Halloween

We started celebrating a bit early this year as we carved pumpkins on Sunday when Mark was home from work, thanks to not super warm weather they survived until they were blown up today. Noah was really excited to carve his pumpkin until he realized you have to clean them out, he preferred helping us cut the shapes out.

 

 The finished pumpkin, it is a happy witch. There was a doorbell on the back where the princess could go visit the nice witch who lived inside also.

 On Halloween Noah got to have a party at preschool, Grandma Sue takes him to school and sent us these great pictures. He was to excited to be a serious or strong batman. Big thanks to Grandma Lynette for sewing is awesome cape. They had activities and games at school than ended the day trunk or treating to the parents/grandparents.

After Noah finished school and I got off work we met up with Grandma Lynette and Terra to take the kids trick or treating downtown, this is a fun thing we have done the last few years. The business hand out candy and the kids can just run and have fun as it's not dark and the sidewalks are wide.

 Grandma and Eliza

 Noah and Benjamin

 Eliza

 Noah, Amelia, Lucy, Eliza and Benjamin

 Noah informed us when he decided to be batman that I should be wonder woman and his dad should be Robin. Our Robin got stuck at work but we still had a fun Halloween.

Per tradition we went trick or treating with our friends the Bailey's. The kids always have fun and it's the only night each year that it actually works out for us to hang out, weird how adulthood makes it hard to see friends.

The group of kids we went with ready go.  

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween.

A few weekends ago we headed down to Hogle Zoo to met up with family and friends. It was a nice day and surprisingly not so crowded that the kids were not able to enjoy.

 All the grandkids, Maxine Amelia Eliza and Mark, getting the 4 of them to smile at the camers is pretty much impossible.

 This is Jackson, we grew up with his Dad, Noah and him bonded instantly over their love of maps

Sadly the train wasn't working when we went to ride it, Noah had been looking forward to riding the train for weeks but handled it really well when it was explained to him. Sometimes his maturity surprises me. 

We had lots of fun enjoying the warm fall day and seeing all the animals

Noah's room

In anticipation for baby arriving we are rearranging Noah's room as he will be sharing it in a few months. It was also time to update his decorations a little bit, he wanted trains it didn't matter what other options we gave him all he wanted was trains. We found an amazing deal on Zulilly for this comforter set. Mark covered his box spring in fabric, I really like how it turned out..thank you pinterest for that idea. I painted the canvas' the base colors and placed vinyl on them in shapes of a train, plane and N. Noah painted over the vinyl for the finished project. He is such a big helper it's fun to watch him learn and see how proud he is when he accomplishes something.

 He was so excited for his new train room he had to arrange all his friends on his bed so they could enjoy it too.

Family hike

The day after we got back from Boston we decided to go enjoy the fall colors up the canyon on a "hike". I use the term hike loosely as Noah has us stopping every few minutes to camp, build fires or look for his "friends". It was really pretty up the canyon,  I just love where we live! 

When we got home Mark & Noah caught this amazing pictures of Granddad's end of season roses. I love Granddads roses, they always smell amazing and it's sad when they are done blooming because it means winter is not far off.

Downtown Boston

Day 4, 9/15. We started the day by catching the train downtown, so much easier then driving and than paying for parking. We started our day off visiting the home of Paul Revere.

 We had a few minutes to spare before our freedom trail walking tour started so we headed to Mikes Pastries. The couples we had met the previous evening in Chatham said we needed to go try their lobster tail pastry. It was close to the Paul Revere house so we stopped by, we were not disappointed. It's a giant pastry filled with this amazing cream then dusted with powdered sugar, oh my!

 Before we left we purchased a Boston Go Card, it includes activities at a discount and we actually did so many of them that we came out pretty far ahead and did activities for "free". One of the items was a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, the national park service has free tours which we heard was great but we didn't think we needed to do the tour twice. It was an excellent tour, the tour guide was great. They dress in period clothes, have a name fitting to the events of the tour...our guide was Ebenzer Hancock the brother of John Hancock. If you are ever in Boston I highly recommend doing a walking tour of the freedom trail with a guide of some kind, so much more information than just reading the signs or pamplet.

Old State House

 King Chapel

 2nd oldest Cemetery in Boston

We ended at Beacon Hill. This is the only real hill left in the city, the other hills were used as fill as the city grew. No really they "built" land so they could expand the city, the dark brown is the city in 1775 and than you can see how it looks today. 

 

When you realize that you are standing in the middle of the city but it was once the shore it's kind of crazy.

After the walking tour we wandered back to Quincy Market to have lunch and do a bit of souvenir shopping.

Touring Faneuil Hall. They still use this space fore meeting today. The giant painting was originally commissioned by a king in France, I forget which one, but by the time it was finished he was no longer in power and therefore it had no purpose. 2 businessmen in Boston bought super cheap, basically robing the artist and put placed it in Faneuil Hall, the only place big enough they could find for it.

We were told that one thing we needed to do was a Boston River tour. It was really neat to see the city from the river running through the city. 

 There were lots of high school and college crew and sailing teams practicing on the river. It was amazing to watch them

After our tour we headed back to the train station by way of the Beacon Hill neighborhood. It's a charming old neighborhood where the street lights are gas and the shops are very charming. 

 Every building in this city has so much character...even the train station.

Day 5, 9/17. We spent another day downtown, originally we were going to take a whale watching tour but decided against spending 4 hours of our last day on a boat. Everyone we talked to said the seas had been really choppy so it just wasn't appealing. We started the day off at the aquarium.

From there we went on a bay tour to the USS Constitution, the oldest functioning battle ship in the US Navy. You actually have to clear security to board the ship and there are active service men everywhere.

 Boarding the USS constitution. They actually do take it out sailing at least once a year, it has to go out once a year for it to keep it's status as an active ship in the US Navy.

 You could also tour the USS Cassin Young, Mark enjoyed this more than I did. It was rocking a bit to much and I thought I was gonna be sick so I waited on land while he toured the entire ship.

Headed back to Boston we passed we passed the Coast Guard station and the fire station on the water.

After making it back to land we headed to the north end AKA little Italy for lunch. It was very yummy, authentic Italian food who wouldn't love it. 

Old North church, where the lanterns were hung for Paul Revere's ride. Did you know that Paul Revere didn't actually complete the ride he was captured but other riders did his name just fit into a poem better so he gets all the credit. 

From there we decided to go tour the building we saw on the walking tour the previous day. Seeing old architecture is always amazing, they didn't have anything like we do today and the buildings they created are so much prettier in my opinion. 

Inside the old meeting house.

 To end our evening/trip we visited the old custom house clock tour. It's now a marriot hotel but they offer tours in the evening so you can go up and enjoy the view

 Mark got some nice panoramic views of the city.

 Having little Italy cannoli's while over looking little Italy. It was a yummy treat, amazing how when you do lots of walking in a day treats taste so good.

We were up bright and early the next day to make it on a flight home. We had lots of fun exploring this historic city but it was nice get back to our little valley and to see our little guy. We are very grateful for parents who let him stay while we explored out east.