Boston Summer
Our summer began with our trip to the east coast. Dad had to go to Boston for a Red Hat conference and we decided to tag a long. Here is Justin sitting at the airport. And the other picture was in the Colorado airport. As we were going to the next gate we found this back drop.
For me this vacation was a trip down memory lane. Finally after being with Bret for so long he was able to see where I grew up. The east coast held up to the true weather, rainy, sunny, and humid!! Driving to Framingham was so weird. This sounds a bit weird but so much had changed but so much remained the same. We went to the old house on Pleasantview Terrace. I brought pics of when we used to live there to prove I lived there. It was totally embarassing but I decided to knock on the door. The lady was a little freaked out but decided to let us in. So crazy to be back in the house. Really looked the same except lighter and brighter. I was really glad to show my family the house I grew up in. First stop was Papa Gino’s and it was as good as I remember. We were in Boston for the week. We explored the Esplanade, Boston Public Garden. It was fun the kids and I exploring the city. I was a little worried taking the T and stuff but we did it. Justin really liked figuring out the T. I tried to take lots of pictures.
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t is so funny that I grew up with candlepin bowling and if you are from CA no one has ever heard of it
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I remember first telling Bret about bowling with small balls and he was like what??? While Bret was at the conference the kids and I went candlepin pin. It was funny to see the kids bowl this way. They had a good time. The bowling ally was only about 20 miles from Boston but it took so long to get there. You just don’t pop on a freeway and go, like here. We made a day out of it.We went bowling then to a kids play place that had a zip line, rope swings, gymnastics mats, every type of ball. I thought the kids would be bored after a short time but they had a great time. We basically had the place to ourselves which made it even better. Then we went to meet some old high school friends for dinner. It has been 25 years and so crazy to catch up with these people. I let the kids have their ipads the entire time so I could chat away. I was a little hesitant at first for some weird reason but I was glad I went. By our hotel was a huge fountain the kids could play in. One night the kids and I ran through it with our clothes on just to be silly. Just going through it once I was soaked and freezing. Anyway we went over to the fountain another day with bathing suits. The kids had fun but Justin got a little cold. Nikki did not want to get out. Here is a pic from before going in the fountain and after:
We went to Old Sturbridge Village and it was like walking back into the 1800’s. It was so beautiful there, the greenery, etc. They called this a living museum. It was great as the people that worked there made you feel like they were living in this time period, dressed and working as the people in the 1800’s were. If you went into the blacksmith shop there was a worker working and telling us all about it. The kids loved the old fashioned games that the kids used to play with. Nikki loved trying the stilts. We got to see and hear them shoot a rifle. Also the highlight for Justin was catching a fish. The fishing poles were made out of sticks and both kids caught a fish-it was so cool. 
We headed to NY. It was a long drive. We did a little too much driving this trip but we wanted to see so much. We stayed in NJ the first night thinking it would be cheaper and easy to get to the subway. The hotel and area was just ok so we ended up in Long Island NY the other nights. We spent lots of time in Times Square. All the amazing and awesome stores. The highlight for Justin was the Nintendo store and for Nikki it was the American Girl store. Nikki finally got an American Girl doll and she was thrilled. She named the doll Isabella. She has been taking such good care of the doll. We ended up buying her doll a leotard and dad and Nikki built a gymnastics bar for her. And of course we had to visit the Statue of Liberty.
We planned 24 hours of kid fun at the Great Wolf Lodge. The is the best kid hotel ever. There was an indoor water park, video game area, balance on ropes/rope obstacle course, etc. The high light for the kiddos was the water park with the slides and wave pool. There was one crazy slide called the tornado. It was kind of like a funnel-I hated it but everyone else loved it
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We ended up meeting up with my long lost cousin. We connected on facebook and I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. It is my mom’s sisters daughter. I was so nervous when she wanted to meet up with us while we were in NH. But I am so glad we did. Our kids got along great, swam at our hotel and then we had lunch with them. The kids all sat together at their own booth. I still haven’t told my mom I met up with her as I think she would disown me. I didn’t even tell the kids that this was my cousin. It was nice talking as she is very similar to me. And I am so glad her and I didn’t let the drama of our mother’s stop us from reconnecting. I am sure there is a lot I don’t know about what happened between her mom and my mom but I was just a kid. It didn’t have anything to do with us. Here is a picture:
We had a great family vacation. So nice to be away from laundry, cooking, etc. Bret collected about 25 t-shirts from his conference and won a drone. It was a great way to start summer.