On the Charles

The Bowen Family.  Jonathan was such a trooper rowing that boat.    Let's just say there are times when only have one older child makes life easier, like when choosing between one person rowing a row boat, and two people rowing a canoe!

The kids were thrilled to be floating down the river with this beautiful bird!

The Zackrisons.  I only mildly freaked out getting into the canoe for the first time.   

It was a super hot day, and I splashed Jack with my paddle and he said, " Oh, how refreshing!!"
I love that kid.

The Acks swimming in the Charles, until a passerby told me her friend's dog got sick the previous week after swimming in this water.
We had a fantastic time, and Jack was thrilled to finally be out on the Charles.  Jonathan and Zack were heaven sent and left the wives and kids at the park while they rowed themselves back and picked us up in the air conditioned car.  What good guys we have!!

Rockport, MA with the Bowens

Jack loved these pictures because he is currently obsessed with Mary Poppins and they reminded him of Bert's sidewalk pictures that they jumped into.  Needless to say, we jumped into every sidewalk picture in Rockport.

 

Jack and Penelope riding the frog.  Penelope is one of Jack's best buds in Boston.  She also introduced Jack to the Chipmuck soundtrack, which we have been rocking out to ALL internship.  Thank you to the Bowens...I promise to find some way to return the favor!!

Jack and Pops pose for a scenic picture

Zack poses pretty for the camera.  15 years and this guys still cracks me up like no one else can!

Summer Internship 2010 pictures

Jack discovered Animal Fries.  After years of ignoring them, he suddenly looked over and asked, "Hey, what are you guys eating over there??"   End of an era...

Jack is OBSESSED with maps.  In other news, check out Jack's rainbows sans back straps.  He practiced for a week in San Diego to be able to surprise Zack on Father's Day with mini-"papa" shoes. (Aunt Christine, your's are coming...I am a total loser...sorry!!!)

Beach time!

Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Z

ma

Jack Mads  and Mads Jack

These guys are the best of friends and have a blast together!

Sea World with Rachel and Ken.  It was great to be close enough to drive down for a last minute visit!

.Jack's after swimming lesson treats.  Ice cream sandwiches require serious concentration!

Swimming Lessons

What?!!  Mads had never been to CEC before?  We took care of that!

Jack and Zack at Toy Story 3 Family day at the office.

Jack in Zack's cube.  I promise he wore other shirts this summer besides this one!!

Surfer chick

Zack won an Oscar

Jack ate marshmallows. (Momma ate SMORES.)

Jack and Mom at Sea World. (sorry for the sideways pictures.  I am lost without our mac)...

 

 

Los Angeles

The other night I was standing in my Dad and Karen's kitchen, making dinner for my family, listening to Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar playing on the radio and my catching snip-its of my Dad and Jack's conversation upstairs about basketball and I felt peace and happiness.

There is so much change for us right now, but so much of it is good and familiar.  While there are so many reasons why couch-surfing with a family for ten weeks is difficult, I wouldn't give up this experience for a summer mansion of our own.  A few weeks ago I saw my dad and Jack become real buddies.  Soccer buddies, basketball buddies, reading buddies, talking buddies, Deda and Grandson.  It made me remember my Deda, who although he had no real family of his own, alongside Baba, created an amazing life centered around family.

Last week we are at Baba's house.  The house that I spent so many afternoons in growing up.  Learning to subtract by eating french fries, watching movies and reading books, me on one sofa, Dani on the other, and Tai in the recliner in between the two of us.  Everything is so familiar to me, and I love that this summer, it has the chance to become familiar...home...to Jack.

Baba has an amazing ability to patiently play whatever cockamaney game Jack can conjure up, and boy does he love her for it!  One morning while sitting at breakfast, he looked up and declared that he loved it here.

Right now, Tai is playing the piano and Jack is running around like a maniac shaking maraccas.  She has taught him how to find all of the Cs on the piano and to play a scale.  Now Jack has found a little stool to stand on and is conducting Tai on the piano with a baton.  These two make the perfect play mates!

Last night Zack told he how amazing my family is.  

Other then that, we spend our days running around LA, playing, visiting, and swimming.

If our apple hadn't finally given up and died thanks to Jack falling on it during a rousing game of Super Mario Brothers on Wii with Zack and Jonathan, I'd have picture proof of our summer madness.  I'm going to see  if I can't find a way to upload pictures off my iphone soon...

...oh and I turned 30.

Yikes...

Grandma came to visit

I love my mom.  I love how she will drop everything in her life to be there for me and Dani, and now for our children.  When the doctor called and gave me the option of converting to IVF or walking away from 16 eggs, I immediately called my mom and asked her if she would fly out to watch Jack during the surgery and help me recover while Zack went to San Diego for an interview.  There was not even a second of hesitation.  Even though things didn't turn out as we had prayed, she was there to play Monopoly with Jack and to help comfort me through my heartache.  Jack was sad to have her leave, but the thought of having Grandma back in only 10 days made the separation a lot easier (a trip she had planned before all the IVF drama).

So 10 days later, Grandma came back, this time I was determined to make it more fun (her previous trip having been a dud, and the one before that Jack threw up through and she helped us do 10 loads of laundry).  Here are some highlights from her trip.

We finally rode the Duck Boats!  If you are ever in the Boston area these are a must!!  Aunt Rachel had told Jack the story of her getting to drive the Duck Boat in the Charles River, so he was totally thrilled when he got to drive them too!

 We went to Boston Public Gardens and rode on the swan boats.  Grandma was in this photo, but her eyes were shut so I cropped her out...

 Jack the photographer took a picture of the Mallard's Island.

Jack takes us on a photographic journey of the Gardens.

We visited Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau spent two years living in isolation.  This is a replica of the house he built. 

Walden Pond was beautiful.  I could see the draw, although it's ironic that he lived here in isolation, but now it is so much of a huge tourist location that no one can get a taste what that isolation would have been like.

We "hiked" around the trails, and despite the bugs, it was glorious.  Jack kept asking to be carried (he is so my child), but promises of fresh baked cookies back home kept him on his feet.  I told him my story of being tricked up a mountain with the promise of a cookie that turned out to be raisin and not chocolate chip.  Since then, I am always unreasonably disgusted when I am offered a raisin cookie. 

Grandma played Ice Cream Shop tirelessly with Jack, was awakened every morning at 7am and let us sleep in, and was the best. 

This time when Grandma left, Jack asked if she was coming back in 10 days. 

I wish she was.

Ant Rachel came to visit

 A few weeks ago Rachel came out to Boston to visit.  It was a great trip and we loved having her around.  It was particularly awesome because she lived here for a summer so she was able to introduce us to some Boston treasures, such as Anna's Taqueria.  

We stopped at Flour, a local bakery that Bobby Flay lost a Cinnamon Roll Throwdown with, loaded up on cinnamon rolls, Boston Cream Pie and a number of other goodies, and headed over to Louisburg Square (pronounced with the s by locals and cool people in the know) to have a picnic.  You need a special key to get into this garden, but we were lucky and found it unlocked.  The Make Way for Ducklings book was the first thing that got Jack excited about moving to Boston and he literally has been asking to find Louisburg Square all year.  Thank you Aunt Rachel for going on a Ducklings adventure with us!

We think this must be Louis

We had fun shopping on Newbury Street, where I may or may not have fallen asleep on the floor of Borders like a hobo (I blame the anaesthesia from earlier in the week).  And then found our way over to the North End where Rachel introduced us to a delicious Italian restaurant.  Our food was fantastic, but that night all of Boston's water became contaminated.  For three or four days we had to boil all water to even wash dishes.  Thank heavens for our water storage because within hours of news of the contamination, every store for miles was sold out of water.  Yikes!

Jack convinced Rachel and Zack to play Monopoly with him, and was even a gracious loser (Jack not Zack :)).  He even filled out the Trophy for "Ant Rachel."

We love you Rachel and hope you come visit us again soon!

Adda, Papi and Mads visit to Boston

One of the highlights this year was when Adda and Papi and Mads made it out to Boston for a visit.

Maddie had been going through normal stranger anxiety, so Dani and I were anxious to see how she would react to me.  Dani handed Mads over immediately and she acted like it was no big deal.  I think my favorite memory from this week was on their last day in Boston when I came around to help Dani get Mads out of her carseat in back and Maddie literally did a quadruple take, looking back and forth between Dani and me over and over as if she finally got a punchline to a joke someone told days ago. I love being a twin!

We walked the Freedom Trail (well a lot of it at least).  I love this picture!

We visited the Bunker Hill Monument.

Somehow I outsmarted the group and babysat the stroller while Sean carried Mads, Zack carried Jack, and Dani carried herself up the 294 stairs to the top!  (Zack just informed me that Jack walked about 50 steps on his own).

Views from the top...or so I'm told!

And views from the bottom...

We ate lunch at the Warren Tavern where George Washington and Paul Revere used to eat.  

We went candlepin bowling.  Jack was hilarious to watch as he insisted on making the ball do a loop before throwing it.  (Candlepin bowling is different from regular bowling because both the balls and the pins are small.  Perfect for little hands!)

Mads drove us around Boston

We sampled Boston Baked Beans at Faneuil Hall.   **Dani makes this picture doesn't she?

 

Jack and Papi played football at Harvard University, ate ice cream in Harvard Square, and bought books from the Curious George Bookstore.

It was drizzling a bit during our visit to the Boston Public Gardens, but we didn't let that stop us. 

And in an apparent attempt to play football in as many places in Boston as possible, Jack and Papi played football in Gardens as well.

We took a drive down to Plymouth Rock.  We were literally outrunning a massive storm all the way there.

A group shot on the Mayflower!

Then we made a mad dash towards the pavillion that now houses "The" Rock.  

And we beat the rain there.

But the rain beat us back.

The Rock that started it all...

Zack sacrificed his raincoat in to the straight hair cause.  What a lovely man I married!

Papi treated Zack and Jack to their very first Red Sox Game.  Go Sox!!  (incidentally it was Jack's very first baseball game ever.  He was a bit hesitant to go strangely enough, but was lured in with the promise of a big foam finger!)

We had a great visit with the Powell Family and can't wait to be together again soon!