Boston

I always feel so lame with these catching-up posts, trying to highlight some sweet memories before they disappear from this feeble mind of mine.  But honestly, we had such a lovely time in Boston -- I thought it would be wonderful to share a few pictures and hit a few highlights.

My dad's maternal side of the family was gathering for a reunion up there, so my parents graciously agreed to fly our crew up there for all of the fun over Easter weekend.  Although we hated to miss Resurrection Sunday at our precious church, we were thrilled for the chance to get to have a little getaway vacation with our girls (and grandparents!), and to spend time with family we seldom get to see. 

The girls were ridiculously excited about flying on an airplane.  Their parents?  A little nervous.  We were meeting my parents in Boston, so we were outnumbered and traveling with a very energetic lap baby.  After pestering my sweet friend and travel-expert, I felt moderately prepared for our early-bird flight.  We woke in the dark, loaded up the van with sleepy but very excited little girls, and barely made it through security in time to board the plane.  We praised God for Southwest, which allowed us to stick Ruthie's car seat in an empty seat, for all of our flights.

(You'll note that there are no pictures of our flights.  It was all we could do to breathe on those flights, much less take pictures...)

But we arrived in one piece, thrilled to be in (chilly) Boston.  We reunited with my parents a few hours later and proceeded to crash in our hotel room.  After not-quite-enough-time snoozing, we met up with my dad's sisters, my cousin and her husband, and their two children, in Boston's North End.  We enjoyed our lovely windowed nook up a narrow flight of stairs.  The children loved their little hideaway as well!

  

 

 

We were thankful not to be blown away on our adventures, as we had a very important trip to take the following day.

 For months (literally), the girls have been talking about going to see the ducklings in Boston.  Have you read Make Way for Ducklings?  (We highly recommend it, along with every other book Robert McCloskey wrote!)  So yes.  We came all the way to Boston to see some ducks.  And swan boats!  But friends, it was wonderful.  The sun shone, and I could not get over my girls' eagerness to see these sweet ducks.  Precious innocence. 

 

 

So we hugged and kissed and climbed on Mrs. Mallard and her seven ducklings, and we were all tuckered out.  And hungry.  So Pops braved the lines and got us set up at Legal Seafood, where we were delighted to dine.  Ruthie even sampled the crayons, and Pops sampled some lemons.  It was a good day.  I wish I had gotten a picture of Phoebe with her tiny Starbucks cup (Miss Katie got Phoebe her own cup of cocoa) while we were waiting! 

 

 The adventures continued the next day with the reuniting!  Something like seventy-five Italians gathered together and ate (because that's what Italians do!) and talked and reminisced.  The older cousins of the younger generation entertained the smaller ones with crafts and an Easter egg hunt, and a delightful time was had by all.  And honestly, what's cuter than little kids with big bites of food?

 And then Easter!  He is Risen indeed!  Oh, my heart wanted to shout that day...

We journeyed a little ways north to New Hampshire to spend time with my cousin and my dad's sisters, and we were able to worship together as a (large) family.  And then, we were treated to an afternoon of Easter delights, egg coloring, dressing up, and egg hunting.  We were exhausted.  But we had so much fun. 

 And then, it was over.  We grieved as we parted ways with Mops, Pops, Mac, and Katie... and then we proceeded to sleep for something like four days straight.  I could not get over the naps the kids took that week.  Naps were skipped, we stayed up unbelievably late, we ate way too much delicious food, but everyone did awesome.  It was such a wonderful trip for us, and it was really fun to get away with the kids.  Even still, there's no place like home...