Back from Boston

I'm back from a week of busyness and business mixed with sight-seeing and fun in Boston. Our Power of Moms New England Retreat was GREAT (more on that later - such an excellent group of women - I learned so much!) and I loved the chance to take Eliza with me and show her many of the places that have been huge parts of my life - Wellesley, Harvard, Cambridge, Boston - 10 years of my life were spent in these places. Liza was a great travel companion and totally ate up all the sites and history and information. We stayed with my sister Saydi who lives on the outskirts of Boston and had so much fun with her and her family (plus Saydi was my co-presenter at the Retreat - such a treat to be able to work with her). The fall foliage was at its peak and the colors were breathtaking. Everything was generally really great. But wow, I'm exhausted!

Now I'm trying to catch up on mail and voice mail and email and laundry and restock the house with food while trying to give the kids lots of extra TLC since I've been gone and I missed them so much and they need it and simultaneously debrief the Retreat I conducted while in Boston and move several timely Power of Moms projects forward. Oh and Halloween - got to get that taken care of - haven't even thought about it before today and the kids need costumes and stuff for school parties tomorrow. Oh and then I need to rent this house and figure out lots of details on the new house (tons of small things the home inspector found on Monday - all the small things are starting to really add up in dollars and time and worry! We're scheduled to talk with the sellers this weekend and figure some things out). Oh and then I've got to pack up this whole house as soon as we get a move-out date pinned down.

Very sadly, we missed our flight connection yesterday (we sat on the plane for an hour in Boston for no reason that anyone cared to share) and had to wait 2 hours for the next flight which made it so we'd most likely miss the shuttle van from Vegas to St George (oh, the joys of not living near a "real" airport!). But when we did finally hit the ground in Vegas, we RAN and I called the shuttle place and begged them into waiting for us so we made it on the shuttle and were SO glad. Then we met a nice guy who was sitting next to us on the shuttle back from the Vegas airport whose father-in-law is the bishop of our new ward in Ogden and who's interested in renting this house - he'll be here in a few minutes with his wife to tour the place. I love those moments when the Lord points out that he's aware of us and is sending the right connections our way... even if it meant missing other connections and being pretty frustrated at times!

I was mostly brain-dead on the flight home and needed something pleasant and somewhat mindless to do - so I made a bunch of collages of my best photos from the trip. I'll let these collages tell the rest of the story of our trip. And I'll do a separate blog post about the Retreat when I get a chance.

OK, Boston in the fall is something everyone should see sometime in their life. The clashing of brilliant colors everywhere you turn can take your breath away.

Eliza got a crash course in American History, art and architecture history, you name it.  And she loved it all.  We must have walked 20 miles and she never complained a bit.  Plus she's by far my best photo poser - she's happy to star in any photo any time.  Nice contrast with her brothers.  Yes, she had her moody or over-tired or over-hungry moments - but really, this little girl makes an excellent friend and travel companion and was just so excited about everything.

I love Beacon Hill.  I love the doors of Boston.  I love the simple and elegant fall decorations.  I love the brick.

  
I got into taking photos framed by windows. Above are a few of my favorite window-views from various spots in Boston.  


Ah, Boston. What a place. What memories. What history - for me and for our country and for so many others. I want my kids to know Boston. Three down (we took the big boys a couple years ago), two to go - at least for the initial overview of the place. We'll get back there every chance we get.