boston, part 1, getting comfortable

We recently returned home from a weeklong trip to Boston. For blogging purposes I am breaking it down into three segments, but the breakdown is pretty natural. It felt like there were three "phases" to the trip.

Our plane departed Thursday morning. The kids were pretty good on the flight. Good enough that I was able to read about 30 pages from my book. Will watched a few episodes of Word World on the Kindle and Lauren watched too, which was surprising considering she couldn't hear anything (Will was using the earbuds).

Will fell asleep in the car on the way home and continued to sleep for a few hours. Lauren stayed awake long enough to eat some lunch, but then she too slept for awhile. I was really glad they got some sleep, but they both woke up really grouchy. Shy kids in grumpy moods in a new environment don't exactly make for the most friendly houseguests. After a dinner where Will wouldn't look anyone in the eye we headed to the John family room. Nana, Papa, and Alicia thawed the ice by reading to the kids.

At this point the kids were comfortable enough they could enjoy the favorite pasttime of generations of John kids: dancing in the living room to Papa's vast music collection. TJ wisely selected Hungry Heart to start off the set.

Within a matter of minutes we had this happy boy:

The kids danced til they dropped and went to bed pretty easily. Lauren wasn't too fond of the pack and play the first couple of nights, but she warmed up to it eventually.

Friday was a gray and rainy day. Doug and Tina took us to the Boston Children's Museum after they did some work in the morning. The museum is awesome!  Our first stop was the bubble room, where we spent a lot of time.

Will loved this room! Most of the bubble-blowing tools were pretty simple. As I mentioned before, I kept thinking I could put together something similar at home, on a much smaller scale, of course. Will was so fascinated by the bubbles.

I mentioned before that the bubble room wasn't a good fit for Lauren. While Will played in the bubble room with Nana, Papa and Anthony took Lauren to the ball room. I was really interested in seeing this room because there is a sign up in the ball room at our local children's museum that says it is modeled after the ball room in the Boston.

The room was actually pretty similar to the one we have here in Kansas. Lauren had fun roaming around and hoarding golf balls. Will eventually came over and had fun too, depsite an incident where an older kid pushed him out of the way.

At this point Alicia and Bryce joined us at the museum and we ventured to other exhibits. The adults kept saying that Will and Lauren would have been satisfied to spend the entire three hours in those two rooms, but we wanted to get our money's worth and check out the whole place.

There were many more exhibits upstairs.

Lauren enjoyed organizing a healthy plate of food.

Always in the mood to dance.

 

 

Will loved the water area almost as much as he loved the bubbles.


The last area we spent a lot of time in was in "Elwood City," the fictional town of Arthur Read's family and friends.

Will and Lauren enjoyed dancing with Alicia and Nana to the Arthur theme song over and over.

Will's favorite spot was the cockpit of Buster's dad's airplane. We had to drag him away.

 

While Will was playing at the front of the plane, Lauren slid down the back entrance. The girl loves slides.

 

 

 

We stopped by a few more exhibits after that, but I didn't get any good photographic evidence. The adults were starting to drag. We headed home, ate dinner, and chatted the night away.

 

Saturday the only thing we had scheduled was a Red Sox game. We relaxed in the morning and then headed to the game.

 

 

Due to the shuttlebus detour we arrived in the third inning, which was a little disappointing. But the game ended up going into extra innings, so it all worked out in the end.

 

We were all pleasantly surprised with how well the kids did, especially Will. He seemed interested in the game the whole time. He was willing to move around when Lauren was demanding more space or wanted to sit on the lap he was currently occupying.

 

He decided his favorite player is Will Middlebrooks, because they share the same name. He kept asking when it was going to be "his" turn to bat and if "he" got a hit. He was pleased when he (Middlebrooks) got a hit, but Daniel (Nava?) did not.

I was prepared for it to be really cold, but we were all comfortable wearing hoodies.

 

Thanks for the great game, Doug and Tina!

 

When the game was over Meredith, Steven and Weston had arrived. They picked us up so we didn't have to ride the shuttlebus again on the way home.

 

 

That evening we tried to get the kids to enjoy a nice bubble bath together, but no one really enjoyed it. Will ended up staying in for quite awhile after Wetson and Lauren got out, but neither toddler had much fun.