Boston

Jeremy had a day off yesterday so we decided the night before to take a day trip to Boston. Who knows when we'd have another chance at a day when most kids are in school and the weather was gorgeous. I wish we would have had more time to research all of the places on the Freedom Trail a little bit more before we went, but it was still worth it. The kids were happy, the sky was sunny and bright, and we had fun as a family.
The Freedom Trail marks several significant sights in Boston from the time of the Revolutionary War and is marked by a red line of bricks and paint. If we didn't have the kids we would have spent more time at each spot looking around, but it was still interesting.

This is the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud from the balcony. This building was occupied by the British during the Revolution.

There was a small little park named the Paul Revere Park with his statue and a nice little fountain where we let the kids run around for a bit before we continued on the trail.

The steeple in the background belongs to the Old North Church which is the oldest church in Boston with the tallest steeple in Boston. This is the famous steeple in which was signaled by lantern "one if by land, two if by sea."

Here we are at the Charlestown Naval Yard that houses the USS Constitution which is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.

I thought this picture was funny just because it is typical of our kids--Corinne upset because she doesn't want to do something and Matthew quietly getting into something he's not supposed to.

The last spot on the trail is this obelisk which marks the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill--the first major battle of the American Revolution. We decided to stop under the shade of a tree and I fed Nora some baby food while Jeremy took the older two and wandered off. After I finished Nora I played with her for awhile waiting for the others to return. When it took longer than I expected, I started to look for them and saw them coming out of the bottom of the obelisk. Jeremy said that Matthew climbed all 294 steps to the top by himself while Jeremy carried up Corinne. They looked out of the top and saw me down on the grass. They then walked down all the stairs by themselves. I was proud of my two little hikers! (Notice the red line painted on the street and sidewalk to mark the Freedom Trail).

After Boston we headed south to Plymouth to see the famous rock. It's not as big as I expected. And notice also the date--it wasn't the first settlement in the U.S.--Jamestown was settled in 1607.

Here is the closest thing we have to a family picture right now. Thanks nice stranger for taking our picture!

Here we are in front of the Mayflower II. Too bad we came after hours.

We then found a restaurant across the street where we ate and promised the kids ice cream if they behaved. I think it was their first ice cream cones ever. I was glad they were eating them outside because they made a big mess. Corinne was a spazz by this time because she barely had a nap for maybe 20 minutes in the car and was getting all sugared up. She was yelling "nummy ice cream!" to everyone she passed, including dogs and jumping up and down resulting in one scoop on the sidewalk. Jeremy promptly picked it up and put it back on the cone (5 second rule!) and she finished it off. She even got up in a dog's face and let it lick some of the ice cream off of her face. Even though she loved it, I don't know if I'm brave enough to let her have another one anytime soon. You can also notice the progression of her hair falling out throughout the day. I'm pretty sure she has some ice cream in it by this point. By the time we left it was their bedtime and we still had to drive 2 hours back home. Matthew and Nora zonked out first and Corinne waited about an hour (unusual for Corinne who is the first to fall asleep at home and in the car). I think she was waiting to purge the contents of her stomach all over herself and her carseat before she could sleep because that's what happened. Yeah for carsick kids! What a happy day!