Our First Massachusetts Visitors!

So, we did not start our trip with The Freedom Trail in Boston, but it's not a bad place to start right now!

We walked The Freedom Trail. On a Saturday. With 4 adults and 5 kids. Two double strollers. A picnic lunch. Awesome.

First stop: Paul Revere's House. We may or may not have missed a few of the old houses. You have to pick and choose with babies in tow.

Had to walk through a Farmer's Market and Aunt Kerriann saved the day with a 2 lb. container of perfect strawberries! Johnny was in Heaven.

Ate our picnic lunch at the Holocaust Memorial in Boston. When you're done walking, you're done walking.

Played elevator tag in Faneuil Hall. There is always one girl moving in every single picture. They had some interesting dynamics going on too. I have to say, after two weeks, we really miss these very vibrant girls. Our house is so quiet.

Two sideways pictures of our quick trip to Walden Pond to swim.

 

Back to Boston:

I'm sorry to post this here, but my husband looks like a hot celebrity Dad, caught by the paparazzi. Right?! Am I right or am I right?! Or am I right?! :)

We visited two cemeteries. This was the first and had some incredibly old graves in it. I'm sorry if you find a few of my pictures irreverent...this one isn't. Just old.

Boody. Tee hee. I know, it's probably not funny. 

And this headstone is one of the reasons they want you to stop at this cemetery. It has several things carved onto it that are typical of the time period. The skull with wings, represents the deceased and their soul leaving Earth. The creepy guy at the bottom represents Father Time, who is snuffing out this guy's candle. I can't help but imagine the Disney Hercules movie with the Sister's Three about to snip the hair and then getting stopped because it wasn't time...

Next up on The Freedom Trail - this huge cast. Mom said, "Oh, the movie Glory!" She then stopped and talked to that polite Ranger for about 10 minutes while Brian stood behind her and I tried to throw the double jogging stroller down an incredible flight of stairs. It's funny now - I don't think anybody was in a good mood at this point. It was hot, hot, hot outside.

Now, that's not the end of the Freedom Trail. But we're taking a break and going back a few days. The first two days of their trip, I had a 4 yr. check up scheduled for Galina and a yearly vet appointment scheduled for the dogs. The girls entertained themselves by drawing on this boulder in the back yard. Can I call it a boulder? Or is it just a big rock?

Skin, however, can look fabulous with chalk as well.

The girls got a kick out of Anna with both feet in the air - but I'll be honest, I don't think she ever has both feet on the ground. That girl goes...unless she has the iPad. :)

Galina's hiding spots during hide and seek. Makes me smile.

Back on The Freedom Trail - we stopped at Boston Commons and rode this Carousel. The kids enjoyed it!

Tell me these two aren't related!!

Johnny fell asleep for about 10 minutes. 

Granny stayed with our stuff. There was a cool pool-thing in the background but it was actually cruel because we didn't know it was there (not that we'd have let the kids in with all of the "inner-city kids" as Kerriann called them) and the girls desperately wanted in - it's called the frog pond.

The last cemetery we stopped where we saw:

Mother Goose's Headstone

And also Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. Seems like somebody else notable was buried there, but I can't remember who it was.

Our last stop was a bit off of The Freedom Trail - but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Regina Pizzeria

Very, very yummy!

And after we ate pizza and walked back to the parking lot, we let the kids look out over Boston Harbor. I think they enjoyed it more than anything else!

Johnny was asleep before we were out of the parking lot!

Of course, we were yards away from the original Cheers restaurant when we left the carousel, but we didn't know it and headed in the opposite direction - so we swung by on the way out of Boston.

Next up (which actually happened before Boston) is Minute Man National Historic Park - Day 1.

We ate a picnic lunch and contributed to the downfall of the squirrel and chipmunk societies in the great North East. We fed them grapes and cheetos.

Walked from the Visitor's Center to Hartwell Tavern - no, scratch that. We started to walk, and then I decided it would take too long. So we drove to Hartwell Tavern. Got to see how a spinning wheel works.Had a few minutes before a musket firing, so we walked down the road from Hartwell Tavern to another Hartwell House. Anna was done.

Watched said musket firing, you get to too - lucky dogs :)

Another of our excursions was a tour, I mean a brief tour, of the dairy at Great Brook State Farm.

These are the first-time mommy cows. They're all almost ready to "go to barn". 

Doesn't she look like she's saying, "Can you believe those people? A girl can't even eat."

"Eh, what are you looking at?"

"I know, Delores, I know."

I have to indulge my pretend artistic side.

We tried for a group shot :)

Later that afternoon, we headed to the Josiah Whittemore House for a few activities.

 We went "shopping" for ingredients to make a recipe from the time period.

Granny found someone that wanted to talk about Hawaii :)

Then we made Colonial caps

...and dressed up like Colonial girls...

...and boys...

Back at the beginning, Aunt Kerriann bought her way in the door of my house with a box of Dartoni's cannolis.

We enjoyed cool afternoons for two days. The kids made my seat-less rocking chair work.

Our last historical outing was to The Old North Bridge in Concord, where the first casualties of The Revolutionary War took place. I think.

Again, Anna was done.

Finally, on Saturday, the 21st of July, Pop Pop and Uncle John showed up with a green Jeep and CORN! So the girls got busy shucking corn.

Galina said, "I found corn!!"

Anna chose to enjoy hers straight from the husk!

Now, sorry to go back again, but on the 16th we went to Salem, MA. We actually didn't go to any of the numerous witch museums. They take it too far. It's kind of like being in Halloween Town, instead of being somewhere historically significant. 

We originally chose to go to Salem because we wanted lobster and the Food Network show 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' rated a place in Salem, called 'The Lobster Shanty' as pretty good. Wah-wuh. It was quite a disappointment. But, luckily we visited this "light-house" on the way out of town. It was nice for the kids to get out and walk!

We ate ice cream at 'The Hungry Whale' and probably would've enjoyed their lobster more - but oh well. Wouldn't you love to be fed by 3 people at once, all with a different flavor of yummy ice cream? Johnny enjoyed it!

We celebrated Galina's birthday a few days before, she ended up with what I used to get, a Birthday Jubilee :)

So...that concludes the trip...thanks and come again.

Yeah right :) It was SO MUCH FUN to have Granny, Aunt Kerriann, Julia, Ella and Anna stay with us for two whole weeks! We could've kept them for two months and still not have had enough. Seriously. We love company. Galina cried when everyone left. She's a very sweet girl. But, I know everyone was ready to go home. They made the trek home in ONE day. That's how I know they were ready to get home :) a 16 hour drive. Whew! Well, once everyone has recovered and the kids have grown a bit (maybe 6 months) they need to come again and we can explore Maine next! Love you all!

Now...who's coming next?!