This July, we took a big family trip with my entire side of the family to Boston to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. 13 of us from MN flew out together to stay at an Airbnb near my brother's place. A wonderful time was had by all. I think the cousins especially enjoyed having so much time together.
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| Enjoying delicious Italian food in the Airbnb |
The group of older cousins were able to go off and do things on their own, which was a big help and fun for them. They started off by going to watch the Red Sox vs the Dodgers at Fenway Stadium, which was a highlight for the boys for sure.
The younger kids enjoyed both the Science Museum and the Aquarium. At each place we were able to put one adult with each kid - and it's a good thing we did with how much the kids ran from one exhibit to the next. We all agreed my mom got the biggest work-out following Frank. Getting him out of the museum was quite the feat since he wanted to check out everything he laid eyes on.
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| At the grave of "Mother Goose" |
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| The grave of Samuel Adams |
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| At the Samuel Adams tap room - Sam got a free coke when he showed them his name on his driver's license |
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| At the Paul Revere House |
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| Recreating a favorite childhood photo (this is now the 4th version we have of this!) |
In preparation for the trip, Charlie ordered a Revolutionary War costume with plans to wear it while dropping tea into the Boston Harbor. I'm happy to say he was able to accomplish this - and he got much more use out of the costume than I anticipated.
For starters, he wore it to our local 4th of July celebration at Independence Park. Frank also had a 4th of July suit for the occasion. Needless to say, they both made the newspaper along with Olivia and their cousin, Gabby. One kid asked to get his picture taken with Charlie. Later that week our librarian told me that she had skipped the celebrations due to the heat. Afterwards, her friends told her she should have come because she "should have seen this boy dressed as George Washington."
Here are the pictures from our local 4th of July celebration:
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Frank and Gabby, leading the Kid's March.
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In Boston he wore the outfit for the entire Freedom Trail and even ran through the streets yelling "The British are Coming! The British are Coming!" When it came time to drop tea into the Boston Harbor, I thought he would just go up to the Harbor and drop in the tea. As you can see in the video below, he made it into a bit more of a production than that.
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| By Paul Revere's grave |
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| Enjoying Dunkin' Donuts |
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| At the Harbor |
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| Enjoying Dunkin' Donuts with a Metro Transit worker |
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| Riding a bronze donkey that is in Boston for no particular reason other than one of the founding fathers brought it back as a souvenir from Italy. |
On our last day, we took a ferry ride to Spectacle Island. The water was much too cold for the adults, but the kids all dove right in. At least 3 of the MN cousins popped up out of the water and said, "Ah! It's salty!!" At one point a larger wave came up to shore and hit all of our belongings on the beach. We all frantically ran to grab purses, backpacks, phones, shoes, etc. Pretty much everything got wet, but amazingly nothing was lost or damaged. As we were all scrambling on the beach, Sam was blissfully body-surfing on the wave wondering why everyone was running away.
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| On the ferry |
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| The boys - digging a giant hole (which was later filled in by another rogue wave) |
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Our group, heading back to the airport with all of our luggage. We made the transfers from trolley to train to bus to airport with no problems.
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