It's Snowing

Today it snowed. Huge snowflakes. Jack was ecstatic.

We head to San Diego Tuesday morning for 10 days. He doesn't believe me when I tell him we are only packing shorts since it is 84 degrees there and he will be hot, not cold.

Little Napoleon Dynamite

Style this good has to be learned early.

Our Own Boston Tea Party

Our dearest and oldest friends the Richs came out to visit us one of our first weekends out here...maybe even our first?? You know you have the most awesome friends when they willingly load up their three kids into the car and drive four hours on a Friday night to camp out in our tiny spare bedroom, just because we finally live close enough to make this weekend happen. Saturday morning the eight of us went out to explore Boston for the first time together.

First stop, Boston Harbor, where we re-enacted the Boston Tea Party by throwing tea into the harbor. I think the kids may have thought we were weird, but were quite happy to throw something into the water.






Thinking back, I am super impressed that all the kids (and Zack) managed to hold onto the wrappers and only dump the tea into the Harbor.



Next stop, the start of the Freedom trail and Paul Revere's house.



Zack then purchased his weight in Italian pastries at "Mikes" in the north end (I sound like I have some idea what it's the north end of!) Monica and I and the kids sat near one of the Old North Churches and ate Jack's weight in what really wasn't all that impressive desserts while poor Zack went to get the car and waited at the other Old North Church.

Monica and Adam are the best best friends anyone could ask for. Our time on the east coast will hopefully be full of fun Rich/Zackrison adventures...and I'm sure, way too much food. :)

Moment

The other day when it was an unbelievably cold 55 degrees (I swear it felt like it was 15 below with the wind) and I was wondering how we were going to survive the winter if we were freezing already, I told Jack to ask Papa next time he saw him,
"Papa, why in the world did you move us some place so cold?"

About two weeks later when Jack and I were in the car running a random errand and commenting on how lovely it was, Jack says, "Momma, when you see Papa next, ask him, Papa, why in the world did you move us some place so beautiful?"

I could learn a lot from this little boys optimism.

Further proof that we are experiencing the city

Our days are long. Zack wakes up at 5:45 and is out the door by 7:20, goes to classes and studies till 5:30 or 6, comes home for dinner and helps to put Jack down to bed and then is typically up studying until at least midnight, sometimes as late as 2am. I wake up as he walks out the door and am in charge of everything else that doesn't appear on Zack's above schedule, in addition to being a full time cruise director for a three year old. Despite how busy we are, we are having a great time and making the most out of our two years on the east coast before we move back to California. :)

Last week, Grandma Z came out for a much welcomed visit. She was awesome and watched Jack while we went to an adult dinner (heaven). Jack loved playing with her and of course having her read books to him at bedtime. She definitely helped it to feel a bit more like home out here and we can't wait to lure her back out here again very soon.



Jack took Grandma on a walk along the Charles River. His smile is paid with cheesecake.



Jack the photographer



Friday morning, Zack, Jack and I drove out to Cape Cod for a student retreat. We played at the beach (I even played volleyball which hurt like crazy!!!), and then spent the rest of the day at the hotel's indoor wave pool. Jack loved it and despite his blue lips, stayed in the water until dinner time. We had a fun time getting to know everyone over dinner and games.

Our volleyball team



Jack and Zack playing football on the beach



Jack the photographer



How beautiful is this place!!!

The Swan Boats

Our first weekend in Boston we decided to go to Boston Public Gardens to ride the Swan Boats. This was a big thing in Jack's life because the book, "Make Way for Ducklings" was what made the move to Boston okay in Jack's mind. The book chronicles the journey of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard as they try to find a home for their expanding family. They go all over Boston and end up making the Public Gardens their home. They spend their days following around the swan boat and their nights sleeping on the little island. The cool thing is that when you get there it totally looks like you are stepping into the book (except you can no longer throw peanuts to the ducks off the boat).



Jack and Zack on the Swan Boat


Jack loving Boston


Jack the photographer


Looking back at these pictures I feel totally justified in my initial feeling regarding the how green Boston is. It's like we moved to the Emerald City or something. :)

Boston Public Gardens is 3 miles away from our home, but it took us over an hour and a half to get there thanks to some seriously faulty Iphone navigation. We drove right from the Gardens to Best Buy to buy a GPS. Seriously saved my sanity.

Madeleine

Madeleine

Madeleine made her entrance into this glorious world around 9:30am (12:30 my time). Sean called and I could hear nothing but my little niece in the background/foreground/all-ground screaming the loudest most beautiful angelic definitely female scream I have ever heard. I immediately started crying. Why is it that it doesn't even occur to me until I'm living it, that these moments are life changing, and of course will involve me blubbering like an idiot? My sister, the other half of me has a baby. The first moment I heard that baby girl screaming bloody murder, my heart was broken and then miraculously stitched back together again instantaneously. It will never be the same again. I instantly knew how a mom can love two children when her first has so completely consumed her heart. I know because there is a little girl in San Diego that my heart recognizes and cannot do without.

I tried to explain my tears to Jack after I got off the phone. As soon as he heard Adda had her baby he looked at me and said, "what are we waiting for mom. Let's go to San Diego!"

My Sister

My sister is on the other side of the country on her way to the hospital to give birth to my niece. What I wouldn't do to be able to be there...

Things I want to remember

Jack can't tell the difference between Dani and me. Even though she is 9 months pregnant, he still walks into a room and asks if she is me or not. I tried to remind him that she was pregnant and I didn't have a big belly (first time in my life Dani's belly was bigger then mine!). He looked at me like I was crazy. I suddenly realized how great a gift it was that he had no concept at all about body images. He didn't pay attention to her growing belly, or my lack there of. How cool is that???


Zack took a test to try to help him hone in on what his perfect career path would be, so that he can know how to take the necessary steps to get there. The first question was where do you see yourself in 5 years. Zack's response..."Looking out a window at work, thinking about Ana and Jack." I burst out laughing when he told me because his answer is so him, and so true. At least two years at Harvard might help him get a bigger window to look out of!

Apple Picking in Massachusetts

This morning after tucking our flu ridden Zack into bed, stocking the fridge with Gatorade, juice, three kinds of soup, medicine and tissues galore Jack and I set out to go apple picking. We drove about 40 minutes to Acton. It was a beautiful ride, and made me fully repentant of my previous, "what's with all the freaking trees" comment I made upon arrival in Boston.

Jack and I had a great time picking apples, eating apple doughnuts, drinking apple cider, getting lost in the hay maze and bouncing in the bounce house. The only thing missing from our day was Zack.






Jack picked this apple off a tree and came over and told me that there was a picture of an apple on his apple. He insisted, and rightfully so, that it deserved photographic documentation.




**We are not heartless leaving Zack here alone. We were meeting friends, and knew that Zack would be asleep most of the day. I also figured it was better that we get out of our germ box apartment so Jack and I don't get sick and make Zack feel worse.

Closing a chapter

Sometime back in January when I realized that my due date and Dani's due dates were four days apart from one another I told Zack that if by some miracle of miracles he got into Harvard, I wasn't going. He'd have to defer for a year. Just one year, so that I could see my sister become a mom. Just one year. Anyone who knows how much Zack loves me, knows he agreed. The heartbeat was strong, and my chance of miscarriage went down to less then 3%. And then my doctor agreed to run just one more ultrasound for me, thinking it would calm my worries, and I lay there looking at the ultrasound screen where the little blinking light which was my child was gone.

We found out that Zack got into Harvard the same week that Dani found out she was having a girl.

I remember the nights last year that I spent crying, yelling, and not understanding why I had been forced to endure yet another missing blinking light. I spent last year undergoing every hideous fertility test known to man. I was so preoccupied with trying to have another child, not just for me, but for my family, that I missed out on enjoying too many precious moments with my family. I ingested unnecessary hormones prescribed by stymied doctors, shot my body up continually with rat pregnancy hormones and made myself crazy. It's one thing to take progesterone, or clomid if your body has a progesterone deficiency or does not ovulate, but to my body, working perfectly normally, it was torture.

Fine, I decided, so I lost that pregnancy, but by golly I wasn't going to go to Harvard and not be pregnant. So I pushed us further and got on even more medications, had even more awful procedures, and started along the road towards in vitro. I figured if Heavenly Father wasn't stepping in - I sure as heck would.

Everything was prepared, appointments made, medications started and I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't stop feeling like somewhere along the way I had steered us off course. I looked at my beautiful, hilarious, quirky, fun loving, mirror of Zack and me child and was overcome with gratitude. Gratitude and knowledge that he came here at the right time.

And I called it all off.

Quit taking all 9 of my medications, canceled my appointments and notified my doctors. I finally made my peace (okay maybe its something I will always have to actively work at) that I will only have one child during my lifetime. That being true, I didn't want to waste another single day hyped up on fertility hormones. I wanted to enjoy my three and a half year old every minute that I get to have a three and a half year old.

And I am at peace.

I have learned enough to know that I am not in charge and I can't force the Lord's timing or His hand. (Oh how I wish I could have learned this lesson an easier way) I know my small, but incredible family is meant to be here in Boston at this time, and that maybe, years from now, I will understand why. But until then, I will try my best to make every day the best day of my life.

At long last...

Our camera decided it was done with Boston for a while and took a much needed vacation to Long Island tucked away in our dear friends' stroller. At long last it has returned to us. I can no longer use my missing camera as an excuse to put off recording all that needs to be recorded of our time in Boston.



We collected our keys


Welcome to Soldiers Field Park!



These guys keep me smiling


My kitchen

I miss my big kitchen in San Diego and my gigantic island. I had so much room to cook and bake. Our kitchen is so small that we can't open the dishwasher all the way. It can only open to a 45 degree angle because it hits the fridge.

Jack's room

I'm in love with the view out his window. Jack and I sometimes lie together in his bed reading books and watching the giant oak tree as it's leaves start to turn yellow and red.

Our living room/dining room/office



The view from our balcony

It's a bit hard to make out in this picture, but we do have a view of the Charles River right on the other side of this street. We can sit in our living room/dining room/office and watch the crew teams practice.

The park and field practically steps from our apartment





Our new car


Zack gets a kick out of the fact that when we are all sitting down for dinner, my chair is in both the dinning room and the kitchen. Conveniently, I can reach over and get spare napkins from the drawer without leaving the comfort of my chair at the table.

Jack has heard Zack and me comment on the fragrance of our apartment so many times that now he walks into our home and says, "huh, it sure does smell like curry in here." I don't even think the child has any idea what curry even is!

I am at times overcome walking around with how beautiful it is here and that I get to spend two years of my life living at Harvard. Don't I make it sound inviting? Now don't all of my dear friends and loved ones want to move here to be with us????

So much newness. More to come...

The longest post ever

This Summer has past in a whirlwind of visitors and activity. The summer started with the arrival of our visitors from Tahiti. Amiria came out to live with us for seven weeks to complete an internship, and Maima came out, well, to shop! :) Here is a recap of our summer fun.


We introduced them to Fish tacos




They tried to introduce me to fish, Tahiti style...


We introduced them to American barbeques, and Smores.


Rachel and her friends joined us for the "Base Tan" Weekend. The weather didn't permit much tanning, but we loved having them around.


Zack picked up two bikes off freecycle to help Amiria get to work and back.


We shopped...


and shopped...


and shopped...


and shopped...


then we thought we'd do some more shopping...


Maima fell in love with Ross. We no exaggeration probably spent at least 6 hours in Rosses all over town that week.


We introduced them to the joys of In-n-out


...and froze them at Southern California beaches






Ate coma inducing nutella and banana crepes, loaded with so much butter and sugar that y body had no other choice but to go to sleep and allow it to concentrate solely on digesting and not contracting diabetes.



Had to pick up Amiria on several occasions all over town when she got lost attempting to ride her bike home. The first night she rode her bike, she left work at 4 and waited until 7 when we called wondering where she was to admit she was lost.



We said our goodbyes to Maima and dropped her off at LAX with 4 massive boxes stuffed with all the spoils of our many, many, many days of shopping. Besides one cold 20 minute trip to the beach, Maima only saw the inside of stores in San Diego. She couldn't have been happier.





We said our hellos to the Earnest cousins and Annee fresh from Korea. George claims the only thing he likes about Korea is the cheap dvds. :)



We played at Sea World







Sent Amiria down her first real roller coaster ride. George and Henry had fun too...



Reconnected with old friends from Santa Clara in Oceanside




Went to the Zackrison beach week which despite my evident lack of photo documentation was full of beach days, yummy food, family home evenings, movies, cousins, sand and tons of fun. Jack cried so hard when he had to say goodbye to his cousins. We sent Amiria to Utah and Idaho with her new friend Kristen for a week. While we were gone Zack's cousin and aunt and three kids came to San Diego and used out house as a landing spot. (less you think our poor home might have gone unoccupied this summer!)

Two days after beach week, our dear friends from New York came out for a visit along with their three kids. Zack and I have a theory that having friends makes us fatter. I was 4 pounds heavier when their week trip was over thanks to two birthday cakes, decadent chocolate crossaints, an extravagent nearly $400 French meal out for the adults, and theme park goodies.

We played at Disneyland



**Monica, I can't wear my headband without thinking of you now... :)



Jack was reunited with Autopia


My 29th !!! birthday cake arrived from LA


We stuck candles in it, made a wish and ate it anyways...




Put our cars up for sale


We sold Zack's and totalled mine (opps)

We opened our home up for staging and realtors of San Diego to help our landlords sell the house from afar.


We played in the pool (lots)


Made repeat visits to SeaWorld, the Del Mar Fair, and the SD Zoo on Amiria's farewell tour. And the back to SeaWorld for fireworks with Jen, Anthony and Emily. Too bad they didn't start till 10pm!



Then we packed up our home, said "till we meet agains" to our friends and loved ones and moved to Boston.

The end.