Trip of the Summer 2

Sunday was only church (could 3 hours of church ever accurately be described as only?), a playground visit and some whiffle ball. I always enjoy going to the park at my elementary school, even though it is different equipment than when I attended.

 Will anyone ever tire of me posting blurry shots? Oh how I wish that picture on the right was clear. This slide is really fast. Camille was not prepared for the speed. 

 Papa spent a while playing soft toss with the kids in the backyard. Boston had a drought this summer. I don't think I have ever seen my parents grass dead in the summer. It was weird. 

The next morning we drove to the Providence Zoo.

Will and Lauren are much more knowledgeable about animals than my kids and they were great to educate us a bit. It has been a couple years since my girls went to the zoo.  We took a snack break by this huge tree that the biggest kids climbed. Then Lou and Lauren wanted to climb, but couldn't get up alone. Elise was definitely feeling some hostility in this picture.

Millie wandered over to this bounce house during the snack break and Nana made a big grandma mistake. She paid for Millie to have a turn. It took about 5 seconds for the rest of the kids to notice, so Nana paid for all 5 of them to have a turn. They all had fun but I had to climb onto it to get Camille off.

Camille really liked seeing the animals, when she could find them. Two-year-olds are pretty terrible at spotting things and describing and pointing out locations didn't seem to help much.

After naps that afternoon we went to Castle Island. It is this little island in the Boston Harbor with a beach and playground. Planes fly into Logan Airport right over it. 

More sand and water. The kids all wanted to be mermaids.

We ate dinner at the park and then played for a while.

 The kids ran around and explored the island a bit. There is an old military fortress built hundreds of years ago. When we went to see that at the top of the hill, we spotted this old ship sailing around the bay. Couldn't pass up the chance at this picture.

How John cousins eat ice cream, from oldest to youngest.

On Tuesday it was rainy again so we hung out around the house. I went running down to the Charles River.

  Goodness, I love this view, which was must less spectacular with the rain.

After lunch Carrie and I took the the older 4 kids to the Boston Science Museum. We used our AMSE passes to get in free. Otherwise the tickets were $25 for adults!

At first we didn't think there was a lot for the kids. The dinosaur exhibit was fun and then we attempted to attend the show on electricity. It was one of my favorite things as a kid. They have the world's largest Van de Graff generator, which is super loud and bright. Sadie freaked out right away, with Elise following shortly after. I took all the girls out while Will and Carrie watched the show.

 

We then made our way up to a bunch of kid-friendly activities. These magnet boards with colored chains could have kept the kids entertained for hours. 

 There were not just 1, but 2 different shadow rooms. One with music and colored shadows and the other with the flash that records your shadow on the wall.

 Elise laid on a bed of nails and told me she was playing dead for the picture.

 In the end we way underestimated how long we'd spend there and didn't bring much food. We finally forced the kids to leave at dinner time. We had lots of hanger on that ride home. We also had lots of traffic, which provided this gorgeous photo.

After dinner the kids helped Nana make some cookies, which is always a hit. 

Wednesday was another fun day. We went to Boston Common to visit the ducks and take a swan boat ride.

It is funny that when I was growing up in Boston we never did these things, but this is the second time I have taken my kids to the swan boats. It is super fun to do kid-focused tourist stuff in my hometown.

The swan boats are not super exciting, but our kids are great ages for it. It was very bright on our ride.

Super cute shot of the oldest John cousins

Following that we walked over to Frog Pond.

We spent more time on the playground than the pond, but both were fun.

We realized we needed to get lunch if we were going to have time for Carrie and her kids to get on their flight that afternoon. It was really nice to eat in the park.

The walk back to the car was as fun as usual with Millie the Menace. Elise wanted me to carry her, while Camille wanted to run away from me.

After the Johns left for Kansas City that afternoon I went to one of my favorite childhood parks, which we called the big slide park. It has 2 huge slides that run down the side of a hill.

My childhood friend Meredith met us there with her baby boy Logan. He is one adorable kid. I love that my friends from home are starting to have kids now too. It felt weird to realize Sadie and Elise are older than when I first met Meredith.

On this trip Camille started insisting on longer back rubs. I told her I would rub her back as long as she would close her eyes. She would pretend to sleep until I stopped rubbing her back. No matter how long I rubbed her back, she would open her eyes as soon as I stopped. Little booger. I sent this picture to Daniel on our last night.

The next morning the girls and I woke up bright and early to make our flight to Austin