{Boston} Walking Around

"Don't drive in Boston."

That was the most frequent piece of advice we got before heading to the Northeast. Thing is, we didn't have a vehicle while we there anyway. A family friend who lives in Boston, let us borrow his mini van to drive from Manchester, N.H., where we flew into, to and around Maine. We then drove from Ellsworth, Maine, to Boston, where our friend, affectionately called Uncle Steve, picked up his van. We spent three nights in Boston and didn't need a vehicle until we called a taxi to take us and all our bags to the airport.

We were less than 5 miles from Logan International Airport, but the Charles River was between us. Plus, look at all that luggage we had: two kids, a double stroller, a car seat, four suitcases, four duffel bags, and six carry-on bags.

Google Maps was our friend in Boston. The walking directions we looked up on my iPhone got us everywhere we wanted to go ...

Like to Faneuil Hall & Quincy Marketplace.

{Inside Faneuil Hall}
{Outside Quincy Market}

And by Paul Revere's house.

And, of course, to Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings -- Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. My kids, only one of whom actually knows Robert McCloskey's "Make Way for Ducklings" -- loved the duck statues.

{Yes, my kids are posing for someone else's camera in that last picture!}

To our starting point for riding the Ducks. Specifically, we rode a magenta duck called Penelope that was drive by Tom Foolery, who really likes Notre Dame football.

And by many buildings, including this one where Denny Crane and his crew pretended to have their law offices on "Boston Legal."

And by these. I love the contrast of the fire station and church -- two distinctly different buildings that both help take care of people.

And by this ugly City Hall.
And by the Massachusetts State House.

And right by a movie being filmed. And, unfortunately, I did not see Ryan Reynolds anywhere.

Boston, you were good to us, and you didn't even feel like that big of a city.
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I've been blogging about our vacation to the Northeast as I have time. You can read about our time in Maine and look at plenty of pictures. There's at least one more post to come, but until then you can read the Boston posts and look at Beantown pictures.
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Celebrating Ben!

Lots of leaves cover our backyard. And when they're raked into piles, kids can be entertained for quite some time. Cousins Milla and Jax came from Louisville with Grandmom to help celebrate Ben's {early} second birthday with us yesterday. We celebrated early to accommodate Thanksgiving-related travel plans.

'Twas a good day for a party ...

All seven of my kids' first cousins and two dear families we adore came to celebrate my boy, who is all boy. Part of me can't believe he's 2. And the other part is relieved he's 2. He keeps me on my toes and gives me a mental and physical workout most every waking moment.

But life wouldn't be the same without him. And I'm so thankful he's here with us. He fits in our family perfectly. I'm excited to see where we go from here. And, with Ben, we know for certain we're going somewhere in a hurry.

Happy birthday, sweet boy!

He kept saying "eat water" when looking at the waterfall down the side of his Diego cake. {Didn't Courtney do a fabulous job? She always does! Here's his party and cake last year.} So, "eat water" he did ...

Believe it or not, we kept the blue icing out his hair. That's no small feat around here, trust me.

He was amazed at the musical card that sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He kept looking for something {someone?} behind the card.

He opened some presents himself. Of course, he had plenty of help when he needed it ...

After the party, we went to the Murray State football game ...

... where eating Dots {"gummies," according to Ben} is serious business.

Of course there are more pictures. And because we're spreading out the celebrating, I'm sure you'll hear more about my boy turning 2.
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{Boston} Fenway Park

We like baseball around here. So we had to tour Fenway Park when we were in Boston. We aren't Red Sox fans, but it was so neat to see the oldest, smallest operating ballpark.

Yes, Greg is wearing his Cardinals jacket. I may have suggested he put it on for the picture with Ted Williams.

That's us on The Green Monster, er, rather, Monstah. What a unique feature. I can see why people would want to fork over the extra money in the special lottery for those seats.

And here's a view of The Green Monstah from the other side of the stadium ...

Because we took a tour when it wasn't game day, we were able to see the press box. Obviously, the reporter blood that still runs through me made me excited about that. Does my girl look cute there? And here ...

I love this red seat. It's Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21, and it's where Ted Williams' 502-foot homerun -- the longest ever hit at Fenway -- landed.
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I've been blogging about our vacation to the Northeast as I have time. You can read about our time in Maine and look at plenty of pictures. There's at least one more Boston post to come, but there are pictures to tide you over until then.
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{Boston} Worth the Wait

After we spent six days in Maine, we drove to Boston. I like to visit big cities. I used to think I wanted to live in one. So whenever I visit one, I am reminded why visiting them and living in small-town American is good for me.

Boston had been on my list of places to visit for awhile now. I still regret not visiting there when Katie lived there. It was a season of transition for Greg and I, having just moved to Murray and started new jobs. Then I was diagnosed with diabetes and later the same year managed to get time off work to go to Greece and Italy with my in-laws.

So Boston had to wait.

I finally made it.

And it was worth the wait.

If you ask my 4-year-old girl about our vacation, she'll start by telling you we stayed on a houseboat in Boston. And it's worth telling. The three nights we spent there were a fun part of the adventure.

It was a houseboat converted to be more a stand-still accommodation in the Charlestown's Shipyard Quarters Marina. It was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom houseboat that had a living/dining/kitchen space and a balcony with some beautiful views of the Charles River and surrounding Boston.

The kids especially loved their bed nooks ..

Oh, and it was decorated with elephants. This was a favorite decoration ...

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I've been blogging about our vacation to the Northeast as I have time. You can read about our time in Maine and look at plenty of pictures. There are a couple more Boston posts to come, but there are pictures to tide you over until then. ________
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{Approved for You} Glow-in-the-Dark Toys

We like to go on trips. And we take our kids on our trips.

I've been blogging about most recent trip to the Northeast. Then there was our trip to the other side of the world when Cate was 2 years old. We've been to Hilton Head a couple of times. We drove to Texas. And then there were and will be road trips to Branson.

Of course, there are shorter road trips to Lexington, St. Louis, Nashville and Louisville even more often.

All of that to say, my kids like to travel too. They're just used to it. They have songs they like to hear, books they like to read {well, you know, look at ...}, snacks they like to eat, places they like to go and people they like to see. They'll often fall asleep in the car if it's nighttime or naptime.

But until this weekend I didn't realize how a simple glow-in-the-dark wand would help to entertain them. Especially this time of the year when it gets dark so early {we live in the eastern side of the central time zone}. And, honestly, it wasn't even something I thought of. Nana, the kids' great-grandma, lives next door and gave them these wands and some mini M&Ms as a belated Halloween treat as we were leaving town, literally.

So we brought them along.

And we'll bring them along again. Well, them meaning the wants. We ate the mini M&Ms, you know. Yes, glow-in-the-dark toys. Surely they'll make every kid smile in the dark backseat on an evening road trip.
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Operation Christmas Child

That's organized chaos.

And organized chaos is our life these days. Especially with kids. And especially with the holidays approaching.

Yes, the holidays are approaching. Take a deep breath. Make a list. And enjoy each moment. One by one. That's how I'm approaching the approaching holidays.

One of my favorite traditions is packing these shoe boxes for children in third-world countries. Operation Christmas Child is part of the Samaritan's Purse ministry. Our small group -- a seemingly formal name for the group of families with whom we share our lives -- has done this project the past several years. We come together with bags full of toiletries, school supplies, toys, socks, and candy. And we pack shoe boxes wrapped in holiday paper as full as possible before sealing them with rubber bands and piling them up on top of one another.

And then we added them to the larger pile created when other groups in our church did the same thing.

We have blessed lives and we want to bless others. And now we have small people who are just learning that to give to others is the meaning of this season and, really, of life in general.

There is still a little time. You can pack a shoe box too. {Here are some details for Operation Christmas Child.} You can make a difference in a child's Christmas. And I bet you find yourself blessed by doing so.
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{Worth Repeating Wednesday} Hope

Our problem is not so much that God doesn’t give us what we hope for as it is that we don’t know the right thing for which to hope. ...

Hope is not what you expect; it is what you would never dream. It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming ending. It’s Abraham adjusting his bifocals so he can see not his grandson, but his son. It’s Moses standing in the promised land not with Aaron or Miriam at his side, but with Elijah and the transfigured Christ. It’s Zechariah left speechless at the sight of his wife Elizabeth, gray-headed and pregnant. And it is the two Emmaus-bound pilgrims reaching out to take a piece of bread only to see that the hands from which it is offered are pierced.

Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction.

--From "God Came Near" by Max Lucado
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Well, hello, November ...

I can't believe it's November. Really, I'm having a hard time believing October is over.

So, before we move on, perhaps you'd like to see my kids dressed up for the Fall Festival at Cate's preschool ...

They wanted to hold cousin Kieran, who hadn't put his costume on yet. But it wasn't long after that he had to endure costuming and a brief photo shoot ...

It didn't take Ben long to figure out this trick-or-treating {well, technically trunk-or-treating ...}

Funny thing was he had his eye on this one purple Dum-Dum in his bag and each time he stopped to collect more candy, he wanted to find that one sucker. He got that sucker in his mouth not long after ... and then two minutes later dropped it on the ground.

I was going for one more pictures of my kids dressed up. Together. This is what I got ...

I guess I shouldn't have said, "Hey, Ben, give your sister a kiss." Apparently he was still in dog mode.

So, back to the present. To November ...

Many dates in November are palindromes. Love that. And, yes, I realize how this reveals how nerdy I can be. What do you think about me remembering that I learned about palindromes in 1991 as a sixth-grader in Mrs. Upchurch's math class? Nerd, I know. {And this paragraph is dedicated to Dustin Sapp.}

November means cooler weather (maybe?) and an extended family trip to Branson. We love that place. Obviously.

A perk of November is basketball season begins while football is still happening. Our beloved Racers have an exhibition basketball game tonight and their last home football game on Saturday. Plus there are Thanksgiving and Christmas parties to start planning. And gifts to buy and sort and wrap. And cards to make and letters to write.

It's really a wonderful time of the year, even if November shoved October out of the way.
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Squeeze like you mean it

I'm not a mom who matches her kids' outfits. Coordinating for family pictures has happened before, but that just involves finding things in their closets that go together. And they do both have Frosty T-shirts that they wore on the same day. Once.

But I love their matching shoes. Although, as Cate pointed out, they are slightly different color browns. Slightly.

Still. How cute are they?

My absolute favorite thing about having two kids is watching them together. So when they willing squeeze each other, my heart melts. Every morning, Ben asks, "Cate?" And I have to tell him she's still sleeping. Then when she comes down the stairs, he greets her with an excited "Hi, Cate!" He usually waves too.

Yes, Ben pulls her hair sometimes. And, yes, she gets aggravated when he destroys something she's working on. But sometimes they squeeze each other like they really do mean it.
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A favorite friend

That's me between of two of my dearest friends -- Holly (right) and Jaclyn (left).

I got to spend time with one of my favorite people this week. Holly lives in Texas now, so even though we email almost daily, spending time around the kitchen table and on the couch is such a treat.

We met in September 2007. I was a new mom with a 4-month-old daughter who had just quit a full-time newspaper reporting job. Holly was a recent college graduate who was hired as my replacement. We spent a work day together, me showing her around and introducing her to some of my sources. Then she emailed me with a question, so we met at Quizno's to talk business.

And we became friends that day.

She's only ever known me as a mom, and she loves my kids. She listens to me talk about motherhood and asks real questions about married life. We both love words and stories, which is probably why email is our primary form communication. She moved from Murray to New Mexico back to Murray and then back to New Mexico before settling recently in Texas. {Right, Holly? I got myself confused thinking through that.} Yet we've gotten closer as time has gone on.

It's not all long-distance emails. Our friendship is more than that. We had text message dates while watching "The Bachelor" a couple season ago. She also was right there with me on my first tubing adventure. We've played Hearts. And we've drank Sonic drinks at Happy Hour together.

Holly's visit this week was good for my soul. And my kids were fond of having her around too ...

Holly inspires and encourages me. She makes me think about things. And she answers my questions about anything. She helps herself to drinks in my fridge and washes her plate and fork when she's done eating, even though nobody asked her to or expects her to. She makes me laugh. And my kids adore her. Trust me, if you knew her, she'd be one of your favorite people too.
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{Maine} Kennebunkport

While driving from Ellsworth, Maine, to Boston, I wanted to stop at a coastal town. A couple different friends recommended a few different towns. Being the conservatives we are, we chose Kennebunkport.

Good choice, really. And, no, we didn't see George and Barbara Bush. But we did see their house.

Perfect location, if you ask me. And it seems huge. There appears to be a guest house, windmill and tennis court next door. And then on up the driveway toward the street were multiple SUVs and a house that I would bet is for the workers who drive those vehicles.

Plus, if you can afford it, who wouldn't want to look at that shoreline all day? The town itself is quaint and what I pictured a Maine coastal town to be.

Plus sharing the beauty of the beach with my daughter is always a good time.

I'm posting about our vacation as I have time. I'm sure you're not surprised I took a lot of pictures in Maine. You can see them here. And the posted blog installments are here.
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