Boston Details

DAY ONE - Freedom Trail

We spent the first day following this brick line all over Boston, across the Charles River and into Charlestown. It was totally awesome, and we logged more miles than I probably ever had walked in a day.

The Old State House

This is the balcony on the back of the Old State House where the Constitution was first read to Boston residents.

The House Paul Revere lived in with his first wife and 8 children, and his second wife and additional 8 children. He left from here for his famous midnight ride. 

The tallest church in the region in the late 1700s where Paul's friends hung two lanterns to tell the people in the outlying towns that the British were headed to their armament storage in Concord by traveling over the Charles River

The Old North Church and its tall tower

Fast Forward to WW 2: This is a battleship that you can now tour. It was cool! 

Its guns. My "guns."

The Monument at Breed's Hill to the Battle of Bunker Hill
(I asked a park ranger for an explanation. It was perfect)

298 steps later... I was wasted. 

And back at the bottom again. It was definitely worth the hike .

52 floors (by elevator this time!) later
We had dinner at Top of the Hub at the Prudential Center. It was a beautiful view. I had read to book your reservation surrounding sunset, and it was perfect. It was light for our first course, beautiful pink/orange for our main course, and...

...twinkling city-lights at dark for our dessert. Expensive and worth every penny!

DAY TWO - Harbor Ferry & State House

Thursday morning we took a Harbor Ferry out to the only island still open this late in the season.

The view of the city from the water was breath-taking

I loved all the sail boats on the sparkling water

Boston Light. The Nation's first and oldest lighthouse station. 

We traveled to Georges Island, where Fort Warren is located. The US government finished it just after the start of the Civil War. It served as a prisoner of war facility for Confederate leaders, and a training ground for soldiers headed to both WW I & II.  

It was fun to look back at the downtown from the top of the fort. 

The intricacies of the brickwork were astonishing, especially given that it was all done without power tools. 

After our fort tour and ferry trip back to the mainland, we finished up the last loop of the Freedom Trail we had missed Wednesday. We saw the current State House and went inside for a bit too. We also did Beacon Hill and the African-American Abolitionist trail (cool houses but disappointing overall). 

DAY THREE - Cambridge & Lexington

MIT

We checked out these commuter bikes and rode from MIT to Harvard along the Charles River. It was a beautiful, sunny ride along a nice bike trail. So fun! 

Harvard - Do I look smart - and young enough! - to be a student?

That night the wedding festivities began at the family rehearsal dinner. It was at a cute, Italian restaurant in Lexington. Before it started, we walked to the town square and saw this monument to eight Americans who died when they opposed the British march to Concord to destroy their ammunition storage. 

My date to the Rehearsal dinner

DAY FOUR - Concord & Wedding/Reception

Seeing Lexington the night before really made me want to see Concord. Here I am on the Old North Bridge. The Colonist ammunition was all stored on the other side of this bridge, and the British wanted to cross. No one knows who fired first, so this is the place the poet recorded "the shot heard round the world."  

And the REAL purpose of our trip - My brother's wedding! Here we are in front of the temple. Ryan sang at the Temple Dedication in 2000, so it was really fun for him to be back. 

I enjoyed seeing the similarities in architecture - at least in the steeple - to the Old North Church and other old churches in the Boston area. I love that the Church tries to personalize temples to their area. 

The Happy Couple! 

The siblings. We are so excited to have Rachel in our family.
Left to right: Kim, Sean, Rob, Rachel, Jared and me

The Reception was at a Civil War era commander's mansion. We played lawn games and then had dinner, dancing and dessert in the tent. It was beautiful.

Requisite cake-cutting picture. (And it was delicious. No yucky fondant here!)

 DAY FIVE - Cruise & Final Lunch

Sunday morning we checked out of the house my parents rented for all of us to stay in and headed back to Cambridge (in two large Ubers) to take a riverboat cruise. It was fun to hear the interesting facts about the buildings Ryan and I had seen on our bike ride. Unfortunately, Boston got its touch of Hurricane Matthew this day, and it rained, and rained, and rained some more.

My parents had to head to the airport, but the sibs (minus Rob & Rachel who had started their honeymoon to Bermuda) headed to lunch at a seafood place right on Boston Harbor.

It was delicious! Ryan got another lobster roll (it was his last chance), and I got amazing fried shrimp. Because of the rain, we did a little souvenir shopping and then headed back to the airport.  

And here's the miracle worker that made it all happen - The one and only Nana! We are so grateful Ryan's mom could come spend five days with our four crazy monkeys. It was so nice to get away and realize we really are still the best of friends. Thank you, Nana!!!!  

Boston

Ryan and I took a trip together. I've always wanted to go to Boston, and my brother decided to marry a Bostonian, so we took the chance to make a mini-vacation out of their wedding week. Here's some pictures to get started...

We stayed in a cute bed & breakfast right on Boston Common. We were walking distance to everything we wanted to do. 

I love cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks. I particularly like the buildings from hundreds of years ago mixed with modern skyscrapers. 

What's a Boston trip without some lobster fun?

And some more lobster fun!

Ryan would say, "What's a Boston trip without some New England food?!"
(Lobster roll, Cape Cod potato chips, lobster mac & cheese, and a whoopie pie)

This ducky sculpture is iconic Boston. It was crafted to honor the book "Make Way For Ducklings" which takes place in Boston Public Garden. 

And me and my date for the week! 

My goal is to write more about our trip with the hundreds of pictures we took, but seeing as we've been home a week and a half and I still haven't gotten around to it, I figured something was better than nothing.

The Summer of Visitors

I have affectionately named this past summer The Summer of Visitors. See why below.

GRANDMA & GRANDPA MORELLO
We started the summer with a quick visit from my parents. They bought a home in a retirement community in St George, so they were making the trip across the country from St Louis and stopped in for an evening. It was fun to see them, and they were excited for their new digs!

NANA WILLIAMS, AUNT SHAN & GRANDMA FOOKS
We spent our family vacation in Steamboat, meeting up with Ryan's mom, aunt and grandmother at the end. They came back to our home after the trip. We played lots of cards in the evenings, and Ryan and I even squeezed in a date to a live concert and ice cream in Old Town. One morning we took them to the famous Timnath Swetsville Zoo. And if you think we saw animals there, you need to come visit so we can show you this special "zoo."

BETHANY  + 4 KIDS
A few days later, my good friend from Madison stayed for a few days with her four children (approx the same ages as ours) while on her trek from Michigan to Utah for a family reunion. They all sprawled out on the play room floor in sleeping bags, and the boys are still asking when they are coming to visit again. We had a ton of fun, including playing at a huge splash pad on the other side of Fort Collins. We'd never been before, and it was amazing. The boys jumped on the tramp, threw rocks, and spilled their cereal. It was great fun... and totally crazy.

JAKE & LAURA
The next day our "adoptive" grandparents drove from Illinois to visit. They lived next door to us in Peoria, and they hadn't seen Ethan since he was a couple months old and obviously had never met Kate. We had a great time, especially when we borrowed a friend's paddle board and went to Horsetooth Reservoir for a morning.

KOKI
Just a few days later, we picked up our Japanese foreign exchange student. He stayed with us Friday evening through Monday morning. He was only 14, and came with 6 other students from Asahi City. We were supposed to only have him with us for breakfast, dinner and evenings, but he got sick so we also had him here all day Saturday. He was so good with the kids, and we really enjoyed his company. We did a bbq and bonfire one night, another night we played lots of card games, and on other night Koki taught us origami. It was crazy fun, and we hope to host another student next summer. I was definitely grateful for Ryan's Japanese language skills when he got sick; being a "mom" and getting him to take "yucky medicine" with a language barrier was a little difficult!

JESSICA + 3 BOYS
The following week a friend from Peoria was driving home to Illinois from California with her three teenage boys. They showed up after midnight and left before 10am, but it was fun to chat and catch up over breakfast's cold cereal. I'd become a pro by this point of washing and remaking the guest bed each day in record time!

INA & AMY
My cousin Ina was driving her car out to BYU from Iowa this year, and her friend Amy came with her to help drive and pass the time. They stayed with us Sunday through Tuesday of last week. They were both super wonderful with the boys. We did some short walks near Horsetooth and went to Old Town on Monday. They drew pictures with long stories, played Legos, and read lots of books. On Tuesday, we went to the temple open house before they finished their trek to the Y. It was super fun for the boys, especially since they both play the piano and sing. There's was lots of entertainment!

RON, KRISTIE + 2 BOYS
Ina's parents, my aunt and uncle, went to Colorado State here in Fort Collins many years ago for my uncle's PhD program. When they heard about the new temple, they arranged their schedules to come to the Open House. With only two teenage sons still at home, they had to work around their busy schedules, but they made it here for Labor Day weekend. It was great to have visitors, especially since Ryan had been gone for a week when they arrived. They were by far the most helpful in the kitchen, and the boys loved playing Legos and wrestling. We hope to enjoy many visits from them in the future.

And that's the summary of our Summer of Visitors. It was great fun to have so many people come, and I'm so grateful we have a dedicated bedroom and bathroom for visitors. I have learned to streamline breakfast and utilize the crock pot for dinner with large crowds. We've also used a lot of paper plates and plasticware. It got a little tedious there at the end of July, but I wouldn't have had it any other way! Thank you everyone for coming.

Come one, come all - The Williams Bed & Breakfast!

Kate is one!

Happy birthday, Princess Kate! 

It came. My baby is now one. What a bittersweet day for me. 

Here are some stats...

Height: 30.5 inches (90%)

Weight: 21 lbs 11 oz (78%)

And here are some facts...

Teeth: TONS! The eight front ones, top and bottom, plus 3 of the molars. 11 altogether! I love that she can chew just about everything now. 

Sleeping: 2 naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They usually last about 1-1/2 hours each. I also gave her some tough love last week, and abruptly took away nighttime feedings. She cried a lot the first night (off and on for THREE hours), but the second and third nights were much easier. And now she is sleeping through the night... and so am I! Hooray. 

Too much pink? Never!

Eating: She is packing it away! She is still nursing three times per day (before each nap and at bedtime). She eats three meals of real food plus two snacks too. The last few days she's eaten FOUR chicken nuggets for lunch with a gogurt and some crackers. Yeah, she's huge! 

She loved playing with her new castle and princesses... 

... And her brothers thought it was pretty cool too

Mobility: She predominantly crawls, but she took a few steps between Ryan and I a week ago, and she is standing on her own in the middle of the floor. She is the classic prairie dog now - crawling to a location in order to stand up and look around and then doing it again and again. 

Activities: She is getting into lots of trouble now: rolling all the bottled water across the kitchen floor, emptying the Tupperware drawer, taking all the shoes out of the organizer in the Mud Room, pulling all the books off the shelf, and unrolling the toilet paper. It's funny how I don't get nearly as bent out of shape about it as I did with the older kids. 

I kinda did overkill on the girly colors with her cake - Neon Pink cupcakes with Electric Purple frosting

She's darling, and we love her to pieces! Happy bday, Kakie! 

First Day of School

Second Grade - August 22, 2016 - Mrs Beaven

Kindergarten - August 24, 2016 - Mrs Eddy

Family Photos

The Whole Crew

How do I have FOUR kids? 

Collin Daniel, age 7-1/2

Brennan Michael, age 5-1/2

Ethan Ryan, age 2-1/2

Katelyn Marie, 11 months

And some candids of the babies...because they are freakin' adorable!