Beautiful Boston

This week Derek and I were able to go to Boston for three wonderful days. This was our first vacation without the kids and we were lucky to have Katie fly to Missouri to watch them. Our first day there we walked the Freedom Trail. It is a 2.5 mile walking tour throughout Boston which takes you to many of the historical sites from Revolutionary times. It was a lot of walking but completely worth it. We were able to see the state house, one of the first cemeteries where people such as Sam Adams and Ben Franklin's family are buried, and the church where the lanterns were hung for Paul Revere's famous ride. It is amazing how old that church is and yet even with all the skyscrapers you can see the steeple from far away.

We crossed an amazing bridge and walked into Charlestown. This is a picturesque New England town. Absolutely beautiful old streets with homes I wished I could have peeked into. Overlooking all of it is the Bunker Hill Monument. From the top of the hill you can see the entire city skyline. It's breathtaking.

After all that walking we needed a delicious dinner and Derek took me to one of my all time favorite restaurants. We discovered Legal Seafood on our last trip to Boston and I HAD to eat there again. The lobster was delicious. I enjoyed every minute of breaking into the shell to devour the tender meat. There is nothing better than fresh lobster. Poor Derek is such a good sport. He can't stand seafood and that is the only thing on their menu, so he settled for some popcorn shrimp.

St. Patrick's Day

We took a tour of Fenway in the morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We went to a Red Sox game in 2007 when we took Allee but you can only tour when there isn't a game. It was completely worth it. I think Derek has turned me into a sports fanatic because I really do get excited to go to places like this. Our tour guide was awesome. We learned all sorts of interesting facts such as why there is a single red seat in the outfield. It marks the longest home run ever hit in the park. The best part of the tour was when we were able to go sit in some of the original seats from 1912. They have been refurbished but they are still 80% original. To our amazement we sat in the exact same seats we were in in 2007. The same section, same row, SAME seats. It was really unbelievable. We even took a picture of the hot dog stand we had gone to. I guess we were meant to be Red Sox fans.

Boston Celtics

The real reason we were in Boston. Derek is a huge Celtic's fan and his life long dream has been to watch them play in The Garden. We figured what better day than St. Patty's to cheer on the Celtics. It really was amazing. We got amazing seats on row 2 and we were right by the tunnel and diagonal from the bench. The game was wonderful with a 97-109 victory for our beloved men in green. The best part of the game by far was the end. Derek was able to walk over to the rail by the tunnel and give the players high fives. Among the notables were: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Doc Rivers (coach), Nate Robinson, Rasheed Wallace, and Marquis Daniells. He was like a kid in a candy store. I have never seen him with such a huge smile on his face. It was wonderful to experience his dream with him.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and it gave us some much needed time together. Boston is definitely one of our favorite towns.

Welcome Spring

Things are finally starting to warm up and we are so excited. It has definitely been a long winter with nothing to do. I have to admit that the kids have watched way more Disney Channel than I ever thought I would let them, and even I have High School Musical memorized thanks to Allee. The beginning of the month began the warm up here. It is really odd that it is Spring here, we are used to still having to shovel snow in March.

The first day that it even showed signs of warmth the kids and I ventured into the backyard to look for treasures. Notice that it is not THAT warm, I still made the kids wear gloves and hats, but 50 degrees is nothing to stay inside for. There are squirrels EVERYWHERE out here and we have enjoyed watching them begin to dig up their nuts. We found hand fulls of eaten nuts and a few that we were able to break open ourselves and find out why the squirrels hadn't eaten them, the nuts had rotted. Allee even managed to find one lone dandelion poking out of the "grass".

Welcome Spring. We are ready.