East Coast trip: lovin' life!

So, I will try to resurrect this blog, yet again. And I'm starting where I left off, with our super fun family trip to Boston and New York...

When we moved back to Idaho last fall, Brian and I talked about how it's so hard to keep in touch and stay close with friends and family when we live far away. So, we made a plan to return to The East to visit within the year. And... Southwest obliged with a great ticket sale that corresponded with Brian's brother, Reed's graduation from business school, in Massachusetts. yay!

We left a few days before Samantha was officially out of school. So, her LAST day got to be the day her class took a field trip to the zoo. I got to chaperone, and we had a great "last" time wandering around with her cute friends. Then, they tackled her for group hugs before she left...

 It was a good send off, and I think she felt okay to miss those last couple days of school, even though it was kind of sad...

First day of our trip was REED'S GRADUATION day!! yay for Reed! Luckily for us, the graduation was outside, so our restless bunch had a bit of "wiggle room." (Plus, they had Squinkies to play with, so they were well occupied, most of the time.)...

 The one "wild card" was this little mischief-maker, Miss Natalie! She had already been soooo good on the plane the night before, and again at church that morning. But by the time the graduation was underway, she was really ready to run crazy! Luckily, there was a nearby grassy area, where her dad was able to take her and let her roam free...

The Graduate!!! He did it!

 Way to go, Reed! This has been quite the undertaking for their sweet family!

 Alysa fixed a fun, celebratory dinner for Reed and all of us that evening, and the kids really loved playing with their cute cousins, Aftyn and Bronwyn.

Here's our rowdy bunch, trying to get to sleep on their special pull-out hide-a-bed couch...

After only one night, we learned that the best way to "sleep" people was to put rowdiest Natalie in bed with us until she was out, then move her back over to be with the other two, who magically went to sleep on their own very easily.

While we were in Boston, we took a trip out to Old Sturbridge Village, with Reed and Alysa and with Brian's parents, who were also visiting. (And, oops, I don't think I got a single picture with them! oh no!)...

 Sturbridge Village is kinda like the old-time pioneer village at This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City. It's set up with a saw mill, a grist mill, a black smith shop, a pottery kiln, and dozens of other "village" buildings with costumed guide and demonstrations of how old-time life used to be. Our kids especially loved the children's dress-up section and hands-on demos. Here's Natalie and Bronwyn, in their pioneer dresses...

 All three of our kids were "riding" the hog...

The kids were making us laugh so hard with these cut-out holes! There were five kids and six holes, but man! we had a hard time getting a pic of all of them in a hole at once...

 Here was our best attempt... Spencer was mad because he was the baby girl, and he did NOT want to be a girl, so he wouldn't look at me. ;)

The grist mill, in full operation. It was actually really cool to watch!

Looking at the farm animals...

Brand new little baby lambs. They were so cute, with wobbly little legs!

In the old school house. Spencer was the "teacher"....

Next stop, we went to visit our friends, Becky and Tim, for a delicious bbq dinner. Our kids had so much fun playing with their kids. It was fun to catch up, and watch the kids interact...

 Here's a group picture, I think the neighbor took it...

 Most exciting for Spencer, while we were at Tim and Becky's, Becky taught him how to ride a bike!!! yay! Brian and I had been working with him for a few months, but they had a bike that was just the right size for him, and Becky was a "fresh start" teacher for him, so, in a matter of five minutes he had it mastered. We took several cute videos of him, but of course blogger does not believe in letting me load videos. So, all ya get is that cute pic of him with our group.

The next morning, Becky kindly offered to watch our kids so Brian and I could take a little trip to the temple. Of course, the kids were more than happy to go back to their house, especially Spencer, so he could continue honing his new bike skills! :)

Lovely temple, lovely peaceful time with my Brian, reliving some sweet Boston memories of our single days and courtship...

After the temple, we stopped by the Old North Bridge in Concord for a quick visit. The bridge is way back in the background...

 The whole gang, except Dad...

 Sad memory about this picture (above)... Just across from where we were standing was a great big beautiful climbing tree. As we took that picture, I whispered to Samantha that she should go climb that tree. We looked at it and right then a little girl was climbing down from the last branch of the tree. Right while we were watching, she FELL out of the tree, landed on an exposed root, and BROKE her arm! It was terrible! The poor parents were Russian, though they spoke pretty good English, thankfully. Brian helped them make their way to the visitor's center, where they called paramedics and took her off to the hospital. Needless to say, I changed my mind about letting Samantha climb that tree!!

We went back to Reed and Alysa's that night for delicious pizza dinner, and a birthday party for Aftyn, who is FOUR! Bronwyn just turned two a few weeks earlier, so she got some presents, too...

 Happy kids, fun presents!

The next morning, we took off for New York, but stopped for a quick visit to Boston's Children's Museum, which our kids LOVED!!

 We let each of the kids have a bit of souvenir money and pick out a present or two for themselves as we traveled. At the Children's Museum, Natalie picked out this gem, which kept her busy most of the way to NY....

Once we got to New York, our kids were in HEAVEN, because we got to stay with some of their favorite people in the world -- Zach, Parker, and Leah! Aren't they all so cute?!

 Samantha and Leah were especially happy to see each other. ha ha!!

So, the sad thing about our time in NY is that we misplaced our camera after those first couple of pictures. It was under the front seat in our van, but we really couldn't find it. All the pics we took of our time together were on our cell phones. And, I'm lazy enough that I haven't figured out how to upload pics from our phones yet. But the list of what we did...
-- Stayed with Adam and Lindsay and their kids, helped them paint their new house that they're moving into.
-- Went into the City to the Museum of Natural History
-- Ate lunch with friends at Powells restaurant
-- Visited Erin and Spencer at their new house, had delicious Sunday lunch with them
-- Went to an amazing Greek restaurant with Erin and Spencer (still dreaming of that food!), and took the kids to a fun climbing gym and play place
-- Saw so many fun friends at church, visiting our old New Rochelle ward. Oh, how homesick that made me feel!!
-- Went for a walk around our old neighborhood, across the pond bridge, around Harrison village, etc. (That was actually just ME, at 7 a.m., and it was a wonderful 3-mile walk of serenity!)
-- Went to New Jersey to stay a night with our dear friends, Brian and Debbie Hunter, who we first met when we both lived in London.
-- We celebrated Memorial Day with the Hunters -- had a delicious breakfast of homemade crepes, took a walk/hike through historic Jockey Hollow, where Washington's troops camped in the winter of 1780-81, then had a fun bbq along with our friends, Meg and John, also from London days.

We headed back to Boston for our last couple of days. And, miraculously, we found our camera. So, we got some fun pics of our last days in Boston. On the T, going into the city for a family day...

We stopped at the Frog Pond, but it was kinda slimy. So we walked over to the Public Gardens. Our kids loved the "Make Way For Ducklings" statues, of course...

And, they loved the Public Gardens, also...

On the Swan Boats, too sunny to smile properly...

From the Swan Boats, my lovely, lovely Boston...

So, once when I was on a Duck Tour, the driver touted this little bridge as "the world's shortest suspension bridge." But guess what? It's not really even a suspension bridge. hmm... But it is pretty...

Where are we?? The Old North Church, of course!

Our kids really didn't care about the "one if by land, two if by sea" bit, so I took them out to the bathrooms while Brian stayed for the tour and more pictures. (Fyi, the public restrooms behind the gift shop behind the Old North Church are GOOD!! They have a box for donations for their upkeep, and I gladly put in two dollars for a CLEAN bathroom experience, after DAYS of helping toddlers in filthy, disgusting bathroom situations. Let's hear it for some sanitary bathrooms!!)

In the North End, next to one of those really old, cool cemeteries...

We had lunch at a little Italian restaurant where Brian and I had gone on our first Valentine's Day together, when we were first dating (Round 1). The owner happens to be from Jordan, and Brian started speaking Arabic with him, talking about Egypt and Brian's love of the Middle East, etc. The restaurant wasn't crowded, so the owner kept coming by to chat while we ate, and even introduced his nephew, who just moved from Jordan to the US a few month ago. By the time we were finished eating, Brian had made some new friends, and... we got free lunch!! :) The owner absolutely refused to let us pay, but we left a nice tip anyway.

More souvenirs for the kids at the Old North Church gift store (which was one of the BEST gift stores we visited... had so much variety and so many cute, creative little trinkets, btw.) Our kids each chose a stuffed animal, which they're showing off in this pic, below...

We had to stop and stomp through the fountains on top of the Big Dig, just for fun...

Then back to the T, finishing with a good snooze on our way back to our car...

I'm pretty sure that was my favorite day of the trip. We finished off that day with a visit to Walden Pond with Reed and Alysa's family...

 We brought Blue Ribbon bbq for dinner, and let the kids play in the water until the sun went down...

 Yes, it was cold water, and yes, we were the only ones letting kids get into the water. But they loved it, and it was a fun way to end the day...

Goodbye, lovely Walden...

 Goodbye, Boston. Goodbye, fun trip to the East Coast...

We actually DID have one more day in Boston. BUT... we were sick with stomach flu. Not fun. Nat and I were up vomiting through the night, then Brian got it the next day. We were pretty lethargic, and stayed in our hotel room till nearly noon. But then we made it to the Science Museum for a few hours anyway. (No camera.)

 And then, we packed up and headed home the next morning. Here's one pic of our really long layover in Denver. Not sure why Spencer's jacket is on his head...

 On the plane...

We flew into Salt Lake in the early afternoon that day. We had plans of staying in Utah with family for a few days. But we were still feeling crummy with the flu, and Spencer was starting to get it, and we didn't want to pass it on to anyone. So, we courageously took ourselves ALL THE WAY home to Caldwell that SAME day... from 5 a.m. East Coast time, to about 11 p.m. Mountain time. A LOOOONG day!

We stopped a few times to rest our legs and run around. And, finally, we made time to stop in Twin Falls and see the majestic Shoshone Falls. (It's been on our "list" for several years now, so we were glad to finally see it.)...

 Welcome Home, Bishop Family! That's the end of our fun start-of-summer trip to the East Coast. It was a lovely, bittersweet trip, making me homesick for the green, green loveliness of New York and Boston, -- making me miss some very sweet, dear friends who feel soooo far away right now. But in the end, I am glad to be home. And glad for the memories.