Boston in the Fall

After our trip to Utah, we flew off to Boston to visit Elizabeth! We jam packed a lot of fun into just a few days!
Sight seeing was fun. Here we are just down the street from the Old North Church where they hung two lanterns. "Two if by sea!"

And a quick trip to Paul Revere's house. We also visited the Longfellow home in Cambridge where George Washington lived during the Revolutionary War.

Isabelle requested a trip to the Boston Public Gardens to see the "Make Way for Ducklings" statue. Here Scott and I are with all our little ducklings (except Anne who was taking the picture!)

Then off to a tour of the Freedom Trail. This was the third time Elizabeth and I have done this tour. We learned something new every time. As we would walk along the tour guide held this flag so we could easily follow him. When he would stop to talk he kept asking Izzie to hold it for him. This picture is taken in the Granary Burying Ground where Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and the people slain in the Boston Massacre were all buried.

The North End of Boston has the BEST Italian food. My sister Laura and her husband Dan came down from New Hampshire to dine with us. We stopped at Mike's pastries for cannolis afterwards. Yum! (We also tried Modern pastries a few days later. I like that one even better!)

We planned our trip because of MIT's family weekend! We spent much of the weekend on campus following Elizabeth to classes (Cosmology, Physics, Western Music). We were amazed at the things she was learning! During her cosmology class the professor would write long equations on the board, and then turn and say, "This is pretty straightforward." Charlie got to attend a class with Elizabeth's friend. It was all about creating droid apps. Apparently, he cornered the professor afterwards with all sorts of questions. :) We also had lunch with a Nobel Laureate....

juggled with the MIT juggling club....

went to a magic show performed by a Chemistry professor...

and went to a concert with all 10 of MIT's acapella groups. Fantastic!

We promised our kids a lobster dinner!

And best of all, we met many of Elizabeth's friends. This is Ami! She sang with one of the acapella groups

We were invited to one of Elizabeth's famous game nights while we were there. We had so much fun playing Nertz, Bang, and May I with many of Elizabeth's friends. We lost track of the time and played games until 2:00 in the morning.

It was a trip we will never forget! These last two pictures are inside a brand new statue on MIT called the Alchemist. Seems fitting for our adventures at MIT!

Utah Travels

With Scott working in Salt Lake these past few months, we decided to go up there and spend some time with him over the fall break. Here are some (a lot) pictures from our travels.
Gardner village is always a fun place to stop. The kids love the witch displays during October. These are my two sisters. They are due within two weeks of each other.

My ADORABLE nephews Calvin and Simon!

Another adorable nephew, Brandon.

Anne made baby quilts for my sisters.

We were able to spend the weekend in Logan. Annie would like to attend Utah State University next fall. So, we did all the campus tours, and talked to an advisor. And of course we had a lot of family fun.

Up through Logan Canyon on a cold rainy day.

Higher up to Tony's grove where there was SNOW!

And then on to Bear Lake. Look at the beautiful clouds settling in on the lake!

This church building is affectionately called "The Golden Toaster". It is where Scott and I met for the first time. Sadly, it will be torn down this year.

No trip would be complete without an Aggie sports event. Here we are cheering the Aggies on against the Wyoming Cowboys. (We won!)

GO AGGIES!!

First Day of School 2011

Isabelle is in 4th Grade this year! She has been looking forward to having Mrs. Samuelsen as her teacher. Mrs. Samuelsen has a book club for her classroom. Izzie will fit right in!
Charlie is in 7th Grade. He is excited to be in the Hawk Pride Band. He claims his favorite class is Algebra!



This was Janet's first day of high school. As a freshman at Cienega, she will be part of the Copper Thunder Marching Band, and is also taking Concert Band. Marching band means early morning seminary. (Do you think that hair will be curled every morning by 5:30?)

Annie's Senior year...bittersweet. She is such a great kid! I hope she enjoys every last minute of this year. (On a side note, she has decided to play flute in marching band, but in symphonic band she has taken up the oboe! Good luck Annie!)

Of course I took lots of pictures the first day of school. So here are some of my favorites. Izzie and Charlie had their first day July 18th. Anne and Janet's first day was the 22nd. So unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of everyone together.

We tried to do the jump picture with Anne and Janet, but my timing was never right. I thought this picture was pretty funny though!

Anne and Janet just LOVE their wheels!
They insisted they have a picture with the VAN!

Saguaro Lake

Last weekend we made a quick trip up to Saguaro Lake. We stopped by Mesa to pick up our nephew Jake. Jake helped encourage Charlie to tube. He started out slow, but by the end of the ride was going full force and loving it!
Janet made it up on water skis!







Love the saguaros in the background!

Izzie tried her hand at driving the boat!

What a ham!
Three cousins!


Go Izzie!