Boston

Ryan had a conference in Boston and so our family tagged along. As we got on the road, the kids were watching a movie in the back and I was talking to Ryan for like a good 15 minutes when Ryan looked over at me and said, "Kristen, do you know you have a lens popped out?"  And I totally didn't.  I laughed for a good 5 minutes about this. 

 It just so happened to be on Sawyer's birthday so he celebrated the day before and skipped school on his actual birthday.  We woke up early and drove into Boston and dropped Daddy off.  Then we had the whole day to ourselves!  We couldn't check into our hotel yet so I decided to go explore civilization.  First stop, Chuck E Cheese!  

Happy Birthday Sawyer!

 She had a hair do that morning but it always get taken out in the car!

 Second stop, IKEA!  I didn't need anything big but a trip to IKEA is always fun!

BEST and most patient IKEA baby ever!

 Then we drove in and got checked into our awesome hotel room.  My kids couldn't believe how nice it was.  They were so excited, can you tell?

 I had brought Clara up from the car sleeping and she stayed that way for a good long while.  Here she is with her Chuck E Cheese stickers and her IKEA scrub brushes

 After Daddy was done with his conference for the day we met up with him and headed to find some dinner.  Sawyer wanted China Moon Buffet, his favorite Chinese place here that Mommy never wants to take him to, but we settled on Panda Express

 When we got home we explored our hotel.  We found the pool and Daddy and Sawyer pumped some iron.

 Then we enjoyed our view for a while

By the time we woke up the next morning, Daddy had snuck out to the conference and we had the day to ourselves.

  The night before I was looking at different things and I remembered the Make Way for Ducklings book and I thought it would be fun to do a tour following the places the book mentioned.  I googled it and couldn't find any kind of map or directions and I had a hard time imagining I was the only person in the world who had this idea.  So I went to the hotel lobby and bought the book and brought it upstairs and made my own map.  I didn't know anything about the area but I found, what I thought, was a good path to follow.  The kids were really into it.  

So we headed out of our hotel to a Panera and had a yummy breakfast and read some of the book.  We stopped at the part where they fly down to the public garden and walked over there ourselves.  

 We found the swans that were too proud to say hello

It was so beautiful with all the spring flowers.

And then we crossed the bridge and saw the island 

 Then we saw the State House

And walked through Beacon Hill.  I LOVED these houses.  I wanted to see inside each and every one of them.  I keep telling Ryan I was meant to live in a city...

And then we peaked into Louisburg Square and saw there was no water, so it wasn't a suitable place for ducks

This is where the path gets tricky.  The birds were flying at this point and we were trying to walk over to the Charles River and we had to walk on a fairly busy road to get to a bridge crosswalk over the busy highway.  Not ideal but it worked!  

And when we crossed the bridge we saw, what the kids described as, the coolest park ever! 

 We played and had fun until it was time to meet Daddy for lunch.  We packed up everything and I was too tired to walk all the way up to Mt Vernon Street to then turn on Charles Street, just like the ducks.  But we ended up in the right place anyway.  We found the statues in Boston Common and then met Daddy for lunch.

 After lunch my babies looked like this...

 So we headed back to our awesome hotel room.  It was so spacious that I could put my babies sleeping in different corners and Kate and Sawyer could play quietly without disturbing anyone.  The hotel also had toys and games for the kids to play at the front desk so they built foam airplanes, blew bubbles, and used a new deck of cards to play slap jack and war.  (Both games I taught them on this trip and it reminded me of being little and playing with my sister!)

When Molly woke up she was SO excited to not be in her stroller anymore!  (It was a long, hard weekend to be a baby!)

 And then, after the longest nap ever, Clara finally woke up and I bravely took the kids to the hotel pool by myself.  I brought a floaty so that Kate could help Clara but she was not a fan and didn't last very long.   

The next morning we slept in, which was marvelous, and then we hung out in the hotel room for a bit while Daddy was finishing up his conference.

 We ate at Panera again and then met Daddy at the Public Garden and we walked over to the BEST park ever, to show him what the fuss was all about.  

 Parks are so much better when Daddy is there

And before we left we took one last picture by the pretty spring trees by the Charles River

It was really such a gorgeous time to enjoy Boston!  And we discovered a side of it that we haven't seen before.  It was a great weekend!