boston trip..and much more

we drove from indiana to boston over memorial day weekend. it was a perfect trip. the kids did marvelous in the car. we took two days driving out there and one day driving back (left at 6:45am and get home at midnight).

our first stop was in cleveland to meet my new nephew milo. he was beautiful. elliot took this picture. he did pretty good.

i love this picture of the boys with their cousins and their aunt kate.

here they are playing outside. click on the picture to make it bigger to see the hair action sala and sam have going on.

our next stop was to see our good friends rachel, micah, and simon in pennsylvania. she was so sweet and remembered it was my birthday in a few days, so she made me a cake and they all sang happy birthday to me. it's been so much fun to live within a days drive of them the past couple of years. we seem to keep bumping into each other and i love it!

simon in the middle. isn't he darling! they let us stay the night too. thanks guys!

our third stop was to jeffrey's 9th great grandfather's grave in medfield, massachusetts. his name is james allen, which is where jeffrey gets his middle name, james. it was a really neat experience. james allen was the first allen to immigrate to america from england.

this picture is of the boys searching for the gravestone.

found it.

jeffrey brought along his large format camera to take a picture. i can't wait to see it.

the boys were totally entertained for 45 minutes with this hole in the hill. they stuck sticks and grass and anything they could find in it. not sure why, but they called it a skunk hole. whether it was or not i'm not sure. all i know is i'm glad they didn't get sprayed.

i had to add this picture. isn't he handsome! i love love love this picture. this is truly an elliot smile.

we spent the night with our good friends ashley and mike just outside of boston. they were so sweet to let us crash at their place over the weekend. there is a cute picture of them later on at the beach with us.

we went to boston on saturday and it was wonderful. you can always count on some great live entertainment by faneuil hall. i love my boys.

grandma and grandpa homer were in town visiting my brother so we got to have all of them join us in boston this day. grandma and grandpa bought sam and elliot these swords. i think it was definitely a highlight of the trip for the boys.

we've been to downtown boston quite a few times having lived in cambridge for a summer and then having lived in ny and driving up every couple of months to visit boston. we still had a couple things that we hadn't done yet that i wanted to do this time. we took a ride on the famous swan boats in the boston public garden. it is so gorgeous there.

we finally walked over the bridge to see the uss constitution, "old ironsides". we didn't have time to go below deck, but it was cool to walk up on the deck, especially because it is "the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel". it was worth the long walk.

luckily boston didn't let us down and we got some great rain! what i learned and fell in love with while living in cambridge is that no matter what the weather or how the skies look, you always take an umbrella. sure enough it cleared right up too. oh how i love boston. i think i'm meant to live there again someday.

on sunday we had another cool experience. james allen, the 9th great grandfather, came to america with his uncle john allen. john allen established the allen congregation in 1638 in dedham, massachusetts. here's a link to his wikipedia page. we went to the service in memory of jeffrey's ancestors. it was really neat. afterward jeffrey was allowed to take a picture with his large format camera inside the church and outside the church.
if you're wondering why it's spelled "allin", jeffrey explains that the family name changed from allen to allin and back to allen a few times through his family history.

we took the train into boston on sunday afternoon. the kids and i hung out at a playground while jeffrey took his camera to get a few shots in the city. we went with him to his last location, acorn street, a very popular place to take a picture. the funny part of the afternoon is the kids were all whiny at the playground, so i was a little worried about taking them to this street while jeffrey took his picture. you see it usually takes a half hour or so for jeffrey to set everything up and take his picture. well the kids had more fun running up and down this hill for a half an hour than they did at the park. silly boys.


this became a new favorite way to ride in the stroller.

monday we went to the beach. a dream come true. i've been missing the ocean so much lately. plus i had jeffrey by my side. couldn't get better than that.

jeffrey got in! it was so cold. eric quickly joined him. then sam amazingly wanted to join him.

the boys loved playing near the water and in the sand. the beach was definitely another highlight for them, especially because their grandma and grandpa were there along with sarah, eric, will, and lily. our friends ashley and mike, along with their beautiful daughter lizzy, joined us as well.

sam doing a funny back pose.

elliot getting buried. it's a favorite thing of his to do at the beach.





that night jeffrey surprised me with a raspberry chocolate ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday, since my birthday was the next day and we'd be spending all day in the car.

here's another shot of sam's cake face.

the drive home actually wasn't that bad. i mean it was long, but it wasn't awful. i think what made it better was our spur of the moment pull-off in palmyra, new york. there is so much church history there. this was my third time there.

the hill cumorah. the spot where joseph smith was given the golden plates by angel moroni.

the smith log home. where angel moroni visited joseph smith in a vision.

the sacred grove. where Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to the boy joseph smith. it is so amazing to walk through those places. such peace and power there.

jeffrey got in one last picture. the kids were entertained with bugs and sticks and rocks this time. it was such a nice 2 hour break from the long day of driving.

thank you jeffrey for insisting that we do this trip to boston. it was so wonderful. thanks for taking care of us and making sure our life is full of fun!