Boston

Here are the pictures from our weekend in Boston with my mom. I'll try to keep the descriptions brief, since I know that most of you just look at the pictures anyway ;)

We left River Vale on Friday afternoon at 2:30 and arrived in Boston around 6:30 pm. We were greeted at the hotel by my mom who was sporting her new "do"! After loosing all her hair during chemo, she finally has hair again! The wig is terribly uncomfortable, so she opted to go without all weekend. John and I both thought she looked great ~ très chic!

We unloaded our bags, then went out to dinner at a nearby Southwestern restaurant called the Cottonwood Cafe.
On Saturday, we went to the Museum of Science Boston ... what a great place for kids, and adults too! Reagan loved seeing the different animals and was able to name most of them. Here she is staring at the big moose.
Here's Nana holding Avery, checking out the many machines (a cool section that showed how different gadgets worked)

We paid an extra $4 per person (on top of the $21 entrance fee) to go into the Butterfly Exhibit. This was a greenhouse at the top of the museum where they have all different kinds of butterflys flying around a lush garden. Apparently, they keep the thermostat at 80 degrees, but when the sun shines in through the windows, it immediately raises the temperature. Let me tell you, it felt like Florida in the summertime with intense humidity! It didn't help that the high in Boston that day was only 35 degrees, so we were all dressed in sweaters.
Butterflies drinking nectar
Even though Reagan was dripping with sweat, she did not want to leave the butterfly exhibit. She also refused to take off her sweater! I finally made her leave because I couldn't take the heat anymore, but then she begged me to go back inside. I told her we'd go again if she took off her sweater, so she did. I don't know if you can see it in this pictures (above), but Reagan's entire face was covered in little beads of perspiration. She was so hot, but she didn't care.
After the butterfly exhibit, we had some lunch, then went to another wing of the museum where the children's Discovery Center was located. This area was fun for kids Reagan's age and focused on toys/activities for learning. In the picture above, Reagan is completing a puzzle in front of Nana.
This was probably the highlight of Reagan's day ... playing at the water table! There were small plastic fish for the kids to catch and they all had a wonderful time. The museum provided these great smocks so the kids wouldn't get wet.

Nana and Reagan, playing in the water
Reagan and Papa playing in the water. Trying to get Reagan to leave the water table was one of the worst parts of the day ... she was having way too much fun!
These stairs played music everytime one was stepped on ... I realize this picture doesn't even show Reagan's face, but I had to post one of the only pictures taken of me during the entire weekend! I'm so bummed: I didn't even get a picture of my mom and me together!

On Saturday night, John put the kids to bed in our hotel room, while my mom and I went out to dinner and then hung out talking in her hotel room. It was so nice to catch up with her, since I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving.
Here's a picture of Avery on Sunday morning.
Avery and Reagan in matching shirts

We checked out of our hotel and headed to the Prudential Center for lunch. I took these pictures of the girls at Cheesecake factory. As you can probably guess, the above picture shows Reagan saying, "Cheeeeeeese!"

Avery loves to chomp on her fingers
Avery and Reagan at Cheesecake Factory

After lunch, we went back to the car in the parking garage, ready to jump in and drive back to NJ. There was a car who had parked SO close to us, that Reagan couldn't even fit between the cars! We don't even understand how the person got out of his/her door. So John had to pull out the car in order to get Reagan into her car seat. At that point, he noticed one of the tires was a little low. He immediately found a large metal object (similar to a nail) that had implaled the tire. Since it was still mostly inflated, we were still able to drive on it, since it would have been a bigger pain to put the donut on the car and then drive around with that on. Luckily, we found a service station rather quickly and the guy there said he'd fix it for $20. What luck! Here it was, 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon and we found someone to fix our tire!!!! Yea!!

We got out of the car and sat on this chair while the tire was being fixed. It wasn't until I stood up to leave that I realized we were right around the corner from Fenway Park.

We were on the road by 4:30 and home by 8:30. It was a really fun trip ... Boston is a beautiful city and it was so nice to be there sharing it with my mom!

P.S. Thank you to Patricia for watching Dawson and to Lizzie for watching Verdell!

Weekend in Boston with Nana

My sweet mother went to Boston last Wednesday for a convention. When I told John she was going to be there over the weekend, he immediately suggested that we drive up and spend some time with her. So we did and had a fabulous weekend! This post is just a teaser ... I'll download all my pictures tomorrow and write more about our fun road trip, including the flat tire :)