Synopsis of Boston Trip

Day One, Thursday.
Departure to Boston.
Oh my goodness - what a day. We had chosen an overnight flight for our outbound to Boston, and we DID know before we left the house at 8pm that the flight had been delayed, but since our seating assignments were not all together we decided to go to the airport at the regular time so we could hopefully move our seats to be together

We played at the airport (playroom-score!) until 11pm (the time our flight was SUPPOSED to leave) and then headed by tram to the south terminal to get ready to board and when we got there we discovered the flight was delayed until 3am!!!! Ok - we'll have to sleep at the gate. I need some shut eye too so I voted for the floor.










Day Two.
Travel.... and eventual arrival in Manchester, NH.

At 3am we were awakened to the announcement that our flight was CANCELLED. Now this sucked for everyone on the flight, but most travelers did not have kids' seats checked into the baggage system. And Jet Blue (big frownie face) did not have any help at the gate, so we had to schlep the kids all the way back to the main terminal (yep, outside of security) and then we were the last in the looooonnnnggg line. Basically we were thrown off the bus and left on the side of the road. We had to find our own new way to get to Boston without any help and we had to buy 3 new one-way last minute tickets. We luckily got on a Southwest flight for $1200 through Chicago to Manchester, NH leaving at 8am and getting us to Jeff's brother's at 12:30am Saturday morning.

shots from the southwest gate in Seatac airport













Day Three.
Saying Goodbye.

We had to say goodbye to Meme today. Not easy - no words yet about it.

Day Four.
Aquarium.

We piled everyone (8 adults and 5 kids) into two cars and braved our way into Boston to go to the aquarium on a sunny Sunday afternoon, when everyone else in the Boston area had this same idea. Despite the insanity of the endeavor it was really fun. Sophia and Stella are at the perfect age to really enjoy an aquarium and the sharks were well received. It was really fun to have them in the city too - seeing things like horse-drawn carriages and street performers. Yes, Seattle has those too, but we don't go downtown here very often either!














Day Five.
Pond.

We went to the local Ayer pond (sorry I forgot the name) beach and had a blast. Sophia is really excited about swimming and Jeff had her out there paddling away while her held up her torso. I loved watching her be so excited. She's been practicing in the bathtub ever since our last visit to FL. We dug in the sand and splashed in the water and everyone was happy. Afterwards we went to a local ice cream drive-in and had platters of various fried food and ice cream.

We ended the day with some early birthday present opening by the twins. Ah... the first one is so beautiful: when they don't yet know how to tear off the wrapping paper in two seconds flat.











Day Six.
Going home.

We had to wake the kids early this morning to get them in the car and over to pick up Aunt 'chele, Uncle Ben and Adelaide so we could all go into Boston to Logan airport. After we got going Stella threw up in the car, and all my memories of stomach flu in Reno come flooding back and I imagined myself holding her in the plane as she throws up all over everything and the smell of vomit fills the airplane on our 6-hour flight to Long Beach. Luckily my fears were not realized - she was fine (mystery vomit? who knows). But 6-hour flight to Long Beach should be pretty clear about the first part of the day. The second part of the day began as we emerged from the plane, hungry and eager for a sit down warm meal and some running around airport time, to the shock and realization that the Long Beach airport is not much bigger than our house. There actually is a restaurant there, but our experience there was memory-lapse waitress and non-kid-friendly menu. Oh well, it was a sit down warm meal.
At the end of our 4-hour layover we were beyond excited to get on the plane - the kids both slept the whole flight. We returned to pounding rain and pitch black highway driving - and I now know that I am old old old because my eyes cannot deal with tired night driving in the rain IN THE LEAST. It was heart-thudding driving on the way home trying to keep us from hydro-planing off the highway and to get my eyes to focus beyond the rain drops on the windshield to actually see the road.