...and, I'm back.

Whew. I'm back. Miss me?

The kids have been off school for a week and we went to Boston. So much fun. When we moved from Boston, in 2000, the Big Dig was still in progress. It was amazing to see it finally completed. It is so nice how the city is now unified, without the highway cutting through it. Anyway...

We started off in Western MA for a night. Here is C, me and S. 9 yr old B has been camera shy lately.

Then we went on to Springfield. My family is descended from one of the founders of Springfield. He came here from England in the early 1600's. There is a statue of him, complete with pilgrim hat, gi-normous bible, cape, knee-socks and square-toed shoes. So we had to show the kids that.

And there are some really nice museums in Springfield.

Along with a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden.

Then we trot, trot, trotted on to Boston. And guess what? Monday was a holiday in MA. Patriot Day. Celebrating tri-point hats and people dressing up in revolutionary war get-up. We enjoyed some of that. Kids love war stuff. So do husbands. Nothing says fun like cannons and muskets.

Except Brighams ice cream. Oh, yeah, where "jimmies" are free. Always. This lady had such a thick Bahston accent, I thought my husband was going to give her a kiss. It was way bettah than my, "Pahk tha cah ovah ayat Supah Stawp aynd Shawp."

Anyway, we stayed with my cousin and her family. Which was awesome. We all hung out. Visited sights. Ate good food. Acted like tourists a bit. Sat in the sun. Took a water taxi to Charlestown to see Old Ironsides. It was really fun. We walked a lot. We took a lot of rests so the kids didn't complain too much. But it was nice. B is in 4th grade so he has been studying a lot of the Revolutionary War history in class and was very interested in seeing the real deal, in real life. S loves reading books on wars and he, also, was very happy to hear about all the history. 

We also got to spend a day at the ocean. Even though it isn't really beach weather, we loved it. It is so wonderful to see the edge of the land and the sun and the waves...ah...

We also visited Cambridge. Where I lived for several years. Things have changed. It has gotten more up-scale. Gone are the Portugese shops with windows filled with baby Jesus statues. In their place are chi-chi restaurants and tapas bars. We took the kids to the cafe where we got engaged, nearly 12 years ago.

 

All in all, a great visit. I didn't take the laptop. I tried not to think about the FS. It was nice to not have the constant draw of the A-100 boards, Livelines, FSparent, the blogs. All these things that make me crazy about our uncertain future. But now, guess what? We are back and I'm crazy again. Ha-Ha!