. . . and say hi to Boston

After some time in Connecticut, we made up our way to Boston for a few days. We had a loooonger than normal drive that included some gnarly traffic on the MassPike and a wild goose chase to find a Boston Market. It's Boston. It shouldn't have been that hard to find.  Thankfully for the kids, Boston is a much slower moving city than New York, and we had some fun activities planned that included less waiting in lines and more play.

Hailey just finished driving a "Duck" on the Charles River. Spencer got to drive too, and publicly declare his love of Wii on the duck microphone.

A visit to the Boston Children's Museum, a favorite.

The site of the Boston Massacre. . .

And Quincy Market.

After our fun in Boston, we had to put the McEntires back on a plane to Utah. The girls were sad. Oh, who are we kidding, we all were sad. That's just one of the hard things about living far away from family. 

. . . and celebrate Easter

After New York, when spent a few days decompressing at home. Lots of play time and movies and eating.

And we also got to celebrate Easter with family this year! Hurray! Easter egg hunts are so much more fun with cousins. 

Gilentires and Macbreths take New York

This spring we were lucky enough to host some of our favorite visitors: The McEntires! The girls were so excited to see their cousins that they shook and screamed the WHOLE THREE HOURS to JFK airport. (It was bad traffic.)

We stayed in New York for a few days to show off the sights. And I will just say New York is a totally different experience when toting around five children. It's not just the herding kids that takes extra effort, but the carrying the stroller down the stairs to the subway, toting a suitcase worth of diapers, wipes, juice boxes and snacks, and never being able to get more than 500 feet away from a restroom before another kids need to go that gets to you. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time introducing these five excited kids to the city.

Our first stop was the museum of Natural History. Not as big of a hit as it looks like. It was too crowded and the kids totally didn't get what the big deal was about seeing REAL dinosaur bones when they have seen fake but ANIMATED dinosaurs at other museums. Sigh. So we left and went to Central Park.

Which was a big hit. Go figure. We sat, ate snacks and overpriced hotdogs, and played on the playground. And escorted kids to the restrooms a lot. We enjoyed beautiful weather, and these country kids got to run around and use some energy.

And then an obligatory subway ride to Times Square. It's always mandatory to see this spectacle.

Back down to the subway. . .

. . . and back to our comfortable and appropriately-priced hotel room in good ol' New Jersey.

The next day we saw beautiful sights of the city as we got totally lost on our way down to . . .

The Statue of Liberty. . .

. . . and Ellis Island. The kids are wearing thin by now.

Dinner in the financial district, and then time to head home to Connecticut. . .

Mother's Day

[May 2011]

~

This is what I got for Mother's Day: 

an awesome homemade sign that said "MOM!" I like it. Direct and to the point.

homemade chicken parmesan by John. The value of this cannot be underestimated.

three adorable children who made me a mother to begin with.

Between the sign, the chicken, and the kids, life is good.

Newport, Rhode Island: without kids.

[April 2011]

~

This spring we women around these parts decided that we were (over)due a retreat weekend away from kids and home-tending to relax and have a little fun. Well, a weekend was not a realistic goal this time around, so we settled for 10 hours.

We traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to tour the huge, beautiful, seaside mansions once owned by members of the Rockefeller families. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed of the inside. But trust me, they were opulent; the personification of excess.

Between the speeding ticket for the driver, the run-in with the town drunk, and lots of shopping and eating, it was a very eventful day.