And so it begins

Slept in. 
Took Kiddo to school with wet hair and in my pajamas. 
Was walking too slow for his liking (hence the look he's making in the picture). 
Was only five minutes early instead of the half hour he wanted. 
Told me not to go inside with him.

First day of school. Things can only go up from here.

Maine!

If I yearn for the mountains, Brandon needs the ocean.  We went to Portland, Maine and headed straight to the Eastern Promenade to walk along the shore.

Before leaving Maine, we went to beautiful Cape Elizabeth!

Before I end this post, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the stellar hotel we stayed at while we were in Portland.  I am of the opinion that the hotel chain bought a nursing home, furniture included, and then didn't. change. anything.  The kids thought the massage chair was especially fun.

New Ham-sphere

After Boston, we headed to New Ham-sphere (Kiddo's pronunciation) so we could commune with the mountains.  Our first stop was The Flume--a pretty little hike through a scenic gorge.

The next morning we took an aerial tramway up the Cannon Mountain and hiked around some trails at the top.  Apparently the mountains are my happy place!  It was lovely!

Three Days in Boston

With all the travel that Brandon does, he made me a deal that we could have a family vacation this summer to a place of my choosing.  After checking tickets prices, we finally settled on going to Boston.  We hadn't been since Brandon's graduation (not including a wedding in Martha's Vineyard), and Kiddo was thrilled to see his birthplace.  And, since she was a mere 8 hours away, we asked Chelon if she would like to come up for a few days, as well.

We spent the first day walking the Freedom Trail, which Brandon and I have done a dozen times, but we still managed to find aspects that we'd never seen.  Kiddo had spent the entire summer reading up on the Revolution War so we were prepared!  We ended the day having dinner with our old law school friends whose wedding we'd been to five years earlier.  It was great to see them again!

 

On Day 2, we headed to Cambridge.  First we attended our old student ward.  It was odd to be in an entirely new building (no more renovated factory!) and only recognize half a dozen people.  After church we walked over to our old building to take some pictures.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Harvard Square and the campus, past our old apartments, and finally to the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Day 3 was all about whales.  When we decided to go to Boston we knew that going whale watching was a must!  Blue whales are Kiddo's favorite animal and, even though we only saw humpback whales, it was pretty thrilling.
Also, we learned a fun fact during the boat ride: G2 gets seasick.

Afterwords we went to the aquarium and then to the North End for some pastries.

And now for what I know you're really wondering about: the food!

Best meal: a tie between The Kebab Factory (Punjabi Dhaba was out of walking distance) and Al's Cafe (the Italian's Italian was amazing!)

Best dessert: Lobster Tail (from Modern Pastry).  A cream-filled pastry the size of my face!  It was dinner and then breakfast the next morning.  I should've gotten two.  If I could give one tip about visiting Boston: go to the North End for pastries.  And then do it again.  If you're able, do it a third time.

It was a fabulous few days in Boston and was made all the better by Chelon being there.  Hopefully we can make a trip to Boston again soon!

Vacation Bible School!

It's a common practice for churches of other denominations to hold Vacation Bible School during the summer, but it's not typically done in the Mormon church.  I'm not sure of all the reasoning why, but this year our ward decided to do one.  I volunteered to help and was one of the "tribe leaders" for the week, which meant I was in charge of a group of kids (including mine) for the various activities.

The kids loved it!  My favorite part was the daily interactions with "Mary" and her disbelieving neighbor, "Eunice."  It was amazing to see the kids in my group go out of their way to show kindness to Eunice, as well as her growing testimony.  It was a really great week!