Boston and Back, Andrew turns 1!

Being the bad blogger that I am, I regret to say I am even a worse photographer. I will now add a few notes about our Boston trip and a few pitiful pictures:

We left LA on 9/25 flying redeye on Virgin America (great airline) nonstop to Boston. We arrived around 6 AM Boston time and I made sure to take a couple of benadryls on the plane and sleep as much as possible. We drove immediately to Nick and Jamie's place (which was only minutes away) and fell upon the air mattress they had so thoughtfully prepared for us to snooze a few more hours until we had to return to the airport to pick up Skyler and Sarah who were arriving around 10 AM. I was awakened to the delightful sight of my favorite baby! A quick hug and kiss and we were off; getting lost through the "big dig" but somehow managing to get back to the airport where we picked up an almost tearful Skyler who was so thrilled and delighted to be back in his mission. Poor Sarah was a very tired trooper. We immediately took off for parts west, to head to Skyler's first area and one of his two favorites, North Adams. The drive on the Old Mohawk Trail, through Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires was delightful. The leaves were turning, and while we didn't have the full fluorescents yet, there was much color, beauty and charm. The town of North Adams was equally charming. We walked around a bit, saw the tiny little building where the North Adams Branch meets, and then got to have a very nice visit with the Greenhalghs, one of those special families that not only took good care of our boy, but was kind enough to drop us a line several times while he was with them. After a nice visit, we headed back to Boston - tried to catch a burger in Cambridge but were too late - then dropped S&S over at Nick and Jamie's then Martin and I headed to our hotel in Braintree.

On Sunday, we picked everyone up at Nick and Jamie's and made the drive to Skyler's favorite area, Nashua, NH to attend church and meet and greet. It was obvious immediately how excited the members of this ward were to see Skyler. It was also obvious that this was a very special ward, with members who were clearly close to each other. It reminded me of the "old days" in the Calabasas Ward. A real family feeling there. It was fun to watch Skyler so warmly and excitedly greeted. After the block we drove through incredibly beautiful country to go to the home of the Bentall family who had arranged to have a dinner and open house in Skyler's honor. We had a wonderful opportunity to sit and visit with people from the Nashua ward,and hear glowing reports of Skyler's (and his companion's) work there. Jamie and I both agreed that we could move there in a heartbeat, the area was so lovely and the people so warm and friendly and comfortable.

Monday was Freedom Trail day with S&S and Jamie & Andrew. It was extremely helpful to have Skyler who knew his way around so well and we marched at a pretty quick pace all over Boston. This was our first visit to this city and it is truly a beautiful city. I love history and it was so fun to be pretty much in one of the birthplaces of our country! We toured Paul Revere's house, visited Faneuil Hall (scene of many debates),the Old North Church, The Old State House and the site of the Boston Massacre, saw Old Ironsides, and visited Bunker Hill. We saw the gravestones of some of our country's forefathers, of Mother Goose, and of the woman rumored to have been the inspiration for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. That night we went to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox (without Jamie and the baby) and were rained out in the 7th evening!

Tuesday was the day S&S flew home, but we spent the first part of the day in Cambridge and got to enjoy a burger at Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage. The burgers, sweet potato fries and onion rings were worth the effort and we were introduced to the deliciousness of lime and raspberry rickeys. Cambridge was one of Skyler's areas and he enjoyed showing us around a bit, before we had to take the newlyweds to the airport for the flight home and back to the books.

Wednesday Martin and I drove around Quincy for a bit. We saw the beautiful Old House/Peacefield home of John and Abigail Adams, and also saw the homes in which John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born (those two are about 75 feet apart from each other). We didn't go on the interior tours and unfortunately the photos we took were actually on video. Peacefield is beautiful! We found a fun down home place to eat brunch in and then headed over to Nick and Jamie's to spend the rest of our day trying to help her get the last of the boxes unpacked and do a little heavy lifting for her while Nick was in school (and of course it didn't hurt that we got to hang out with Andrew!)

Thursday was spent driving south from Boston, first to Scituate on the coast where we visited an old lighthouse and site of the "lighthouse army of two" young girls who chased away a British warship during the War of 1812 by playing a fife and drum. We had another delicious brunch there and continued on our way south to Plymouth. We saw Plymouth Rock, the sarcophagus where many pilgrims' bones are interred, toured the very excellent Pilgrim Hall Museum, and finally the Mayflower II. After Plymouth, we continued on our southern course - the beauty and history of everywhere we went was more than apparent. I was fortunate to have an application on my iPhone that I used to look up many of the quaint towns we traveled through and every one of them was loaded with history straight out of the textbooks. We made our way as far south as Sandwich, located in Cape Cod, before we began to turn our trip around but not before we stopped at a roadside farm store and bought apples, honey and cranberry bread. Our way back north we tracked a bit westward and went through Wareham and into the old town of Carver where we delighted in seeing a few cranberry bogs. We were two weeks too early for the cranberry festivals but the bogs are truly a beautiful sight. Cranberries are Massachusetts' number one agricultural crop.

Friday we picked up Jamie and Andrew and headed north, this time to Salem. Salem has devoted itself to the history of its witch trials and I can only imagine what a fun place it is come Halloween. We went through the Salem Witch Museum which is mostly a series of dioramas with audio tape explaining the events that took place in 1692 when a handful of bored teenage girls got caught up in hysteria to which they many years later confessed their wrong-doing (but not before 20 people died and more suffered). The more fascinating part of Salem was driving around and looking at the VERY old homes that are privately owned and occupied. The Corwin home is the only house that still stands with direct connections to the trials (and it is an attraction), but everywhere you look in that historic district is remarkable. We left Salem to head back to Boston where we picked up Nick - and after letting him do some visual assessments on us for homework - introduced him to the deliciousness that is Mr. Bartley's Burgers in Cambridge.

Saturday morning we headed over to Nick and Jamie's for Andrew's birthday party! Jamie planned a delicious brunch with friends of theirs from church. I manned the waffle iron and Martin helped with the hash browns. A good time was had by all, and the requisite chocolate frosting photos were taken of the birthday boy! We spent the rest of the day lazing around the house, listening to conference on the internet and just generally enjoying spending time together as a family. Pizza completed our evening!

Our last day in Boston was spent with all of us headed to the Old State House, the one site on the Freedom Trail we agreed we would like to revisit and go through the museum there. After touring those exhibits, we headed over to the North End and had a delicious Italian lunch. We left Nick, Jamie and Andrew to find their way home on the T and Martin and I headed to the airport and flew back home!

I have an odd photo or two to share and this will have to do - hopefully Sarah will share some of what she took! To see B-day photos, please check out Jamie's blog. If I can ever figure out how to post videos I'll add more later.

Peacefield (Home of John and Abigail Adams)












Us and the McFadden Family in Nashua:












Just the usual suspects:












Our hosts the Bentalls:












Scituate/Sarah&Skyler in front of Paul Revere's home/Andrew and Opa:


























































Photos from Plymouth, including Plymouth Rock, a tribute to Massasoit and Mayflower II:





Andrew and his Daddy

Wedding Photos

More on photos

Just a quick note - the professional photos have been uploaded. Some to the photographer's blog and some to a storage site. I'm waiting for the disk to come in the mail to pick my favorites, but if you want to take a look:

A few on the blog at: April Smith Photography

And:

Visit Collages.Net, and fill in the following information:

Username: SaraSkylar
Password: 19424

It's all over!

Well, we made it through last week with hardly a bruise. The entire wedding week was a flurry of activity. The bride and her family came in on Tuesday the 11th and stayed with us. Some of the family continued to trickle in over the week and Martin fortunately had an RV or two he was able to use to accommodate them. Last minute shopping through the week, a bridal shower at Cheesecake Factory on Thursday the 13th, then down to the absolutely GORGEOUS rental home in Carlsbad on Friday the 14th. That evening we had approximately 65 guests in the house and served up a pizza party (thanks to the wonderful help of my sister-in-law Whitney.) The house was a perfect entertainer's paradise and a good time was had by all. The rush in the morning resulted in a few dramatic moments, but eventually everyone ended up where they were supposed to and the wedding was on. The sealing was truly one of the loveliest I've been to and before too long, the couple was wedded for time and all eternity and then the crazy picture taking session began. I felt so bad for the photographer. That job is like herding cats. She stayed cool throughout and we were SO lucky that we had a great deal of time to ourselves on the lawn of the temple before the hordes of other wedding parties began converging. And best of all, the traffic from San Diego back to Calabasas was phenomenally good (a very rare event) allowing everyone to get back up north with plenty of time. Chelsea's mother in law, Pam Pierson, absolutely transformed the park into the most beautiful setting, exceeding my own meager vision. It was gorgeous. I don't think the pictures do it justice. The only hitch in the entire day was the bride and groom coming an hour late to their own reception. I think there was a hair crisis involved. In the end I think a good time was had by all and it was lovely. As I write, the couple is still honeymooning in Cabo.
The professional photographs are not in yet, but I have things to share already and if you really want more, you can check out my MobileMe Gallery.

A few recently finished quilts:

A UFO (unfinished object) finally completed - A classic Bears Paw quilt, made in a class at Sisters, Oregon in 2002.
Turtle Quilt made for Andrew, 2009.
Transportation Quilt for Andrew, 2009.
Cabo Dreaming, a wedding quilt for Chelsea & Trenton, 2008.

Scooter, the Soccer Player

This little video doesn't really show just how much Scooter gets into playing soccer. He is one tough 4 lb. guy!

Hot, hot, hot

Well, not as hot as all that, but still . . .

Since last I posted, we've been to Texas and back. And THERE it was very hot! It was a nice time. Most of the family was there. We missed the Jones clan. I loved getting up every morning to Andrew being there (can you tell where my joy comes from these days?) We did go to the caverns one day and I have a great group photo that I promise to scan and post . . . later.

Now I'm mostly enmeshed in wedding plans. Here's what is done so far: Oak Canyon Park is reserved; Pam Pierson (Trent's mom) came with me to the park and we brainstormed ideas - I'm fairly close to having an actual shopping list; found a photographer who will shoot at the San Diego temple grounds for us for two hours; after sleepless nights worrying about how I was going to pull the food off, opted to hire Mark DiPadova to cater it - whatever we do, it's easier than me doing it; Kristi Pak will help me with cake plans; Maren VanOrman has offered to help me that day and I have a feeling I will need her big time - I will undoubtedly have to press other friends into service that day trying to deal with a "destination" wedding and still get a reception done that evening; the photobooth . . . sssshhhh, it's half way a secret - such a hit at Chelsea's and Trent's wedding; took my sister in law Whitney up on her offer to help and she will be arranging the "rehearsal" dinner of sorts the night before for all who plan on being in San Diego Friday night (still don't have an accurate headcount though); guest lists done; the kids are registered at BB&B, don't know if any other place yet; close to ordering ties for the males in the wedding party; need to talk flowers more with Pam - her schedule is very tight and she may not be available that weekend, but I'm hoping and hoping that she will be. Still have to figure out a number of things and shop for a number of things, but I feel like I have a better handle on it.

I have this odd fascination with voting for my favorite custom designed fabric on this blog: Spoonflower I don't know why. I'm not buying any of it. I just think the concept is so cool and I like to vote :) You can design your own fabric and have it produced by Spoonflower. Spoonflower takes a few of those designs, offers them up for voting, and whichever one wins they print up and offer for sale to the public for a limited time.

I'm anxious for my summer class to be over. Still two more weeks (and a paper) to go. It's hard to concentrate on it when so much other stuff is going on. I'm also teaching in RS this Sunday and I need to prepare for that. What I really need is a 36 hour day!

Work is busy lately. I love my job and most of the people I work with. I'm very fortunate that way.

We had a BBQ here last weekend with some of our friends from the single's ward days. It was very nice. BBQs are my favorite part of summer!

Well, that's it for now. Nick and Jamie called and asked if I wanted to join them for dinner and you can imagine what I responded . . . "is Andrew coming?" LOL! Well, not exactly, but you get the idea . . . TTFN