Boston!

We're back from Boston after a wonderfully busy and delightful vacation. Get ready for a bajillion pictures!

Waiting on Auntie Monster to take us to the train station to begin our journey!

If you look closely, there's a boy behind that backpack. :) Well, a hermit crab actually...

Made it to the train. As far as my kids are concerned, a day where you get to ride a train AND a plane could not be anything but magical. 

Finally at the airport. Here we are watching the planes while we wait on Mr. Random Stranger my sister snatched from a bachelorette party to save the day by driving the car seats to the airport after I left them behind... 

We had MANY hours to kill. There are MANY moving walkways in an airport. Score!

Many hours to kill turned into Many Many hours to kill after our plane hit strong headwinds on it's way back from some third world country I've never heard of and then had to be massively security swept because of said third world country and arrived in Portland LONG after it was supposed to. 

Poor things sleeping on the terminal floor while we wait. And wait. And wait some more. 

FINALLY on the plane! They crack me up every time we fly by reading their safety cards front to back. And Rebecca always does it with *exactly* that face on. 

Mommy, WHY are we on the plane and it's still not moving? Yeah, more delays on the tarmac. Plus they'd only been asleep for about an hour in the terminal before I had to wake them up to get on the plane. Oh, for the days when I could carry them both at the same time!

Finally flying!

We had a wonderful welcoming committee at the airport composed of their Dad, both Grandmas, Auntie Anne, and cousin Amanda and headed straight for the nearest IHop for breakfast. 

So So very happy to see their Daddy.

Caiden had been promising Nana a hug "in human" instead of over the computer for the last week. He delivered!

I don't know that he really sat down much all breakfast. He just had to keep circling around passing out the hugs!

Chilling out in Nonnie's back yard. He took my Christmas Village trees from the attic and made a little mini-world for his dinosaurs. :)

Happy reunited cousins! These girls just pick up and run like they've only been apart for a hour or so. Straight to work on a joint storybook composition.

A boy and his Nonnie. <3

One of the things I really do miss about Boston sometimes is the easy access to ocean. You just can't get that in McMinnville. When we go back, I spend as much time as I can in the ocean, near the ocean, on the ocean, anything to soak it up and take it back home in my pores. 

Ashley sat down and read some stories, which was adorable and sweet....until Rebecca almost fell asleep! I'm a firm believer in the best cure for jet lag being to just jump on the time clock of wherever you are right away. After only getting about 5 hours of interrupted sleep the night before the poor thing was ready to fall over sideways....but not at 3pm please!

NOT tired. :P

It's time to go to Dad's? Now? YAY!!!!

Wollaston Beach

One thing that's an absolute MUST every time we go visit is the daily Dunks trip. They look forward to those donuts ALL year. Of course, if you only get them once a year, you can have the chocolate frosted mania with whatever you want. Chocolate milk? Sure! Sprinkles? Sure! Munchkins? Sure!!!

Nantasket Beach

I'm so used to having my kids around 24/7 I get ridiculously excited by things like strange bugs, even when they aren't around. So I just take pictures to text to them via their Dad instead. :)

Look at my boy beam! Grampy had been out of town when we landed, so as soon as he got back we snuck him up to Nana's house to see the kids. Such a nice surprise for them!

LOVE
One of these days I have to go through and actually print and frame all these pictures I say I'm going to print and frame. Whenever that day comes, this one will be in the mix for sure.

Another photo I couldn't resist texting to the kids. Kitty Apollo with an ENTIRE bird in his mouth. He came strutting up in front of the house hollering for approval of his catch. 

My mother had found some bundles of Rebecca's baby pictures and set them aside for her for when we arrived, so to make it fair we sent some of Caiden's baby pictures over to Walmart to be printed. Here he is lining them all up for inspection before putting them in his album. 

She doesn't think she looks at ALL like she did as a baby. She actually asked me if I had the right pictures. :) But yes, the chubby squat little pudge with the helmet of black hair in those photos is the same skinny stick of a blondie I have these days. I know, I was there the whole time. She's still dubious. :P

Last year we took a boat ride into Boston with my best friend Jess and her two kids Lucy and Mason (who happen to be, respectively, each exactly one year older than my kids. Literally to the month. It makes for a great stair-stepping mixture when we get together). Well, right next to where the ferry departs from is the USS Salem, an old destroyer battleship which has been converted to a museum. The kids have been begging me from that moment through the entire year to go ON the battleship Mommy! So we did. :)

Mason

Nonnie pretending to dish out food in the mess room.

Ashley came too! We had a really big group, which made for a lot of crazy circling and some paranoia about kids overboard on my part, but it was all good in the end. 

Testing out the bunks. I thought for a second there Caiden was going to fall asleep! 

Even on a sailor bunk below decks, this girl can strike a modeling pose. :)

WAY up there under that sign is my Mom. WAY Up There. We were back in the parking lot enjoying a snack. 

Adventuring can make you SUPER hungry. She practically inhaled about three handfuls of peanuts before she could slow down and breath again. :P

Driving the ship!

Remember that sign my Mom was beneath? Yeah, we climbed up there. I don't know whether it's me or my boy, but damn do I get PARANOID about him and heights! And water. And weapons (or anything that can be turned into a weapon for that matter). Seems to me the boy practically lives on the edge of an ER trip most of the time. Luckily for him, his Nonnie's not nearly so nervous as his Mom about heights. She took over until we were back on deck again. Phew!

Doesn't this look like a nice peaceful moment exploring the bridge? Nope! Believe me, there was screaming, running, shouted commands, changes of battle stations, pirates on the horizon, bananas flying through the air, sharks on the attack, broken engines, and any number of other imminent catastrophes. 

Next we took the ferry to Boston again. Love the ferry!

Jess and Mason. <3

Going under a bridge!

Starting to pick up speed....and wind!

LOTS of wind!

Boston!

Lunch break on the steps of Faneuil Hall. By this point, the kids and I were feeling our small town farming life conversion coming out pretty strong. Let me tell you, when you haven't been in the big city in a couple of years the commotion, the noise, the people, the crowds, the buildings, it all adds up and it can be a bit overwhelming!

Especially when you're tired.

"Momma, city sure is much more different from a farm!"

Adorable. These guys were pretty much inseparable most of the day. 

Wearing out. 

One of these faces is not like the others.....

Heading back home.

Trying to get the boys to both look at the camera at the same time....   :P

STILL trying to get the boys to look at the camera at the same time. :D

I just cannot even believe the beauty of this picture. Going on the wall for sure.
This was leaving the Natural History Museum, which in retrospect I cannot believe I didn't get pictures of on my own phone. We have tons of pictures on my Mom's camera, and I'll see if I can get my hands on them to put up. It was quite possibly the best day of my son's life to date. He was literally flushed in the face, sprinting around the dinosaur hall, hugging the glass cases his favorite dinosaurs were behind, and shouting with incredibly accuracy which specimen we were looking at. "MOMMY! It's a Deinonychus claw! Look, Triceratops! Mom, Coelophysis's skull! Look how big the Plesiosaur was!" Every so often he would see an exhibit which would just stop him in his tracks and he would go into "investigation" mode, analyzing the actual bones to get the answer to questions he wants to know. His questions can be pretty esoteric at this stage of dinosaur obsession and seeing them in person is SO much better than Mommy's ignorant answers. For example: "Was Protoceratops's frill bigger than Triceratops's horns? Which part of their leg bone was longer, the upper or the lower?" This kid knows his dinosaurs inside out and he was practically in a tizzy to be seeing them for actually real, in human.
Meanwhile, the displays in the remaining rooms contained every animal Rebecca has ever been in love with, fascinated by, or seen on Diego. Plus rooms of glass flowers and jewels (if you ask Rebecca) minerals (if you ask Caiden), and cousin Ashley along for the entire day. It was truly wonderful. 

Getting ice cream at Nantasket, my favorite East Coast beach. Again, most of the pictures are on my Mom's phone. It was an incredibly foggy day which we spent digging in the sand, building castles, and chasing sea gulls. 

Good ice cream. :D

Sisters! We met up with both sides of the family for a last dinner the night before we flew back. I just cannot believe how adult these girls are. They were smaller than my own are now when I met them!

Time to go home. Perfect window for waiting.

Watching the sky chefs load up our plane.

Nutella, a personal TV, and your very own set of earphones. Traveling in style!

More TV in one single flight than they usually watch in an entire week. Good Lord.

Home Sweet Home!

And directly into our souvenirs from the Natural History Museum. She's excavating for jewels.

And he's a *real* Paleontologist, digging out a Brachiosaur. Or a Brontosaur. Or something. :)

So now we've been home for an entire day and half and we still have a few days to settle in before school starts. We seem to have been able to jump directly back on to Pacific time, Rebecca's checked in with all her beloved pets and baby dolls, Caiden's been able to spend four hours straight surrounded by his dinosaur models, and the bags under their eyes are already receding. Well on our way. Oh yeah, and we've already been to the farm to check in on our best friends and pick up some "real" milk which Chris was kind and thoughtful enough to have waiting in the fridge immediately.

It's good to be home!