Dallas Zoo

While Ben and Summer were here we headed to the zoo....(Pardon the camera roll)

We really saw A LOT of the fun animals: Gorillas, Lions, we fed the Giraffes (SUPER COOL), elephants, and even the new Koala exhibit.  We were quite the crew of kids but we had a really fun day, AND we bought an annual pass so we'll be back!

Ben and Summer come for a visit

My brother Ben lives in Japan with his wife Summer and their two little girls.  They come for a visit when they can but so far it's been every year!

They were coming for an extended visit and stayed with us for almost 3 weeks until we all met back up in Ohio for our Lewis reunion.

We were SO GRATEFUL that they would become the temporary parents of 6 so that Stephen and I could steal away for a few days to Boston.

Our children stayed busy and happy....

Blanket tent on the stairs, dress up parties as princesses

Playing at the splash fountains at the Villages at Fairview complete with milkshakes from the Purple Cow--can you imagine the looks this crew got with all these little ones?!  Ben and Summer are such troopers.

We did lots of things (more posts later) but I HAD to include these great photos that will be perfect for blackmail later....

Bye bye Boston--Day 5

Our time in Boston was coming to a close.  Sunday morning dawned and we knew that our flight home to our normal life and our wonderful children wasn't until the afternoon so we decided to take in at least a sacrament meeting.

The closest family ward was a bit of a walk so we got ready for church and headed out.  We were stalled a bit when we found ourselves in the middle of a 10K.  I was really inspired by all the runners in Boston, I guess they take their marathon pretty seriously!

Our route took us along the Charles River and across the Longfellow Bridge.  I was really happy about that because it was a beautiful walk AND we hadn't gotten any pictures of this yet.

This bridge is often called the "salt and pepper bridge" for these tower things.  We rode under this bridge during our "Duck Tour" at the beginning of the week.

And there is a lovely park along the banks of this river which provided some nice shade on the warm morning.

We made it to church in good time and while we were looking for an English Speaking Family Ward, we saw a Spanish speaking couple and a full-time elder entering the church the same time as us and we followed them to their own meeting.  We never saw any other cars and don't even know if an English ward was meeting there but it was fine.  Actually kind of nice and sentimental since Stephen and I met while serving in a Spanish Speaking branch.  I understood everything and felt very at home.

On our walk back to Joey's place we passed by the crew starting to set up the famous stage used for the Boston Pop's Orchestra's performance on the 4th of July.  That was cool!

Our trip to the airport and back home was uneventful--our children were probably as happy to see us as we were to see them.  They'd had a great time while we were gone and a future post will have some pictures to prove it.  

I am so grateful that Stephen and I got to have this chance to get away and enjoy some time together, we really are a great match and I'm so glad I get to take this journey with him!

Boston Day 4

Boston is a walking town--which is awesome!  Most things you want to see you can walk to and Saturday was our walking day!

We headed out first thing to get as much in as we could.  We aimed to hit Fennway Park FIRST THING but didn't quite make the earliest tour, so we bought tickets and looped back to see the Mapporium (no picures allowed) which was cool, it's a stained glass globe made "to scale" that you can walk through.

So then on to Fennway!  Stephen was real excited about this place and really enjoyed the tour.  I would have like to attend a game, but he'd been to a game here not too long ago on a business trip and wanted to see the tour so.....here we are up by "The BIG GREEN MONSTA"

Then a quick stop by on of the oldest operating and busiest Fire Stations in Boston (pointed out to us by on the Duck Tour) where we got Sam a t-shirt.

Then in the afternoon we took the "Freedom Tour", a well known self guided walking tour throughout the historical sites of Boston.  This was really cool, we took more pictures than I care to upload but highlights included Paul Revere's grave & home, church where the lanterns were hung (one if by land, two if by sea), USS Constitution, and Bunker Hill.

Just as I adored all the old colonial homes in the country, I also was thrilled with the beauty of Boston and was grateful to all the efforts by historical societies to keep true to the cities unique colonial roots.  3 story brownstones, smaller doors and windows, lots of character and just beautiful!

Dinner that night was DELICIOUS with Joseph & Liz at an Italian restaurant near Joseph's apartment (made up for the disappointing Chatham's Bar Inn).

Boston Day 3

Day 3 was a lot of driving and touristy stuff.  I won't bore you with photos of EVERYTHING but we saw....

• Lexington and Concord and learned of the historical significance of the things that took place there leading up to the Revolutionary War. (shot heard round the world)
• Walden Pond
• Yummy Custard Ice Cream (it was super hot!)
• The Louisa May Alcott House
• Harvard
• Boston Temple

 

I have to admit that as we drove around the more country parts of Massachusetts I fell in love with the colonial charm of so many homes.  I began to dream that Stephen transfers to the offices there in the Boston area just so we could live in a beautiful old home with a wrap around porch! It was just beautiful!

 

Here are our awesome hosts for the weekend!  LOVE THEM!!

And us at Walden Pond

  

And then headed back to a relaxing night at Joey's apartment and ordered pizza in--this was our sunset to finish a long day, and then the skyline at night....

Boston-Day 2

Thursday morning dawned and it was CAPE COD day!

 This is the view from Joey's apartment--pretty huh?

Joseph and Liz had taken Thursday and Friday off and we had reservations at a bed and breakfast in Cape Cod, Chatham to be specific.  Here we are at the beach, I officially put my toes in the Atlantic Ocean!! But admittedly it was too cold for me to do much more than that.

Stephen and I went for a good walk on the beach and collected cool rocks and shells that will eventually decorate a bathroom along with a watercolor of this place:

 

 After enjoying the beach we got ready for a "nice" dinner at Chatham Bar's Inn, it was our a really pretty inn that overlooks the beautiful ocean.  Sadly the meal wasn't that great and the service was even less to write home about.  Oh well at least we looked nice, and other meals we ate made up for it.

Happy 11 years babe!

After dinner we enjoyed some really yummy ice cream at a local hot spot and headed back to our charming "bed and breakfast".  It was a great day!!

Boston Baby--Day 1

Stephen and I got away for 5 days at the end of June and took a trip to Boston.....Stephen's brother lives there and it's a great place to visit.  We were really really needing a break away (our last break (I think) was when we were pregnant with Lindsey 5 years ago!!) We had some frequent flier miles and a place to stay, AND my brother and his family were staying with us for a few weeks and were willing to become parents of 6 kids (our 4 plus their 2--THANKS AGAIN) and BOOM--perfect plan!

We nearly missed our flight out of Dallas!  We were on time but it took forever to get through security, then found that they'd changed the terminal we were flying out of so we had to traipse across DFW International and arrived at the gate with 10 minutes to spare--but they'd closed the doors early calling it a "critical flight", we complained and pitched a fit, thankfully we had a "platinum frequent flier" who had been caught off the flight as well and he convinced them to open the door and let us on.  WHEW!

Arriving in Boston, it was HOTTER than expected as we seemed to have brought Texas heat with us!  Joseph was held up at work but he met us for lunch (we ate so well while on this trip, I'm telling you!) and then left us to do some things on our own while he finished up.

We did the DUCK TOUR: 

This is a great way to see the city and I'm really glad we did this first thing.  This really is one of those "trucks" that turn into a boat and take you onto the Charles River.  It was really hot and we were quick to chug some Gatorade and buy some bottles of water for us to use while we were there. 

We walked around a bit more, thought about trying to do a tour of Fenway Park but forgot there was a game and when we arrived we figured out they weren't doing tours (oops!) so we walked back to Joey's apartment where we met him and girlfriend Liz and we took a walk through Boston Public Park and saw the statues memorializing the "Make Way for Ducklings" children's book (and bought a copy for Ben & Summer)

Then we went to dinner at "The Oyster House" the longest continually running restaurant in the United States.  The clam chowder was awesome and of course I ate an oyster and Stephen had a mussel... I'm not a fan of oysters but I can now say I've eaten one and where better to have them than at "The OYSTER house"?  The meal though was great!

Then we walked more through the Italian part of town and hit up Mike's Canoli's--my first experience with this heavenly pastry and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND them!!