Happy Halloween

Halloween this year was such a fun one! We did a lot of good things to get ready for it:

-I love this time of year as it's the start of my spooky movie season. I decided to put what I was watching or have a recommendation on my stories each night. It was fun (most of the time) finding a new one. A couple weeks I did a theme (90s, family, and Stephen King ones). 

My newest favorite one!

-We, of course, put up our decorations. Not all of them as Lucy got scared pretty easily with them, but we had a good amount up and the girls really got into putting up some bloody handprints on the window. We also had fun doing the countdown every day. Unfortunately, Pierce broke a huge chunk of the countdown one of the days, so I'll have to try and fix that (it's one I got at Disneyland many years ago so I love it), but otherwise no issues. I did end up finding the cutest little mummy cutout stand for pictures to put up, I was really hoping a lot of kids would want to take a silly picture. It was a little cold so Larry said only a couple kids did, but that's worth it enough for me (maybe more next year?)

-We went out in September to look at costumes at the Spirit store (that's where we learned Lucy is VERY terrified about a lot of the things for Halloween) and we found some really cute, fun ones for the kids. Then we went out in October to actually get them. Cara wanted to be a zombie nurse, Gwen wanted to be a Sally, but decided she wanted to be a zombie nurse too (my brother and I dressed as the same thing a couple Halloweens so it was kind of fun and funny that two of my girls did that). Lucy wanted to be a rainbow fairy. For Pierce, we found the cutest Ooggie Boogie costume that I knew he just HAD to be. When Gwen changed her mind on her costume, I decided to be Sally (I also decided I'm only doing a costume if it goes with someone else, otherwise I'm just sticking to one of my Halloween shirts). Larry had gotten a blow up costume of a man riding a snail early one so his was definitely the silliest. 

Cara loved being scary

While Lucy would NOT get further than this
From me and my face

-We definitely carved pumpkins. This was almost done last minute and I wasn't feeling up to roasting the seeds, this year, so it wasn't AS exciting, but it was still fun to do.

-We did our usual tradition of driving around to look at decorations and at the end the kids said that was their favorite part of the day and they love doing that. They didn't want to stop and wanted to go everywhere. I love that they like it so much. It was one of my favorite things as a kid and I love passing it down to them.

-The kids got to dress up for school. Unfortunately, Cara couldn't wear her zombie nurse costume because of the blood, so we were able to throw together a Misty from Pokemon costume for her (it actually turned out really cute). Gwen could wear hers, she didn't want to at the last minute, but I told her we didn't have any other options. Cara loved her Misty costume so much she decided to wear it for trick-or-treating. We were going to do another costume party this weekend that I told her she had to wear it for that, but then that got cancelled. Luckily, they both wore it at Legoland so we did get some use out of it, at least.

This isn't a costume, but I unintentionally 
Dressed him like Kreuger

-We got to do a LOT of extra trick or treating. There was Brick or Treat two nights at Legoland, we did our neighborhood trick or treating, AND Andy and Rachel invited us to their trunk or treat at their ward. So the kids LOADED up on candy (we even went around our block almost two full turns, normally we only do 1 so it was a ton more!). I actually learned, this year, that going zig zag up your street and around your block seems to be more effective. Normally we stay on our side of the street and do a "small circle" around our "block", but I told the girls we should start across the street and do the big circle and then when we hit our house, do the small circle. We did the big one about 1/3 of the way, and then started zig-zagging and I thought "man we should've done it this way the whole time." By the time we reached our home, the girls didn't want to do the houses we missed initially (in their defense it was really cold at this point). Either way, they loaded up, had fun, and they are happy with their holiday. They love coming back to hand out candy, start eating what they got, and get out of their costumes and into their cozy, warm pajamas.

Anyways, we had a great Halloween, I am very happy with how it turned out this year. I really need to stop planning vacations in October, it makes it so much more difficult to really get to everything we want to do. But I'm glad at the end of the day everyone was happy. Happy Halloween to anyone reading this! We hope you had a great holiday.

October Happenings

- I had my Spouse Appreciation Day on the 14th this month and it was lovely. Nothing big, but Larry brought me my French Toast (from Kneaders) in bed (but this time he remembered to have everyone stay haha). I had also told Larry that I think a hike sounded nice since we didn't do too many this year and I gave him a list of a few that sounded like they'd be good for us for him to pick from. While on the hike (he chose Cascade Springs) I told him I was craving Cafe Rio, so we stopped there for lunch on the way back (YUM!). During nap time I watched Scream 7 (I knew it would be bad, but I just have to watch those movies, I'm stuck in them haha....and it was pretty bad). After nap time, we went to Maurices and I picked a couple cute shirts out and then we went to Denny's because I knew the kids would actually eat that food so it wouldn't be a fight haha). It was a nice day.

LOOK at the colors! It looked better in person.

-This one is silly, but I got a new cleaning toy (a Tineco wet/dry cordless vacuum). I wasn't going to get anything on the Amazon Deals page, but I was reading a review on cordless vacuums and I was hoping to get a new one soon (my last one just wasn't cutting it). This one had great reviews, is a cordless wet/dry vacuum that self cleans and is a kind of smart device. So I decided to get it and I'm just SO excited to use it. Larry said I really don't need two so I'm giving our Crosswave to Andy and Rachel (it's a great cleaner, I just really don't need two).

-Since it's starting to get darker earlier, we brought back doing activities for kids after dinner. I was doing them a lot last winter just to fill up that time slot and then, once it got warmer, we just spent all our nights out front playing. I'm excited to bring back activities, but now I'll have to start thinking of them and planning them a little better. So far I've found some good ones the kids like though.

Oobleck...Gwen's favorite activity

-Pierce had his 18 month checkup this month. Everything is looking good and he's growing very big. They still say they hear the heart murmur so they think it would be good if we took him to a cardiologist to get a second opinion. I'm leaning more towards waiting till he's 2 to see since I've heard it's actually pretty common and does tend to go away on it's own. If he still has it at that point then that will be almost a year he's had it so it might be good to get another opinion at that point, we'll see.

Meet Charlie

So about a month ago, Larry started mentioning that he thinks we're ready for a new kitty and thought it would be a fun Christmas gift for the kids. I was hesitant though. For one, I just didn't feel like we NEEDED another cat (sure, if one needed a home I was willing to give it one, but to go out and look for another cat? It just wasn't on my radar). And second, with Larry starting a new job out of the house I didn't like the idea of me being alone, working full time, getting kids to school, keeping the other kids entertained, AND trying to keep a new kitty alive with young kids. That was a lot. I told him, maybe next Christmas when I'd be a stay at home mom, then it would be easier (and maybe I'd actually want one at that point). Well, a day, or so, ago, Tracy sent me a text that they were staying at a farm and there was a cat that was abandoned at it. The farmer was trying to turn it into a farm cat, but it just wasn't taking to it and they felt bad it was outside in the cold when it clearly didn't want to be (it seemed desperate for human contact). She asked if we were looking to get another cat and would want to take this. I told Larry and he said it was my call since I was the one who wanted to push it off a bit. I figured since he was still at home, maybe we could take it in and just see how we all adjust (I also was a bit worried since Minnie is getting older, how would she handle another cat...she didn't take too well to the last cat we brought home).

Originally we weren't going to take the cat in until early November, but then Tracy was just heartbroken at the idea of it getting colder and this cat being outside. I keep saying "it" and "this cat" since they weren't sure gender or age. She sent me a couple pics and it seemed cute enough. Well, we ended up moving taking the cat in to tonight. Luckily, it was movie night so we knew we'd be staying in and could acclimate to the change easily enough. I told the girls a surprise would be coming and so as we were finishing up dinner, we heard a knock at the door, and I said "oh, sounds like our surprise is here!" When Don and Tracy came in with the cat they all "awwwww'd" so loudly. They were so excited. 

We talked about picking out a name that was gender neutral. I wanted to name it bonkers, but Larry and Cara didn't like that name so much. We looked up gender neutral names and "Charlie" won everyone over. So, meet our newest addition, Charlie:

So far we're saying she's a girl and she's very cuddly. She has absolutely no fear of any of the kids (yet) and likes to snuggle. She snuggled with us all throughout our movie night and even with me for my movie night. The other cats were so scared of having visitors they only came out a little bit to sniff her and they are okay, so far. No big hissing, more just curiosity so far. 

So that's the story of how we got our newest cat. Larry is already talking about another one haha, but I'm still just okay with these ones. Welcome Charlie!

Legoland 2023 - driving home

So I was a bit nervous about our drive home. For one, I'm usually SO ready to be home once we leave our vacation and start driving, for two I knew the kids would probably be more antsy to get out of the car, and lastly, I knew we'd be getting home late and since Utah is an hour ahead of California we would be getting home MUCH later. However, now that we're home I have to say it wasn't nearly as bad as I assumed it would be. There were tough parts, but overall it could've gone worse.

We got up this morning and had as much breakfast as we could eat or have the kids eat (as usual, but we tried to push more) and we grabbed fruit for the road too. We got as packed as possible last night so it was just last minute stuff this morning. We loaded up and left around 8:30, later than I wanted, but good enough. We were on the road for a couple hours when we heard the dreaded "I need to go potty" call from the back. It was earlier than I wanted, but I hoped if we could hit up a Subway we could get sandwiches to go and eat them later (I had planned to have our first stop in Primm, which was still a couple hours away). Luckily, we were able to find one with a bathroom so we had all the girls go while I ordered sandwiches. 

Luckily, we were able to make it to Primm for lunch. We also needed gas so we could do that and bathroom runs (again....small bladders were the theme for the trip) and get all the birds knocked out with one stone. Speaking of birds, there were TONS surrounding us when we were eating and they had NO fear of humans (they literally ate from under my shoe and walked over my foot to get to food). So, full bellies, empty bladders, and some good stretching (we also did some wiggle dance videos for the kids), we were ready to go...for a couple more hours when someone needed the bathroom again, of course!

We did drive smoothly through St. George, mostly because everyone took a nap (including myself) at that point so that part of the drive was probably my favorite.

We actually were able to make it to Fillmore, Utah when I realized we needed to stop for dinner (we had enough gas to get home, but small bellies meant we needed food), also we knew Pierce and Lucy had pooped (in fact, Lucy had pooped a couple of times, glad we put her in a pull up). She said she needed to go potty about 30 minutes after the Primm stop so I told her she'll have to go in her pull up because we had JUST stopped (and with how many times she said she had to go right after going and then saying "nothing is coming" I kind of thought she was just having one of those moments again...I was wrong). So we stopped at a Taco John's for dinner and bathroom runs (last ones of the long, long drive) and it turned out Lucy had completely EXPLODED and ruined her shorts a bit so I'm pretty glad we did stop. Unfortunately, we only had 2 wipes left so I had to wet some paper towels to help clean her off fully. We ate some food and then got right back in the car and knew we should be able to straight shoot it home. It was only 2 hours away so we should be good.

Luckily, all kids stayed awake at this point so it was easy to unload them and get them ready for bed once we got home. Once they were down, we quickly unpacked the car. I got laundry all sorted so that I can start it tomorrow morning so we're off to a good start for our return. Other than Lucy's pooping disaster (I'm a little worried she has a UTI and she definitely needs to take her pedialax more regularly, poor girlie) and a few hard times with Pierce screaming, it went better than the drive out to California. Surprisingly, the drive became part of our adventure, not just me wishing we were home already (that only happened the last like 5 hours of the drive haha).

So overall, our first family vacation with all the kids went SO well and I'm so excited we went and got a chance to try a new place. All the kids were sad that we weren't going back to Legoland and seem so excited to tell all their friends at school about this trip. I'm just glad I have tomorrow off to get the laundry done and work on the other house stuff. 

Legoland 2023 - riding rides and eating food

Oh my gosh has Legoland been SO much fun! Here's a good overview of our time:

Sleeping: It's has been VERY minimal. The girls wake up early and it wakes Pierce up and he REALLY doesn't like being in his Pack N Play so we all get up once that happens and we've been just trying to get Pierce to nap in the stroller when he can, but it's been worth it. The skipping napping was okay...until it wasn't. I think 3 days without regular naps kind of took it's toll on...well, everyone, really. So I was glad I didn't plan this trip to be too long. I'm hoping it'll be okay to get them back on track once we get home.

Food: The buffet for breakfast is SO nice! Every day we load up on as much as we can and then grabbed some to go items to pack with us and take into the park. We haven't really paid for lunch, just snacked all day and then have a big dinner (which is nice because dinner is pretty pricey it pretty much eats up all our food budget I had set for the trip). I picked a treat each day in the park to try something new though. One day it was black cherry and orange popcorn, one day it was churros, another day it was apple fries with cream to dip them in, we also tried a pretzel (that was probably the least favorite one). We've all been pretty happy with those treats for sure. I will say we ate something weird because by the end of the trip, some of the kids were having bright green poop...so weird. 

Hotel: Our hotel was absolutely fabulous. I loved the location (I could NOT imagine coming to Legoland and staying somewhere else and dealing with parking and all that). The kids looked forward to their legos in the safe every day, and we even got 4 of each kind so we had lot of fun building during the few "down time" moments we had. The kids (girls AND Pierce) really seemed to love doing the dance party room every night. I'm sure we have a few clubbers on our hands with how much they really, really loved being there. When we'd tell them it was time to go they hated it haha. I loved watching their dance moves AND one of the nights they played some 90s songs so all the parents were singing along while the kids danced. It was probably one of the greatest nights. I do wish our room  had been set up a little different, but if we came with older kids (a little older) it would've been totally fine. They even had a whoopie cushion spot near the elevators that made fart sounds if you stood on it and the girls LOVED doing that as often as they could haha. Also, having that early hour to get into the park was nice (although not a lot of the rides are actually open at that time). The breakfasts in the hotel are yummy, but dinners are just so-so. I was kind of disappointed with our dinner options every night (we tried both restaurants in the hotel and then just Little Caesars our last night...I wish we tried something in the park, but it was just so pricey).

Brick or Treat: This was FANTASTIC! We got the kids dressed up on Saturday and brought their buckets (as well as grabbed some of the bags the park provides) and hit up EVERY stop except the witch one. I read more about the witch one and we decided to make it the first stop on Sunday so we could say we did it all. That ended up being pretty fun, but I don't know that I'd wait in the LONG line to do it. We even found some of the candy stations that weren't too busy throughout the park so they got even more candy from those as well (we got LOTS of candy!!)

The Park: Okay so the rides and the park, we had a lot of fun. However, I was sad that the height restrictions put the biggest damper on our trip. I paid attention to what the heights were before we left, but what I didn't realize is most of the rides any of the kids needed an adult to ride with them. I figured it I went with two of them that would count, but they needed an adult in the same lane as the kid so Larry and I had to take turns taking the older kids on the rides, while the other one stayed in a play area with the younger two. Luckily, there are a lot of really cool play areas so that was nice (and even one splash pad area), but it felt like we didn't get to see each other much because one of us was in line with a kid to ride rides. Lucy could also ride a chunk so we'd take turns with her too. There were only a few that Pierce could actually ride (and he loved what he could ride), but that was kind of a bummer on the trip. 

Also, NO ONE told me that with 4 small kids you will be making SO many bathroom stops. It would end up being I'd take one kid on a ride, while we waited Larry would take the others to the bathroom. Once I got off that ride my kid would need to go so I'd head over there and then while he took a kid on a ride someone else would need to go (or a diaper would need to be changed) so we'd were CONSTANTLY going to the bathroom. I think we spent more time doing that than anything else in the whole park. I feel like we also spent SO much time in the lines and that was aggravating. Luckily, I figured out how to work the app pretty well by the third day to that helped avoid too many lines (but then we were running all round.

One REALLY annoying thing was we planned to do the Aquarium on the first day (Friday) since the park wasn't open as late that day (the hours online said the park closed at 5, but the aquarium was open till 8 every day) so I figured we'd do as much of the park and then do that once we were done. We stopped at this dance party thing by the aquarium entrance and Larry noticed a sign that said it closed at 5 that day. I was SO bugged so I went to ask the guy at the ticket place which time was right and he said as long as you were in BY 5 you could stay...okay, that's fine. We were going to let Pierce take his nap in the stroller while we did that, but then we found out strollers weren't allowed in at all. UGH!! So we let the girls dance and let Pierce have a short nap, then at about 4:30 we headed in. Pierce was PISSED he couldn't keep sleeping and basically cried throughout the entire place. I really felt bad for the other people. They gave us this stamp thing for the girls to do for a "prize" at the end, so we had to make sure we stopped at each spot. Not a problem, except that about 10 minutes into the place they announced it was closing soon and to make your way to the exit (apparently the being in BY 5 was total BS!). So now we had to RUSH through the place just to find the stops for them to get stamps, we didn't really see anything in it, Pierce is still crying HARD CORE, and by the time we get to the end, the prize place was closed. I was SO not happy about that and wished we hadn't even gotten those tickets...such a waste.

But onto the good parts. Like I said, the play areas were really cool. They had so many fun things within them (like I wish we had playgrounds like this back home). The kids loved the splash pad (we learned after the first day to bring extra clothes so they could actually get wet). They were at the best locations where we could do so many rides around them. Also, we signed up to do a free minifigs one of the days and that was really cool since you could customize them (I thought they just gave you one that was already put together) and you got to do 3 each. We also got to ride all the rides, I wish we had time to ride our favorites more than once, but the only ones we did multiple times were the ones Pierce could ride on so we could all go on as a family. Cara loved roller coasters. Gwen likes them if they don't have big drops, Lucy doesn't LOVE them just yet (but tolerates them...I'm hoping when she's bigger she'll like them more), Pierce loved what he could ride (especially the airplane ride that went in circles, he laughed a lot on that one). Cara really liked the splash ride, Gwen liked it when she could prepare herself for the wet part, Lucy HATED that one haha.

So while there were bummer parts, overall it was a good time and everyone had so much fun. That's all I can ask for. And the meltdowns were way less than I thought they'd be.

Legoland 2023 - Driving to California

I have been SO excited for this year's family vacation, I've been dying to do another official family vacation since our last flop. So I definitely had to plan this one to a location none of us have ever been to: LEGOLAND! 

We HAD to make a countdown
Their "Ls" are for Legoland

I knew driving would possibly be hard with 4 young kids, but with movies, snacks, and a few planned stops it would be manageable. However, I did go into this trip knowing I needed to be patient and expect meltdowns and just get through them as calmly as possible.

This week I got our itineraries typed up and printed, got our snacks from the store, got all packed up last night (my favorite part of every trip is packing for it), so once we ate breakfast this morning we were all ready to go. Everyone was really excited, the kids kept talking as if Legoland was only a little ways away. We had to tell them we wouldn't get there until bed time so don't expect to actually see it today (they still didn't understand).

Luckily, our drive was actually pretty smooth! We had to make a couple extra bathroom stops than I had planned, but we still stopped at the stops I had planned for the big stops (a meal and some stretching). Our first one was Cracker Barrel in St. George. This was a good stop because we got good food, saw cute trinkets (I love their little store) AND we had some older ladies saying the kids were so well behaved and some older men saying they were cute...I love compliments my family gets when we go out (especially from strangers...it feels more sincere for some reason).

The funny thing is every time we stopped Lucy would ask if we were finally at Legoland yet. Then when we'd start driving again she'd ask if we were going home now. We would tell her "we haven't even made it to Legoland, why would we go home?" She's so silly.

For our dinner and stretching stop I knew we'd be stopping in Barstow, I just didn't know where. So as we were getting closer I was looking at places and found this cute little McDonald's in a train car (yes, IN the train car). Larry doesn't really like McD's, but I told him there were other things nearby and at least it was cheap and we knew the kids would actually eat it. When we stopped it ended up being cuter than I realized. It was a whole tourist trap with shopping, food, and some places to stop to take pictures. The food at McD's was iffy, at best, BUT luckily they kids meals came in buckets and that was nice because I realized we brought costumes to do Brick or Treat, but we didn't bring anything to actually collect the candy in. The kids had SO much fun running up and down the train car (since we were the only ones in it), but they also kept asking when it was going to start moving haha. We had to explain it wasn't a working one, just one that sat still so we could eat in it.

The girls loved the creepy clown

There were moments on our drive that were a tad difficult. Pierce would get REALLY sick of just sitting and kept wanting my attention or for me to grab things that I couldn't reach. He'd fuss a lot when I couldn't understand him or I'd just tell him to nap (boy he only takes SMALL car naps, apparently). He was only slightly entertained with the movies playing. He always wanted more snacks and I'd have to tell him no (we only packed so many for each way). So that got hard, but eventually it started to get later so they all  fell asleep (except Lucy, of course, that girl probably sleeps the least of all of them)  and Larry and I had a chance to chit chat more. We got to the hotel VERY late and it is super dark. So when we woke the kids up and they couldn't see anything we had to explain they'd see it in the morning. Even though they were all totally asleep when we pulled up, they definitely perked up seeing the inside of the hotel. I'll admit it's SO much fun. There's lot of lego areas to just build whatever you want and our room has so many models in it they were getting excited trying to find them. They also loved that there was a TV in their sleeping area and that they got to have a bunk bed WITH a trundle bed (even though they have that same set up at home). 

Trying to figure out where we were going to put Pierce was a trick. I figured he'd be in the living area so that he was away from everyone, but the problem is our room was U shaped so the bathroom was right as you walked in, then you went down a hallway to the living area, and then up again to where Larry and I would sleep and the girl's area was just off our bed area. So if the girls get up to go to the bathroom at night, they'll for sure wake him up. We maneuvered the couch and stuff so he'd be a bit blocked off, but I'm not sure how well it'll work (especially since once we put him down he cried for a good few minutes before finally settling down). I was hoping to have time to read once we put the kids down before we slept, but we're all so tired I'll plan for that the other nights. For now, I'm just so excited to see how the rest of the trip goes. Wish us luck...I'm going to bed now :)

Boston 2023 - Coming Home

Well if today wasn't like a typical "travel day started wrong" movie type of deal it probably wouldn't have been half bad haha.

I set my alarm last night to wake us up at 1 AM (this would be 3 AM in Boston since my Fitbit never switched time zones). I remember thinking "even though I know that's 3, my brain is still thinking we're getting up at 1 AM and that's harsh! Better sleep now to get as much rest as possible."

Several hours later, I am slowly waking up thinking "I have a feeling I'm not going to like what time it is...as long as it isn't *computing time difference* 2 I'm okay", looking at my Fitbit to see it's 2:09!!! I jumped up yelling for Stace to get up because it's past 4 (and remember, our shuttle was schedule to take us to the airport at 4...why didn't I make it 4:30?!). Luckily, I figured, as long as we could let the front desk know we were coming so not to cancel our shuttle then we'd still make it to the airport in time, we just had to hurry and eat, get dressed, and pack the last little things. It was VERY chaotic. I called down to the front desk to let them know we just woke up but we'd hurry down for the shuttle, to which the guy replied "uh.........the shuttle........I think she already left..............but she should be coming back so....." so I told him that was fine and we'd hurry up (because the guy from the night before said it would only be about a 10 minute drive to the airport at 4 so I figured as long as we were down within like 10 minutes it should be back around that time). Turns out the shuttle only comes around once an hour, it seems, so they told me it wouldn't be back till about 5 and asked if that was too late. We figured our flight leaves at 6:45, if she was back by 5 and it was only 10 minutes we should be able to make it, it's quick, but possible (and this is why I HATE flying as my traveling transportation option). She ended up coming back around 5:10 and quickly drove us to the airport (with other travelers so, of course, we ended up being the last ones off).

Luckily, we were able to quickly check in for our flight, check our bags, get through TSA, go to the bathroom, brush our teeth, and get to our gate right before they started boarding so it wasn't HORRIBLE, just not the way to start a very long (and VERY early) travel day.

Our first flight was really short (not even a full hour) so they didn't offer anything but drinks. I was still pumped up from the rushed morning I couldn't really rest. Stace, not so much, she PASSED out haha. We landed in JFK and then quickly found our gate. We decided to walk around to look for food since our layover would be around lunch time. We walked back and forth, back and forth, and only found a couple things that sounded...okay enough. We ended up sitting and Stace rested some more (she took something to help her with flying and her nerves, but it knocks her out) and I just people watched. About an hour before our flight we went to get food and eat it before we had to board. This flight was longer and I felt like I could actually rest, but trying to sleep sitting up was hard so I'd switch between trying to rest and trying to watch some show on the TV (I never have headphones that plug in so I have to rely on what has cc options). I didn't want to watch a movie in case I got sleepy so it was kind of frustrating. Stace...not so much, slept almost the whole time haha. The flights were pretty boring (thankfully....that's what you want in a flight, boring and reliable) so nothing to note, other than it was REALLY nice when we landed knowing I just had a few more steps before I could see my family again.

Stace got her bags and headed to go meet her mom so we said our goodbyes and "had so much fun!" moments at the baggage claim. I then went and waited for my lovely mini van to show up. When it did everyone seemed so happy to see me and they even brought me flowers (awww!). I was SO pumped still I was able to get home, unpack, get things wiped down, get laundry started, and make a grocery list. I feel so productive today!

So, while it REALLY didn't start the way I had wanted, it was a good day. I'm so glad we were able to make our first flight, that helped a ton. I'm glad we were able to get decent enough food, and we can cross another trip off our list.

Boston was SO much fun, I enjoyed a lot of it and have SO much appreciation for this country and how many men fought to make it as great as it is. I'm definitely wanting to go back and stay in Salem overnight. That city enchanted me and I'll never forget it. The girls keep asking if they can go to witch city one day and I told them for sure, we're definitely going to make a family trip out of it!