonial cooking class last week. They want to make their own butter soon, but I don't like to teach something I haven't done myself yet, so I made my own butter tonight. Here is a link on how to make butter - http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/Making_Butter_at_Home.php

Once you have shaken the cream into butter, you have to rinse the butter in ice-cold water.

Finished butter in the new little dish I bought just for home-made butter!

Valentine's Day in NYC!

2009-02-16T19:26:00.006-05:00

I spent Valentine's Day in New York City with Paula and Natalie. We had a blast!!! We toured Time's Square.

We took a bus tour of New York City.

They are still working on constructing new buildings in ground zero.

We went to the top of Rockefeller Center - "Top of the Rock". The views were amazing!

Because it was Valentine's Day, they lit the Empire State Building up with red, pink and white lights. It was amazing to see!

We went to the Starlight Diner for dinner. The food was good, but the entertainment was great! The waiters and waitresses sing Broadway show tunes!

Our Colonial Cooking Adventure

2009-02-09T21:17:00.010-05:00

Every once in a while we participate in different activities with some of the local homeschooling groups. Today the girls and I went to Concord, MA to the Concord Museum and participated in a Colonial Cooking class. It was a blast!

We got to sit around an open fire while our teacher talked about life in colonial times and specifically about how they used to cook their meals. The room is set up as a colonial home with a real colonial style kitchen!

Our teacher then divided the kids into groups of 4 and we all got to make different parts of our snack. All of the food that we cooked was traditional food from the colonial era. We even got to use real recipees dating from that era. Spelling had not been standardized yet, so it was funny to read how they spelled a lot of the words! Most of the food that we cooked, would have been snack food, not every day food. Marissa and Brynn were in the group that made rose water wafers and home-made butter. The other groups made apple sauce, apple cider, and ginger bread.

While our food was cooking over the fire, we got to learn about herbs that the colonialists grew and how they made satchels. Then the girls got to make their own lavender satchels.

When the food was all done cooking, we all got to sit down and try some of the food we had made. It was all delicious! We got the recipe for the rose water wafers and we also plan to make some of our own butter and applesauce. This was such a fun day!!!

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

2009-02-07T13:11:00.005-05:00

We have made a lot of Valentine's cards this year! Usually we don't make very many, we just buy the ones from the store and slap a little bag of candy with it for the kids to hand out in their classes. The girls don't have a physical class this year to give and receive Valentine's with, so we signed up to participate with some home-school kids from all over the county. We have about 40 Valentine's to send out and the girls will each receive about that many.

The boys even got into the swing of things and made cards for their grandparents!

This is the pile of cards that the girls made for the other home-school kids!

The Escalator at Porter Square

2009-02-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

If you have been reading my blog for long, you know that we use public transportation almost exclusively in Boston. Basically it's just easier! The pedestrians can typically walk faster than you can drive in the city!

We have been going to Blockbuster about once every week or so, because it is too cold to do much outside right now. Usually David and I go, or the boys go, but we had never had the girls go with us for some reason... So, I kept telling the girls that the "longest" escalator I had ever seen was at the Porter Square T stop.

This picture was taken after about 10 seconds of riding already. There are 2 escalators this same length, just to get to the surface of the earth! Wow - we were really far underground!

Snow Play

2009-01-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

I have been lax about updating my blog. It has been so cold here (18 degrees as a high) that we have all been bundled up in the apartment and doing a lot of indoor activites - like crafting! So, there hasn't been much to post. But then I remembered, that I had taken some pictues last week that I hadn't posted yet!

Last Friday, David, the girls and I all went to an IMAX movie at the Boston Science Museum. The museum is only about 1/2 a mile away, so we walk there. The girls decided to play in the snow on the way home! We have a lot of snow here and these pictures were taken before our last 2 snow storms where we got another 12 or so inches! It was dark outside, so these are not the best pictures - but here you go!

This isn't the best picture of Brynn, but it shows how much snow we had last weekend. We have added another 12 inches since then, but it is supposed to get up to 45 deg. on Saturday, so we may have some melting!

We Are Having A Blizzard!

2009-01-28T11:05:00.005-05:00

I have been waiting all week for the blizzard that they promised was coming and it is finally here! I will never get tired of the snow!!!

It is not night time or fog - it is all snow! Usually we can see all the way to the ocean from our window, but the snow is so thick that we can't even see the river from our balcony today!

The freeways are usually packed day and night, but they are pretty deserted today due to the storm. All of the schools and colleges have closed and everyone is staying home!

Valentine's Project

2009-01-27T11:27:00.004-05:00

I have quite a few projects that I am working on for Valentine's Day. The one that I am currently working on is cute and simple so I decided to post it here.

Target sells these cute little mailboxes for $1 in their dollar spot section. They come in silver, pink, white and red.

Link to Tutorial~ http://emilygiovanni.com/?p=1520
Link to More Pictures~ http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=3832

Let me know if you make any of these. I have 9 more to make and I would love to see your ideas!

We got to go to a Celtics game!

2009-01-20T11:41:00.004-05:00

Ok, I am not sure why it took us so long to make it to a Celtics game, except to say that there is so much to do here in Boston, that this was the first chance we had to take in a game. We couldn't have picked a better game to go to!

The Boston Celtics played the Phoenix Suns. The Celtics dominated the WHOLE game! It was truly an awesome sight to see. Shaquil O'Neal plays for the Suns, so it was fun to get to see him play as well! Here are some pics from our evening!

The Game~

Jace and Chaz at the Game~

The Celtics Dancers~

Deena and David at the Game (I never realize how short I am until I have my picture taken with David!)~

More of the Game - Nice 3-pointer!~

Shaquil O'Neal - #32 During Half-Time Warm Up~

Final Score~

We Had a Blizzard in Boston!!!

2009-01-18T16:24:00.005-05:00

Okay, Anyone who knows me, knows that I love the snow! I pray for snow, I hope for snow and I dance for snow!!! Well, I woke up to snow this morning! It must have started snowing about dawn because there was already 1 1/2 on the ground when I got up at 8am. It snowed heavy all day until about 3pm alternating between small and large flakes. In the end, we ended up with about 5 inches of snow! YEAH!

The Charles River has totally frozen over, so all the snow that fell is blanketing it. It is truly a beautiful sight!

My new Craft Space!

2009-01-13T15:30:00.007-05:00

While I was home in WA for Christmas, I decided that I wanted to bring "some" of my scrapbook stuff to Boston. I really miss working on stuff and I have a friend here in Boston who wants to get together and host some scrapbooking/card making days while kids are in school!

So the idea started with taking just a "few" items and having everything be portable. But as I tried to figure out what I could live without - the idea (and amount of stuff) grew! Our master bedroom is very large, so I decided to create a craft space in there.

I started unpacking on Saturday and then headed to A.C. Moore to look for more organizing ideas. I found this great idea that basically uses those wire cubes that you can build yourself. It was a whole kit to create an organization system. The only problem was the price! It was $156.00!!! I decided that I could build it myself by buying those cube kits and putting it together!

Because of the snow on Sunday, our church was cancelled, so I spent most of the day organizing and setting stuff up. So for only $35.00 - here is what I created.

- On the right: I bought a bookshelf for all of my stamps. For now my stamp pads are sitting on top of it - but I want to get a different holder for them.
- I also bought a bulletin board and hung up all of my clear stamp sets so that I remember to use them.
- I built 3 cubes on the right side where I put all of my tools and 2 cubes on the left for all of my accessories.
- In the middle space, I hung up some accessories.
- I re-purposed the drawers on the bottom - left to hold my glue, cutting tools and ribbon
- I only brought 8 sheets of each of my Stampin' Up card stock - I put them in the expandable file folders on the bottom - right cube.
- I only brought some of my accessories, stickers, die cuts etc. I found these great boxes on the bottom right with expandable files inside to keep them all portable and organized.

The view from the other side of my bedroom:

I was also able to create a sewing space. I had extra supplies to make more cubes, so I created a storage space for some sewing items as well. I hung up a baby quilt that my mom made for Marissa!

I also re-arranged some items in my closet so now it only has to hold my yarn and cross-stitching supplies!

Since I am showing all of the great organizing that I have done in my bedroom - Here is what I did with my purses, covers for my Miche Bag and scarves.

We Made it Back to Boston

2009-01-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it back to Boston! We actually had a pretty uneventful trip back. There was a perfect window where the weather was clear in Tri-Cities, Seattle and Boston. We made it out of Boston the day before a huge storm hit and we made it back in the day before another storm hit - talk about luck!

This current storm is pretty mild - only a couple inches of snow with some ice on top this morning, but it has warmed to 37 degrees and is raining now. We could definitely tell that there was a lot of snow here while we were gone! There isn't much left now, but the piles in the Costco parking lot were about 12 feet tall!!!

We landed in Boston at about 7:30am (Eastern Time) yesterday. We then had to get all of our luggage and carry-on's together. I never truly counted the bags, (I didn't want to know how many) but there was a lot! I decided to bring "some" of my scrapbooking stuff to Boston and we had to get all of the Christmas presents home too. I took a picture of all of our bags sitting in our foyer - it was a pretty funny site.

After I packed all of the "large" items ie. Cricut, Cuttlebug, Stamps, Paper and Sticker Embellishments, I still had a lot of "stuff" to pack. I thought it was a funny site, so I snapped a quick picture.

Once we got all of the bags up to our apartment, it was such a crazy site, that I took a picture of that too!

We also had to ship some boxes, because we couldn't get it all in the bags - we really need to learn to travel lighter!!!

There is one picture that I wish I had, that I couldn't get... When we got to the airport, we waited in line for a taxi. With the size of our family and all the stuff, we have to wait until a van comes. The taxi driver did not think that we could get it all in - but we were determined! It costs about $30 for a taxi ride from the airport to our hotel, and since we really didn't want to pay for 2 taxis, we started squishing. We all ended up holding bags on our laps (and not just the small ones) and David had a bag on the floor where his feet should have gone, so his feet were on the dashboard!!! LOL - now that would have been a funny picture!

New Year's Day!

2009-01-02T13:22:00.000-05:00

We went over to David's parents house for lunch and to play games on New Year's Day. We had a great time playing games and hanging out!

I bought the girls New Years Day shirts to wear.

David and Marissa even got grandpa to play Big Brain Academy on the DS!

Marissa and Brynn were "helping" give Adrienne and Kayden their nightly bath and got into a bubble fight with Uncle Dustin!

New Year's Eve at the Davis's

2009-01-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

We got together with some of our best friends for New Year's Eve. We ate great food, played the wii (man I am bad at it!) and celebrated the New Year!

Marissa and Brynn got to spend the evening with their friend Caira! They played Twister and played with their DS's.

David and Ben played gold on the wii. I never tried this game after humiliating myself trying to race my cow!

Ringing in the New Year!

A Wonderful Christmas Day...

2008-12-26T00:59:00.000-05:00

It was a wonderful Christmas day filled with joy, love, family, games and even some gifts. We started out by having my parents come over to our house to watch the kids open their gifts.

The families stockings.

The tree after Santa came.

Another view of the tree.

The girls got some webkins in their stockings.

Brynn with her Baby Alive doll. I had one of these when I was a little girl, but hers is definately an upgraded version!

The girls each got a new DS, a couple of games and a carrying bag from Santa.

Chaz and Jace are wearing their new sweatshirts and holding Rock Band for the X Box 360 which they got from Santa!

Each of the kids got a new game for the wii. Marissa got Tennis, Chaz got Baseball, Brynn got wii Music and Jace got a Light Saber!

I made each of the girls and quilt and my mom quilted them for me! They turned our really cute!

We got each of the kids a new ipod in their favorite color!

After we were done opening presents at our house we headed to my Mom and Dad's house to open present there. My mom made each of the boys some new pajamas and got each of the girls some new long johns that they can either use as pajamas or long johns!

When we were done there, we completed our travels by going to David's parents home to see them and some of his siblings. We had a good time there as well. David's parents gave our family the Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot game. Dustin and the boys had a blast playing it!

The girls played "tea party" with Adrienne and with her new Christmas toys.

The Reading of the Christmas Story

2008-12-24T00:53:00.000-05:00

Every year we get together at David's parent's house to read the Christmas story. My parents and some of David's siblings and their children also joined us. It was a really enjoyable evening.

Sledding at Richland High School

2008-12-22T17:44:00.000-05:00

David took the girls sledding and to play in all of the snow. It is such a rare event that we are taking full advantage of it!

Trying to Get Back to WA...

2008-12-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it has been a week since our escipades in trying to get from Boston to Richland. It is finally at the funny point! We left for the aiport at about 4pm because we had a 6:30pm flight. We got all checked in and headed for our gate. We got settled, Marissa got out her laptop to play a game and Brynn quickly found a friend to play with. We quickly found out that our plane had been delayed for 2 hours becuase of the weather in Seattle. We sat there for another hour, and then they bumped our flight up to 7pm, so at 6:15 they started loading all of us on the plane. Right after we all got settled, they delayed our flight again for 2 more hours. So the stewardess' served drinks and we all watched tv (or slept in David's case) for 2 hours before the plane took off for our 6 1/2 hour flight! And that was just the begining.... We landed at 11:30pm West Coast time (2:30 am to us) and we knew that we had missed our 10pm flight to Pasco. But then we found out that while we were in the air, our Pasco flight had been canceled! So of course, everyone else on that flight had already re-booked for the next day! I headed to get the luggage with Marissa and Davide took Brynn to see about re-booking our next flight.

I found where the carolsel where our luggage was supposed to be coming down and we started to wait....and wait....and wait. Finally about 20 minutes later, it looked like our luggae was going to start coming down the shoot and it did for about 5 minutes. We got one of our 5 bags and then the shoot to bring the bags to the carolsel broke. A guy came to fix it, but when he couldn't figure it our he started carrying the bags down 2 at a time!!! LOL - after 20 more minutes we had 3 more of our bags! We were still waiting for the last one when a new guy came to fix the carosel and the rest of the bags finally showed up!

David and Brynn finally showed up. The best flight that they were able to get for us was a 8pm the next night to Walla Walla, then we still had to rent a car and drive the 1 hour to Richland! So, at this point it was about 12:00am (3am East Coast time), so we were hungry and exhausted. We looked around the airport, but of course EVERYTHING was closed! So we started calling Hotels to see if any were available. After about 25 minutes of calling we found one room available. It was only $180.00 a night - LOL at that point, it didn't matter, we just wanted to sleep. So we made our reservations and then asked for a shuttle. The hotel clerk said that the roads were too bad and the shuttle wasnn't running, so we would have to take a cab. No problem right.... WRONG. We got in line for a taxi and stayed in line for the next 2 hours...Yep, we finally got to the hotel at 3am (6am East Coast time). We still hadn't had dinner and now it was breakfast time. Fortunately, our room was a suite with a kitchen and they had a "pantry" that we could purchase hot-pockets, tv dinners, crackers and drinks from. We took the food up to our room and I started cooking the food while David started the fire in the fire place.

We got the girls tucked into bed and then David and I made our dinner and sat by the fire to eat. David was sooooo tired that he kept falling asleep while he was eating!!!!

We finally got to bed at 4am (7am East Coast time) and we got back up at 8:30, ate breakfast, checked the weather and decided to rent a car and drive to Richland! Later we found out it was a good decision becuase the flight to both Walla Walla and Richland for the next day were all cancelled! What a crazy trip!

MIT Christmas Party

2008-12-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

Today was the M.I.T. Media Lab's Christmas Party. They had it set up really well and it was actually kinda fun. They had 2 large room with a connecting foyer in front. In the foyer you could get drinks and stuff. In the "kids" room, they had their own buffet set up with cheese quesdillas, pizza, fries and chicken strips. They also had 6 different craft activities and a movie set up for the kids. Then they had the adult room with Chinese food and music.

Our Fabulous Trip to NY - Day #2

2008-12-15T02:15:00.000-05:00

We made a list of all of the places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do and then headed out to try to accomplish all of them before we had to get back on the bus around 6pm.

M&M store in Times Square. The girls were amazed at all of the available colors.

I took David's picture with the Bank of America banner in Time Square!

David and the girls in Grand Central Station. Their were Christmas projections on the ceiling and walls. It was really beautiful.

One of the Christmas window displays. I bought these cute hats for the girls from a street vendor. There were vendors all over the city, we had fun purchasing some items from them.

Another Christmas display.

Deena at the Louis Vuitton Christmas display. I bought this cute Cashmere scarf from another street Vendor.

We took a horse and buggy ride around Central Park. It was a really pretty park. We want to return in the Spring.

Brynn wanted to buy some food from a street vendor all day! We finally stopped and let her buy a pretzel!

All through the city, there were people who were dressed up for the kids to take pictures with.

The girls getting settled in for the long ride home. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go again!

Our Fabulous Trip to NYC - Day #1

2008-12-14T02:02:00.000-05:00

My whole life I have wanted to go to New York at Christmas time. I have watched all of the movies based there, I watch the Thanksgiving parade every year, I watch the ball drop on New Years Eve and see all the crowds and think Wow - I wish that was me! Well, this weekend, David made my wish come true! After attending our church Christmas brunch, we came straight back to the apartment and grabbed a change of clothes and headed out to the bus depot.

We found that you could take the Fung Wah Chinese bus from China Town in Boston to China Town in New York for $15 each way, per person. Since taking the train is $80 each way, per person; this is a great deal! We opted to spend more money on the hotel and get a great hotel in Times square and go cheaper on the transportation. It turned out great!

We arrived in NY at about 7pm Saturday night. It takes about 4 hours to get from Boston to New York. We learned that you have to be really aggressive to get a cab in NY, not at all like in Boston where they are lined up waiting to take you anywhere! It took us about 20 minutes to get a cab. If we were contestants in the Amazing Race, this would have been the perfect taxi driver!!! He drove crazy! He was passing all the other cars and taxi's. He would speed up, just to slam on his brakes when the light turned red. He was even yelling at the cops who had blocked some streets off! Fortunately we made it to the hotel in one piece! We dropped off our bags, put an extra layer of clothes on (it was 30 deg.) and headed out to see all of the lights and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

We stopped by the Hershey store in Times Square - Chocolate anyone???

I took a picture of the girls in time square. In the background, you can see where the ball drops on New Years Eve. Next year, I would love to come back here on New Years Eve!!!

Marissa took our picture in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater where the David Letterman show is filmed. David and I are going to make a trip back next spring without any kids to come see a couple of shows taped and take in a Broadway show.

As we walked around Time Square and the immediate area there were lights everywhere! We had to stop and get some hot cocoa to warm us up!

In front of one of the Hotels, there were large nut crackers in front of all of the pillars.

Radio City Music Hall - I wish that we had time to go to the Rockette's Christmas show.

There were amazing decorations everywhere we walked! I bought this crazy hat and scarf while we were in WA for Thanksgiving. It may look funny, but boy was I warm!

The Tree at Rockefeller Center!

These huge snowflakes cover the Saks 5th Avenue store and they flash to Christmas music that is played on loud speakers.

David took this picture to show a good view of Time Square and the sheer amount of people that were there with us!

Church Christmas Party

2008-12-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

Today we attended our church Christmas party. We had a really great time with every one. We had a brunch and then we worked on making gift baskets for members of our ward who do not attend regularly. The kids decorated cards and made other crafts while the adults put baskets together.

The Snow is Coming!!!

2008-12-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

So, the weather report says that it is going to start snowing tonight (50% chance) and continue snowing tomorrow (90% chance). We are supposed to get between 2-4"!!! For anyone who knows me - I LOVE the snow! Mostly I love sitting inside and watching it snow. But, it always amazes me how majestic and beautiful everything looks with a fresh coating of snow!

Last night David and I went to JC Penney's to hit their big outerwear sale and I went back there and to Sears today and now we all have new snow boots. We didn't have any before we moved here, because it just doesn't snow in Richland!

Left to Right -
David-Deena-Chaz-Jace-Marissa-Brynn
There were these really cute hot-pink snow boots that I wanted, but I didn't want to have to wear pink every time it snowed - so basic black it is!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

2008-12-04T16:41:00.000-05:00

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance.

Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer.

Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

What Kind of Christmas Tree Are You?

2008-12-04T10:53:00.001-05:00

You Are a Bright Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays are all about fun and seasonal favorites.

You are into all things Christmas, even if they're a little tacky.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

Jace's 15th Birthday Party

2008-11-27T18:40:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-27T15:55:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-23T15:35:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-19T09:27:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-16T19:09:00.001-05:00

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

2008-11-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-02T18:31:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-02T01:53:00.000-04:00

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.

Halloween in Boston

2008-10-31T08:40:00.000-04:00

Wow is all I can say. I have never seen such elaborate decorations or so many people trick-or-treating together. I would estimate that we were trick-or-treating with about 1000-2000 other kids!!! It was an awesome experience!

We first took Marissa and Brynn trick-or-treating in an area of Boston called Beacon Hill. The whole area of Beacon Hill is blocked off by the police so that the kids can trick-or-treat without worrying about cars being in the road.

It was not dark yet when I took the first couple of pictures. All of the houses were decorated really nicely. Being in the area of Beacon Hill gives you that true New England feeling. The roads and sidewalks are cobblestone and all of the homes are original!

I had the girls stop and pose in front of this house. It was really amazing to see whole blocks decorated in this fashion!

This home is said to be the first original house on Beacon Hill - The decorations were unbelievable!

The weather was amazing. We didn't even have to wear coats the whole time we were out collecting candy. The weather was about 60 degrees. The residents sit on their porch and hand out candy. It is nice that you don't have to knock on doors. The houses are so close together the girls got an unbelievable amount of candy in a short amount of time.

I stood up on the porch to be able to get a good shot of the whole block and the amount of kids lining the streets!

After trick-or-treating on Beacon Hill we were able to go collect some more candy at the apartment complex where we live. We were able to sign up if we wanted trick-or-treaters to come and visit us and then they gave us a list of all of the people that signed up.

Halloween Roller Skating Party

2008-10-31T00:02:00.000-04:00

We went to a homeschooling event tonight. They had a Halloween roller skating party. The kids all had a good time and we met a few more homeschooling families.

Ward Halloween Party

2008-10-25T23:28:00.001-04:00

Tonight we were able to attend our ward's primary Halloween party. It was really fun both both the parents and kids! We were able to play games, frost cookies, make crafts and eat some great treats.

The girls each frosted and decorated cookies - the cookies did not make it home!!!

Marissa went as static cling!

Brynn won the "Most Original Costume" award. She went as a piece of bubble gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe!

We didn't bring any of our decorations or costumes with us here to Boston, so we had to be a little creative when at 1pm we decided to go to the ward party that started at 3pm. Fortunately, Target is only about 10 minutes away. David took the girls to get some sweats and I rounded up the other items from the house and then we had costumes!

Friday Playgroup at the Children's Museum

2008-10-24T23:05:00.000-04:00

Each week quite a few mom's in the ward get together with their children for playgroup on Friday morning. This week we got together at the Children's Museum. We have been there before, but we went to parts of the museum that we had never been to before.

The girls each climbed to the top of this amazing structure and then yelled down to me to take their picture! If you look in the top right corner you can see Marissa and Brynn is in the top left corner.

There is an "Arthur" room where there is a green screen and kids can be "in the movies" with Arthur. If you look on the tv, you can see Marissa and Brynn running with Arthur.

Marissa was able to play some of the same types of instruments that the Blue Man Group plays.

There was a craft room where each of the girls were able to make a collage. They chose to make 3-D collages! It was interesting trying to take the subway home carrying them, but fortunately they all made it home in one piece!

A Field Trip to the Super Joann's Store

2008-10-24T00:22:00.000-04:00

I have told a few of you how much I like having a Super Joann's near by (well, it is a 40 minute drive, but all freeway!) So, the girls and I headed out to go there today and pick up a few items we needed for some Christmas projects we are working on and I finally remembered to take my camera and get a couple of pics to show you just how big this store is. It is the size of a Walmart or Target, but all CRAFTS!!!

I had to back up all the way to the road to take this picture and I still couldn't get the whole store in the frame. The 2 little people are Marissa and Brynn!

Anyone who has been to the Joann's by my house knows how bad their paper selection is, so I had to take a picture of the huge wall of scrapbook paper! The whole wall all the way down to the end of the row is filled with awesome selections of paper - too bad I didn't bring any scrapbook stuff here with me!

Gas

2008-10-24T00:19:00.001-04:00

When we got here 7 weeks ago, I was surprised at the difference in gas prices. We were paying about $4 a gallon in WA and $3.50 a gallon in MA. When I filled up today, gas was $2.59 a gallon. I never thought I would see it go below $3 a gallon again in my lifetime!

Girls Day Out

2008-10-20T19:22:00.000-04:00

Marissa, Brynn and I had a girls day out with one of my new friends Audrey and her daughter Belén. We went out to lunch and then went to this cute little cupcake shop and then shopping at the mall. It was really fun! I hope we do it again soon, I love getting out of the house and chatting with adults! Thanks Audrey!!!

Brynn was carrying the cupcakes and our leftovers from lunch. We were so full from lunch, we had to take our cupcakes home to have after dinner.

Marissa and Brynn had fun pushing Belén in her stroller. These fountains are at the headquarters for the church of scientology, it's an interesting church, but they do have pretty areas to walk through.

Marissa and Brynn stopped to look at the Charles River.

Marissa posses with a couple of the cupcakes that we bought. Marissa picked a pumpkin cupcake, Brynn picked a Boston Cream Cupcake, I also got a Boston Cream Cupcake. I picked a Orange Cranberry Cupcake for David and then I got a Red Velvelt and a Sweet Treat cupcake for all of us to share.

Boston Pumpkin Festival

2008-10-19T09:48:00.000-04:00

Boston held it's annual pumpkin festival at City Hall yesterday and we went to see all the pumpkins! Last year they had over 20,000 lit pumpkins and this year, they were hoping to have more than 30,000 to break a world record. I haven't heard the results yet.

The Head of the Charles Regatta Boat Race

2008-10-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

It was a sunny and crisp feeling fall day yesterday. We headed into Cambridge near Harvard and headed down to the Charles River to watch a regatta race called - The Head of the Charles. It was really a neat experience to see something that I have only seen on tv. There were 2, 4 and 8 person teams. They would announce the teams as they came by us and it was really interesting to hear that a lot of them were former Olympians.

Marissa and Brynn found a great place to watch the races from.

We sat right near this bridge and it was amazing to see how many people could fit on the bridge to watch the race. There were as many people at the regatta as we have at the boat races!!!

David, Marisa and Brynn all went up on the bridge to watch the race from there.

When I went up on the bridge, I was amazed to see how many people were watching on the shores and on all of the bridges that cross the river!

Our favorite was the 8 person teams.

Visiting the New England Aquarium

2008-10-16T14:12:00.000-04:00

Marissa, Brynn and I all went to the New England Aquarium yesterday. It was really a blast! It was really cool to see the huge fish and sharks, but the best part was where we all got to touch star fish, see anemones, hermit crabs and sand crabs! We are going again on the 21st of October and I got another set of tickets for November!

Yeah, I Finished My Quilt - Well Almost...

2008-10-15T08:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I found out that the baby that I am making this quilt for was born on Friday! So, I quickly finished the top for the quilt yesterday and I am shipping it to my mom today. She is going to machine quilt it on her long arm sewing machine and then do a new binding technique she learned on it and ship it back to me - hopefully really quickly!

I really love how the quilt turned out! It was a quilt kit that had been marked down because it was open, then I discovered that the directions and pattern for the quilt were not in it, so I asked them if they would give me an extra discount on it and they did! So I brought the kit home, created my own pattern and made the quilt! I can't wait to see what it will look like when the whole thing is finished.

The Changing of the Leaves

2008-10-12T21:46:00.000-04:00

Since this is a holiday weekend, we decided to spend the whole weekend exploring the area. We decided to head out this morning at about 10:00am and go for a drive so that we could see all of the leaves that are changing colors right now. On the tv, they kept saying that these next 2 weeks will give you the optimum chance to see the most colors! We didn't get back home until 9:30pm.

This is the path we took - We went from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, then through a small section of Vermont and back to Massachusetts.

While we drove, we ran across some festivals that we stopped and walked around at. At the first festival, the girls were able to pick apples from an orchard. All the trees were labeled, so we could walk around and pick what kind of apples we wanted.

Here are some pictures that show the colors of the leaves. I have never seen colors like this before - it was truly awe inspiring!!!

The Circus Came to Town...

2008-10-11T21:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, we had quite a busy Saturday. But the weather was wonderful and we were in the mood to wander. We knew the circus was going to be in town. We had actually planned to attend on Thursday before the boys left, but they had a meeting come up, so we told them we would go another time with them.

We walked past the Garden (pronounced Gaahden in Boston - it is where the Celtics play) and we decided to go in and see how much the tickets would be. We found out that there was a 3PM show and a gentleman in line gave us a discount coupon, so we were able to get tickets for $15 each and sit in an awesome area.

The girls loved the circus!

Street Music

2008-10-11T21:18:00.000-04:00

Every where you go there are musicians that are performing on the streets. Most of them are pretty good, but usually they don't make me stop and listen. We all stopped to hear this guy - He was really great at his "drumming"!

Paul Revere Statue

2008-10-11T21:11:00.000-04:00

As we wandered around the North End of Boston, we ran across a really pretty commons area where there is a statue paying tribute to Paul Revere's midnight ride.

Old North Church

2008-10-11T20:40:00.000-04:00

After we were done eating our breakfasts at Mike's Pastry, we headed toward Old North Church. The church is open so that you can walk around and take pictures. They also had a 10 minute speech, so that we could learn some more history about it.

Outside of church.

They don't have the type of pews that we are used to seeing. They actually have boxes that families would rent - so there really was assigned seating! They were styled as boxes to help keep the heat in. The families would bring in heated bricks or rocks to put by their feet and the high walls would help keep the heat in.

When families rented a pew, they were allowed to decorate it any way they wanted. This pew still has it's original decorations.

This is the "Newman Window". When the two lanterns were hung in the steeple to warn that the British were coming, the British also saw them. They ran to the church and were pounding on the door to get in; so the person who hung the lanterns,Robert Newman had to escape out of this window, so that he wouldn't be tried for treason. In 1975, President Ford hung this "3rd Lamp" in the window to be introduced as a new signal to call the nation to renewed hope in our century.

Interior view of Old North Church.

This was Paul Revere's pew. His descendants still pays the rent on it today.

Side view of the church with the steeple.

Mike's Pastries

2008-10-11T20:26:00.000-04:00

There is a famous bakery in the North end of Boston called Mike's Bakery. David heard about it from someone he works with, so we decided to walk down there Saturday morning and get some breakfast. It was an incredible delight for all the senses!

The boys are headed to WA

2008-10-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

Chaz and Jace have headed back to WA to visit all of their family and friends there. They will be gone for a little more than 2 weeks.

Why do teeth wiggle???

2008-10-10T13:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday when we were at the farm going on the hayride, they were handing out apples that were grown at the farm. We all ate one and remarked on how good they were. Not too long afterwards, Marissa said that her tooth hurt her. I looked at it and couldn't see anything wrong, so I told her that we could floss it when we got home because there was probably a piece of apple peel stuck in between her teeth.

Marissa didn't mention her tooth hurting again until right before they were headed to bed (probably a stalling tactic, but she had my attention). Then she said she was really worried about it because it was a permanant tooth and it was wiggly! I looked at it and sure enough, it was really wiggling! I was totally perplexed because she had just gone to the dentist last month, had x-rays, cleaning, sealing and flouride treatment and her teeth were fine at that time. Marissa claimed that she hadn't fallen or hit it and she didn't know why it was wiggling.

So, I had her brush her teeth very carfully and then head to bed and got to work researching dentists in the area. David had sent me a list earlier in the month, so I looked it over and found the closest dentist to our apartment.

I called the dentist and she stated that we could come in on an emergency basis, we would just have to wait until there was an opening.

I spent another 1/2 hour on the computer trying to find out how to take the "T" to the dentists office, but I couldn't find a close "T" stop, so I decided to drive. The traffic was fine, but there was no parking at the dentists office (no big surpise in Boston!) Fortunately, there was a parking garage across the street from the office.

We had a good time waiting in the office. I worked on a baby blanket that I am crocheting, Brynn watched a movie on her dvd player and Marissa played a game on her laptop. After waiting 1 1/2 hours in the dentists office, the dentist came and got Marissa to take some x-rays to see why her permanent tooth was wiggly. After about a 1/2 hour, the nurse came out and got us with a big grin on her face. She had Marissa get in the chair and commended her on being so worried about her teeth to bring it to the attention of her mom.....but this was just a baby tooth - no wonder it was wiggling! She showed us the x-rays and then showed us alll the teeth in her mouth that were still baby teeth so that we wouldn't have to worry when they began to wiggle!!!

The dentist didn't charge me anything, but the parking was $22.00!

Wilson Farm

2008-10-09T15:44:00.000-04:00

The Boston public schools didn't have school today because of Yom Kipur, so our playgroup was switched to today. We went to Wilson's Farm and took a hayride and went shopping in their market. The girls got pumpkins to decorate and we bought some home-made cookies, carrots, sweat peas, cherry tomatoes and the best apple cider I have ever tasted!

Boson Children's Museum

2008-10-09T02:46:00.000-04:00

We had a good time at the Boston Children's Museum. It was a really fun place for the girls, and I think the boys enjoyed it as well.

Marissa and Brynn climbed up a 2-story structure and then wanted their picture taken.

Jace and Brynn built a cool thing! You take tubes and hook them together on a magnetic wall and then run golf balls through them.

Jace is standing and pulling a rope hooked to a ring that is in a bubble solution. If you pull slow and steady, you can stand inside a bubble!

Chaz, Jace and Brynn were all running in a circle and pushing the bars and it made wheels above them turn.

Marissa and Brynn rode these bikes to make the lights stay on.

Jace and Brynn sat in seats and then pulled a rope. They had to lift their own weight up to the top to ring a bell.

Chaz and Jace sat on these seats and bounced to make a ball rise up a tube.

Jace, Marissa and Brynn all had fun on the climbing wall.

My Crazy Day & Our First Visit to the Science Museum

2008-10-08T16:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was an interesting day...nothing bad happened, but I felt like I was running behind all day!

The kids and I had planned to go to the Science museum. We were going to leave the apartment at around 11 am. So, the kids started their school work between 7 and 8 am. We were going to stop at 10 am to take showers and then head out. The museum is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment.

At 9:55 am, the cleaning lady showed up, which was great, except that we then couldn't get in the showers and because it was a new person, I didn't want to leave until she was done. Sometimes when the cleaning people come there are two people and sometimes there is just one lady. Of course yesterday, there was only one...and she was slooooowwwwww. So, she didn't get done cleaning until almost noon. So then, we all had lunch, took showers and finally got out of the apartment!

We walked to the Science Museum and it was great! (Pictures at the end). The kids really enjoyed themselves. There are three wings of the museum, each with three floors. In two hours, we were able to partly cover two floors in one wing. We could have spent another two hours on just those two floors alone! I am so glad that we live so close to this wonderful place. It will be great to be able to go there when we are "snowed in" and I don't want to drive anywhere.

So, we decided to leave the museum at about 3:15 and we made it back to the apartment by about 3:30. I had a get together with some of the ladies from church that evening and I wanted to make a carrot cake, so I needed to get started.

For the get together, we were each supposed to send five of our favorite recipes by email and then bring one of them for everyone to try. This way we can all get new ideas for what to make for dinner. I sent my five recipes in, and I had decided to make the carrot cake to take, since I knew that most people were taking main dishes.

Once I got home, I looked at my ingredients list, made a grocery shopping list, got the kids all situated and headed out. I also had to purchase a bundt pan, because I didn't have one here. There are no Super Targets near us, but there is a shopping area that has a Target (for the bundt pan) and a Stop and Shop (for groceries). The problem is, we have quite a few of each of these stores pretty near to us, and I couldn't remember which ones had both of these stores beside them. So I put our Garmin (we named her Rita) into use. I looked up both Target and Stop and Shop and I found the two that said they were the closest and I headed for the Stop and Shop....wrong move!

First off...it was rush hour - NEVER try to go anywhere in Boston during rush hour!!! After driving for a few minutes and going about 1 mile, I figured out that I was headed to the wrong Stop and Shop. But at that point, turning around and trying to go to the other one would have take too long (so I thought). So, I just kept driving, made a couple of wrong turns and finally got there. It was a REALLY small Stop and Shop (they are like Albertsons - decent prices and located everywhere). But this one was more like a Super 7-11...not much selection, but a little bit of everything.

I was able to find all of my ingredients, but I was worried about the powdered sugar. It didn't come in boxes, only really large bags. I figured I could just call my mom and ask how much powdered sugar was in her box, and then use that much out of my bag...problem solved! (so I thought!!!)

I then got back in my car and punched Target in the Garmin and headed for the nearest target. It was 2.6 miles away. It only took me about 25 minutes to get there! Once again, do NOT try to go anywhere during rush hour traffic in Boston! So, I finally arrive at the Target and wouldn't you know it...it was right next to the Stop and Shop! I decided I didn't have time to be mad, so I headed in quickly to purchase my bundt pan. I found a bundt pan and got into what I thought was a quick line...it was not! After about 3 minutes in line, I remembered that I had wanted to pick up some new socks and I could see them from the checkout line. So, I got back out of line, grabbed a few pair of socks and got back into line. I checked out and then saw that they had a special of a hot dog and slurpee for $2. I decided to surprise the girls with a treat for dinner. (David and the boys were going to the movies together). So, I got in yet another line and ordered three specials. I asked if they had bags to put the hot dogs in, he said no, but I could get back into line and request a bag...I decided against that option and put the hot dogs in the bag with my bundt pan and socks. I then had to fill my own slurpees...there were no lids. At this point, I was NOT getting back into line to ask the checker to get me three lids, so I just decided to carry them with no lids and drive carefully.

I arrived back home at 6 pm. (No, I didn't spill the slurpees - we all made it home in one piece!) I knew I needed to work quickly. The cake takes 50 minutes to bake and it has to be cool before I can frost it. I enlisted both of the girls to help me put the ingredients together quickly. I got my Kitchen Aid out and started measuring sugar and flour etc. I asked Marissa to grab the grater attachment for the kitchen aid to grate all the carrots...she couldn't find it. Apparently, it didn't' get packed and it was still back home in WA. There was not enough time to panic, so we just started grating...did I mention that my recipe calls for THREE cups of carrots! Thirty minutes and two band aids later, the carrots were grated, the ingredients were mixed and I checked the ingredients list one last time. I realized that I hadn't put the allspice in. I quickly rummaged through my shopping bags to find it because it was one of the ingredients that I had specifically gone to get at the grocery store. I found it, opened it up....and apparently I had purchased WHOLE allspice, not ground. Once again, I thought - no time to panic, I will crush it myself. Well, a messy counter and a sore thumb later, I discovered that you really need a spice grinder to do this job correctly.

I was definitely at the point of frustration. So, I started thinking what can I do now...I have to be at my meeting in 45 minutes and it's a 20 minute drive there! So, I put the cake mixture in the fridge. I called the person in charge of the meeting and asked her to add one more recipe to my list - cola roast. Fortunately, I had made a large one this week and still had quite a bit in the fridge. I heated it up and headed out the door.

This was my first experience driving in Boston at night - probably not a tradition I will keep!!! I had Rita in hand (Garmin) and headed out to try and only be 15 minutes late to my meeting...got lost twice, finally found it, found a place to park and then thought I was in the wrong spot! You have to ring a buzzer to get into most of the apartments around here and I knew that I needed to go to apartment #3, but the wrong name was on that buzzer. So, I paced outside for about 10 minutes until I got ahold of David (finally home from the movies) and verified the apartment address and then got up the nerve to ring the bell... I was very glad that it was the right place!

The story ends up great, I had a great time hanging out, chatting and eating some great new food! On the way home, I stopped at yet another Stop and Shop and purchased some GROUND allspice. I also found that they had boxes of powdered sugar there (I need it to make the frosting and that 1 lb. is in a box!) I finished the cake and baked it last night. I will frost it today and we will have it for dinner tonight!

Marissa posing with a VERY large grasshopper model.

All the kids were able to create fish and then control their movements and interactions with the other fish on the tv monitors.

Learning about conducting electricity!

Jace in a model of the Apollo Command Module.

Chaz with a Star Wars Space Ship.

Chaz and Marissa built solar cell cars and raced them.

Brynn posed with a pendulum clock.

All the kids posed with the Tyranasaurus Rex outside the museum.

Whale Watching - It was Awesome!!!

2008-10-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

I can not even describe how awesome it was to go whale watching today! We were able to see three different kinds of whales multiple times, for a total of 20-30 sightings!

The weather was cool, but not unbearably cold. It was a bright sunny day with no clouds (which I am learning is quite a treat on the East coast!).

It was an incredible way to spend 3 hours this afternoon. We learned a lot about whales that we didn't know before and got to see many of them up close.

I took a picture of everyone before we boarded the boat. You can see the boat in the background.

A view of Boston as we leave the harbor.

Jace and Brynn were watching the city getting smaller behind us. Jace only got to see a few whales because the dramamine that we all took, didn't work as well for him. He never got sick, but he sure didn't feel well!

I was so busy watching the whales that I didn't get a lot of great pictures. Fortunately they have a photographer on board that takes pictures of all of the whales that we saw on our trip and then they mail you the disk in a week. I will post some of their good pictures then!

This is a picture of the whales and a blow spout. We learned that it is not watter they are blowing out. It is compressed air.

This is a great picture of a whale coming to the surface to feed. They swim underneath the fish and blow bubbles to scare them to the surface. Then they swim through the middle of them with their mouth open to eat all the fish!

Playgroup in Brookline

2008-10-03T16:55:00.000-04:00

Brookline is a suburb of Boston. Most of the members of our ward from our church live in Brookline, so I go there pretty often.

We have a playgroup every Friday at 10:00 am. Today we met at a church in Brookline. It was a long trip on the T (subway) for us. We got on at North Station which is the green line near us and we traveled for 13 stops to the park. It took us almost 45 minutes to get there!

We met about 7 other families at the park and played for a couple of hours. I took these pictures of the girls while they were playing. The church behind them is a really cooling looking old stone building.

I Have Such Great Friends!

2008-10-02T20:38:00.000-04:00

Over the summer, I got together almost every Tuesday with my two friends Eileen and Vesta. We worked on scrapbooking, making cards and various other crafts all through the summer. It is probably the thing that I miss the most being here in Boston! We had a really great summer together!!!

When I got home Thursday afternoon from taking the kids to a Boston shopping area, I had a box waiting for me with the concierge.

I brought it upstairs and opened it and I was so surprised! Vesta and Eileen had made me one of the crafts that they worked on together after I left for Boston.

I absolutely LOVE it...Thanks guys!!!

I have it sitting in the ledge of my living room window right now, but I think I will move it into my bedroom right above my craft table to give me some inspiration while I am here!

The Freedom Trail Tour

2008-09-30T15:16:00.000-04:00

Today went went on a fun excursion. It has stopped raining (well, until tomorrow when it is supposed to rain all day!). So, we decided to get outside and go on a walking tour of some of Boston's historic sites. It is called the Freedom Trail Tour. It was a really fun and interesting tour.

We will definitely take people who come to visit us on this tour!

This is a picture of Jace in the 3rd oldest burying grounds in Boston. They do not call it a cemetery, because most of the people were buried in mass graves with no markers. They estimate that 18,000 people are buried on this small plot of land.

I took a picture of Chaz in front of Paul Revere's grave marker.

This is a picture of Marissa and Brynn in front of a church that was built in the 1800's.

Our narrator for the tour, posed with the kids in front of Faneuil Hall at the end of the tour.

This is a picture of Chaz and Jace in front of The Old State House. On the balcony of this building the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time. Each 4th of July 1000's of people gather to hear it read again and have a party!

What the kids learned on the tour:

Chaz - John Hancock was buried wearing his fine clothes and jewels. His wife was mad at him, so she told everyone about it, knowing they would rob his grave. When the robbers couldn't get his rings off of his fingers, they stole his whole hand.
It was never returned. Then when the grave was under construction, the workers left it open and his head was stolen. It has also not been returned.

Jace - We found out that Samuel Adams was not a good looking man. His dad ran a brewery, so when they created Sam Adams beer, they actually based the picture off of Paul Revere.

Marissa - We learned that Benjamin Franklin's parents are buried in the same graveyard as Paul Revere.

Brynn - There is a gold grasshopper on top of Faneuil Hall. When the settlers wanted to know if someone was a British spy, they would ask them what was on top of Faneuil Hall. If they didn't know, or if they said it was a cricket, then they knew that they weren't from Boston and they were a spy.

City Living

2008-09-29T16:03:00.000-04:00

I really love living in a big city.

I love Richland too, and it will always be my home. But, I love the feeling and the vibe of being right in the city. There is just a feeling here that I have only felt one other place - when David and I went to Miami Beach, Florida last Spring.

We can walk one block in any direction and go to Dominoes, Subway, McDonalds, RiteAid, CVS, Whole Foods Market, my nail shop, about 3 Dunkin Doughnuts and countless other shops. We really only use our car on weekends or to get groceries. I even love the subway! It is not at all like they show on tv!

I also love the history and all the fun things to do. I never understood what people meant, when they said that there was no cultural things to do in Richland... now I get it! We could go on a tour everyday and visit a new place everyday here, and we would not be able to see everything in one year! It is just an awesome place to be!

Marissa and Brynn ran an errand with me the other day and I took this picture of them on our way back to the apartment. You can see it behind them. These decorative balls line the whole street. They are in front of the government buildings to protect it.

Out to Lunch With the Girls

2008-09-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

On Friday, after playgroup was over, I took Marissa and Brynn out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. The girls wanted me to take their picture!

Marissa ordered the clam chowda (Boston spelling) and Brynn ordered a cheese pizza. I ordered the Salmon Firecrackers. Marissa and I thought our lunch was great, but Brynn did not like the taste of her cheese pizza. When the waitress came back to check on us, she saw Brynn didn't like it and took it back and gave her a big plate of fries instead - not the best lunch, but Brynn was happy!

The Last Lecture

2008-09-26T09:17:00.000-04:00

I joined in with a book group with some of the ladies in my ward last night. The book is called, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

You may have seen a video clip of him giving his last lecture on Oprah. That is only about a 10 minute clip of the whole hour long lecture. The book, goes more into depth about how he feels about knowing that he will be leaving his wife and kids.

This book is a good reminder that none of us know how long we will be here and we all need to live more like tomorrow could be our last day. I read this book with a highlighter! I will definately read it again and I am going to have David and both of my boys read it.

Well, we are off to playgroup. It is pouring rain, so playgroup got moved to a playground in a mall! LOL - should be interesting!

Drowned Rat...Chaz

2008-09-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

Chaz decided to stay after church today to go to a baptism and fireside with some of the kids that he knows from the Boston 1st Ward. He took the subway home. The subway stop is about 2 blocks from our apartment building. Aparantly, it was raining!...

Walking Tour of Jamaica Plains

2008-09-20T20:02:00.000-04:00

Today we went on a walking tour of Boston. We took a tour of the area called Jamaica Plains. It was really fun to walk around and see the area and the homes that have been restored.

The Swan Boats of Boston

2008-09-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

Each Friday, some of the women in our ward get together for "play group". Marissa and Brynn are older than most of the kids that attend, but they enjoy going to the activities anyway.

Chaz and Jace even attended the play group this Friday, because it was such a cool event! We went to ride the Swan Boats in Boston Commons Park. Every book, brochure and website about Boston have pictures of the swan boats, they have been a fixture here since the 1800's.

Visiting the Holocaust Memorial

2008-09-13T19:47:00.000-04:00

On the way home from the farmer's market, we decided to walk through the Holocaust Memorial. It was such a sobering experience to see, I had to fight from crying. The memorial is 5 glass, walk-through cubes, that have the numbers that were tattooed on the people that were interned in the concentration camps etched on the glass that rises about 20 feet off the ground. Steam rises from the grates beneath the memorial.

They had a quote from Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran Pastor who initially supported Hitler and then later opposed him and was put in a concentration camp.
The quote reads:
They came first for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time, there was no one left to speak up.

It made me think about how many times in our own lives do we choose not to speak up when an injustice is perpetrated because it doesn't pertain to us.