One if by land, Two if by sea, Three if by funny farm

We recently returned from our "vacation" to Boston. What took me so long to add this post? Well, I had to let time soften the edges of the memory. Nobody wants to read a rant! We were completely exhausted from travelling with 3 small children who don't understand the idea of waiting quietly or resting in the middle of the day. So, now that enough time has gone by and I can look at our pictures and think, "That was fun", I'm ready to write.

We spent the weekend at a wedding with Kevin's family. The kids were pretty good at the ceremony, unless you count Renee trying to pull my dress off every 2 minutes. When I got up to go to communion, I almost had a "wardrobe malfunction" in the middle of church- YIKES! The reception was pretty fun. Emma had a good time dancing with the ring bearer and flower girl who are her 2nd cousins, by my calculations. She wanted to stay up for the wedding cake so badly that she just kept dancing until she hit the wall. I was spinning her in circles and she was laughing until all of a sudden she stopped moving dropped her hands to her side and went catatonic. She spent the rest of the night in Daddy's lap until the cake finally came.

The next morning there was a brunch for the out of town guests at the hotel. Andy met his cousin and his friends and quickly started acting like a boy. He had a good time wrestling with the bigger guys. It was pretty cute to see him wrestle with boys since he's always running around with Emma. Poor kid always has to be Prince Charming. Later that day we went apple picking at Nashua winery. I recommend you never pick apples at a winery. They are the snobs of the pick-your-own industry. We ate extra apples just to make up for their snottiness.

The weather during the week we spent in Boston was beautiful. We couldn't have had it any better. Thanks to Uncle Scott we were able to stay in a really nice hotel right in the Theater District 2 blocks from Boston Common. We spent most of our time walking in the Common, playing at Tadpole Playground, and having picnics in the grass. One day we walked over to the Public Gardens to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues. The kids got a big kick out of climbing all over them. Right around rush hour we walked across the bridge and the kids kept screaming to the live ducks, "Hello, ducklings" at the top of their lungs. We got several chuckles from the passersby. One day we walked all the way through Beacon Hill and over the highway looking for the Charlesbank playground, but turned the wrong way. So instead of playing we had a lovely walk along the river on a crisp autumn day. We found a hollow tree to play in and some beautiful weeping willows to sit beneath.

If you ever go to Boston with kids, you must not miss the Boston Children's Museum. We had the most fun with the kids there. After the renovations are complete it will get 5 stars from me. Right now it only gets 4 because it doesn't have a restaurant and the elevators are soooo slooooow. But the kids had such a good time doing all the experiments with the Blue Man group room, they got to shop in a little mercado, they did art projects and story time. We were there for 4 hours and didn't even get half way through. They even had an awesome playroom for under 2 years. Andy and Renee played house and trains and climbed a little tree house. Truly, it was lots of fun for Kevin and me, too.

After all the walking around and all the great restaurants and seafood, Kevin and I thought it would be so nice to retire in Boston. That is until 2 am when the comedy club next to our hotel let out. One minute, we're sleeping soundly 12 floors up, next minute- FIREWORKS! Some schmuck was setting off firecrackers in the parking lot and another group of people are yelling profanities at each other. I went back to sleep and dreamt of retiring in Ohio and travelling to visit more exotic places.

Will I go back to Boston? Abso-freakin-lutely. But not until my kids are much older.