Monday, July 29, 2013

Grandparent's Visit: Finale

My parents were here for two weeks.  We did a lot of stuff.  It was exhausting. It was also so much fun. 

We went blueberry picking, the cool weather returned! My parent's went out the the Louisa May Alcott house, we met up for ice cream, we took a second trip out downtown to the freedom trail, we lost Seth, we found Seth, we went home. We saw Plymouth rock, drove out to Province town, retraced my Ragnar run, played in the surf, and just had a great time.
 Blueberry Picking
 Before we lost Mr. S. Thank heavens for a young woman who picked up our lost little boy and brought him to a security guard at the law school she attended. It was a frantic 15 minutes for us, but S was probably without direct adult supervision for maybe a few minutes. This was hands down one of my scariest moments as a mother so far.
 After we lost and then found Mr. S. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of anything but those crazy urban squirrels.
 I wish this picture was better. This was a great photo bomb by G-man

Visits are so bittersweet.  You miss them and want them here with you. You enjoy their company while they are here always knowing they will be leaving at the end. You enjoy sharing all you have discovered so far away, going, going, going from dawn until dusk. It's exhilarating and yet you crave the normalcy of day to day life. I told my mom they stayed here just long enough. We weren't too sad to see them go after two weeks. Next time I think they plan to get a hotel and rent a car. Live and learn.

Monday, July 22, 2013

J Dub's Third Birthday

 You know, if I was JW and this had been my birthday, I would have loved it. All his favorite things, rolled into one day. We started with personalized chocolate chip pancakes.
 Followed by a train ride (subway) downtown.  We traveled on the orange line, then got on the blue line. A subway ride without going on at least two lines is not a real subway ride.
This was followed by a boat ride across the harbor to see another boat. Oh and during the ride we saw a huge Coast Guard boat.  That was an exciting find.
Then, Grandma hurt her knee climbing a million stairs (294 to be exact), we couldn't find a place to eat, it was really hot...Luckily three year olds don't have to walk and can take naps in strollers to pass the time.

Did I mention Grandma and Grandpa were in town? Two of J's favorite people and our first Arizona visitors.  So much fun!

 We'll skip ahead to the fun part.  Cupcakes, presents, and games with friends.
 
 " Mom, leave me alone, I want to put my stuff back in the awesome elephant backpack I got from Great Aunt Cathy." 
"Thank You."

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Pageant!

My mom grew up in Manti UT where they hold a yearly summer pageant.  She was in the very first Mormon Miracle Pageant back in the 60s. So when I heard the Hill Cumorah pageant was on during my parent's visit, I knew I had to take them to see it. It's held in Palmyra New York, which is about six hours away from us.  Chad took one for the team and stayed home with the younger boys. Luckily he's not a big pageant fan, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice.

Just an FYI for anyone visiting New York State. They have some crazy tolls. It cost us thirteen dollars just to drive through that state. That's so weird to me. 
The Hill Cumorah

Palmyra Templ

Some of the actors
Joesph Smith Family Farm
 They actually keep a garden growing. The kids pointed some huge zucchinis out for the lady tending to the garden and she gave them a few. It was fun to have some fresh from the garden veggies. We miss our garden.
The sacred grove

 My mom loved the churches, houses, barns, silos, farmland etc. She was constantly taking pictures of the landscape as we were driving. We also frequently stopped to take pictures of houses. The kids snagged the camera and joined in. I definitely love the area we live!

Anyway, we had a great time and I'm glad we were driving during most of the record breaking heat the two days we were gone. I wish we'd stayed another day so we weren't so rushed. Maybe next time, although there may not be another July trip for my parents. I don't think the humidity was their favorite thing in the world.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Grandma and Grandpa in Town Part 1.

My parents came to visit Boston for the very first time in the middle of July. It was a great trip and we had a great time. Boston decided to make the Arizonans feel right at home too by providing some mid-90 degree weather the first week they were here. I'm surprised my parents didn't melt. Over 90 here is pretty miserable, especially when you're not used to the humidity.

So, we started off with something easy: geocaching right next to the pond down the street.  They learned what it really means to sweat.  And we saw some pretty swans.


We had to visit Lexington and Concord and see the cool movie about the first battle of the revolution. The fun gem in that visit was the musket demonstration. People here love the revolutionary era attire. Or maybe that's just the tourists.

To cool off we went swimming. And took naps.


But with the worst heat on it's way, there was only one thing to do. ROAD TRIP!


Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Summer Science Experiments

G-man wanted to do a bunch.  We got around to doing two. He's a big fan of chemistry type experiments. They're just so much buildup for five seconds of actual reaction time. I need something that takes a little more time and effort.

Experiment 1: Diet Coke and Mentos
 The small bottles definitely did not work as well as the big ones

Experiment #2: Elephant Toothpaste
It took a few tries to find the right bottle for this experiment. You needed something skinny to make the foam come out looking like toothpaste.  This was one we could do a few times over and them we played with the foam.  Definitely more fun than diet coke and mentos. But also a bit more dangerous.