71 Toes: Boston (part two)

We're home safe and sound trying to hit the ground running to catch up again, and trying to scrounge up some Halloween costumes for parties that are now bombarding our calendar. I'm just going to write the segments of our trip when I get snippets of time here and there. Oh my word did we have a great time. I can't even come close to expressing how amazing it was to spend time with so many people I love so much, see such amazing beauty and sights, snuggle two of my girls close, and learn from the outstanding examples of two of my sisters and two of my brothers (and a great sister-in-law and brother-in-law too). Dave took such great care of everything here. Among many other things while we were gone he set up this new system of keeping the kitchen clean and had so much fun with the three at-home kids (Denny's, a movie, etc.) I wish I could have captured the hug Grace gave Elle when we got home. Man oh man it was like we had been gone a year. Heart melter.

Here's the rest of Boston:

We had breakfast at this great place we had to wait in line forever to get into...was it worth it? Yes.

is my niece cute or what?

we walked up and down the old cobblestone streets on Beacon Hill

We walked through the Boston Public Gardens and took in the Boston skyline. I've spent so much time here in the past and it was so fun to share it with my girls and sisters.

We went to my favorite spot in Boston: Copley Square. I love it because I had to write a paper on the Hancock Tower (behind us below) when I went to BU and it made me fall in love with the place...especially how the new reflects the gorgeous old church in it. I love that it's close to Newbury street too where we had a delicious Indian lunch.

We cruised by my old stomping grounds at Boston University. Yep, I did pick this place over the castles and beauty of Wellesley, but hey, it had boys and all the happening city stuff (note the construction), AND it had Fenway Park right next to it. See the lights behind us? It was so exciting to be in Boston when the Red Sox were winning the Pendant. Everyone in Boston is SO incredibly into the Red Sox it's so fun. Everyone was decked out in Red Sox garb and announcers on the plane and the "T" (subway) gave us updates on game scores.

we stopped by behind BU and watched the Head of the Charles (crew races)...that's the Charles river behind these lovely ladies below...

Elle loved the "T"

Ok, all that was fun and grand, but I have to say the most exciting thing was that Elle (oops, I mean "Wellesely" as she claims she'd like to be called now) won the Wicked lottery!!!! I guess they save out 20 tickets each night to put in a lottery and if you win you can buy up to two tickets for 25 bucks each.

My sisters and I put our names in, and they let Elle (I mean Wellesley) put hers in too. Man we were hoping with all our hearts to get in because Elle's been really wanting to see it but we knew the chances were pretty low. But low and behold they drew Elle's name out. We were all ecstatic. Elle tried to let Saydi go with her since Sayds hadn't seen it before but my sweet sister declined and let me go. We sat in the very front row and I can't even describe how much we loved it! We were on such a high.

The next day we went to Saydi's ward and loved meeting some of the people who obviously adore her and her family, went to Cambridge and heard Charity give an astounding talk in her ward and hung around Harvard Square.

These are the steps at the Harvard Library...couldn't resist jumping off them. Lucy loved it.

Then we were off for NYC...an exceptionally fun drive through the dark night with three kids crying most of the time. So much more to come on that whole half of the trip later. Gotta run pick up Claire from Joy School.

**note: I added a few more pictures to the last post now that I'm back to my own computer and I can navigate better. For some reason pictures keep disappearing. Is anyone else having that problem?