Green Monster

Monday night Mike and I took off on a date to a Red Sox game. 

A game I've been looking forward to since December.

But first we made a stop at Boston Common to see the flag memorial.
For memorial day weekend 33,000 flags are placed on display in memory of all of the soldiers from MA that were killed in battle from the Civil War until the present time.

It was a humbling sight to see. This isn't the greatest picture but I was trying to give you the idea of just how many flags there were.

The flags just seemed to go on forever.

It helped put in perspective just how many people have really payed the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, and these were just from MA alone. I walked away from this a little more greatful for what I have.

As we drove through Boston there seemed to a theme.

Everywhere we went we saw a ton of flags

Advertising  for the One Fund

all proceeds for the One Fund are going to the victims in the bombing

 and Boston Strong (a motto that Boston has acquired after the bombings. proceeds from many of these shirts go towards the One Fund) and Red Sox t shirts.

 

It was very cool to see the support and love all throughout Boston. It made me proud!

The Baseball Game

I've been looking forward to this game for three reasons

#1 I love going to Red Sox games

#2 Our tickets were on the Green Monster. So cool.

#3 I've always wanted to see the big giant flag draped over the Monster. 

Since the game was on Memorial day, the flag was used in the opening ceremonies

It was awesome, it was huge, and I loved it

 
2 things crossed off the bucket list. Yay.

The green monster was awesome.

Tickets on the monster are not that easy to get. You have to put your name in a lottery and hope you get picked. We have put our name in that lottery for the last five years and finally had our name picked to be given the option to buy tickets.

These were are seats.

It was an awesome view.

 The seats were great, we had our own seat and bar which was so nice. We also had our own vendors and bathrooms. No lines. Perfect. Makes it much easier to get those sausage dogs. :)

The fans that we sat by were a lot of fun. Everybody just chillin, enjoying each others company and watching a great game.

The way the seats are set up there is space behind the seats to walk so there weren't people constantly stepping over you to get food or drinks etc. that was so nice.

We also liked that you got an up close view of the outfield plays. There were some awesome plays that happened just below us. Loved it. Too bad we didn't catch a ball. There were a couple of kind of close chances, but not close enough.

I would love season tickets on the monster.  :)

Our hand stamps that got us on the Monster.

 
We had a blast.
I'm glad we got to go together.

Letter

For scouts Luke had to write a government leader about a political issue.

He decided to write Michelle Obama about the school lunches. He wrote about the noticeable improvements, and gave some suggestions about better ways to improve.

She wrote him back! 

Saturday we got a big envelope addressed to Luke from the White House.

Honestly he was just so excited to get mail I'm not sure he cared where it was from until he actually opened it.

He was pretty excited.

Rain

It's pretty much rained off and on for a week. I started sanding the deck to stain it well over a week ago but haven't been able to finish it because of the rain. FRUSTRATING.

But it's not all bad, look how lush and green everything is. I love this time of year.

Saturday morning there was a small 2 hour window where it was either not raining or just misty raining.

Mike hurried out to vacuum the pool. He took the cover off a week ago all it needs now is a good cleaning. Any chance he's had this week to vacuum the pool it's been pouring rain. 

I hurried out to finish planting stuff in the yard and to do some other odds and ends yard work. 

The small two hour window was much smaller then 2 hours. In fact we barely had any time at all when it wasn't raining. I looked around our neighborhood and I had to laugh when I noticed our neighbors. One was  mowing the lawn, 2 vacuuming their pools as well, one mulching etc.

I guess we aren't the only ones going crazy not getting anything done!
Bring on the sunshine. Hopefully, this is our week!

Shopping

I thought when kids got older they would be easier to take to the store. Mike, Ben and I were at Home Depot.

We lost Ben.

We found Ben trying out the showers.

I'm glad he makes me smile so much cause sometimes I'm at a loss as to what else to do. :)

Missed holidays

 I'm still behind on a few posts.

 I missed posting about a few holidays.

Holiday #1 St. Patricks day

Emmett came to visit on Friday before St. Patricks day.

We went for a walk at the park by our house.

He had a blast throwing sticks in the water. Each stick got bigger and bigger

 

Mom just had to out do him. :)

  

 Katy, Micah and Emmett came back for St. Patricks day.

The boys had their traps ready.

I was lame we kept St. Patricks day super low key this year. I had to start scaling them back some how. 

Our dinner was green. The leprachaun set off the traps

We played games.

The end.

lame I know but it was still a good night.

 

 and it was great to spend it with Emmett and his family. :)

 Holiday #2 Easter

We decorated eggs.

 I was crazy this year, we used glitter for decorating. It was actually a lot of fun and we were only cleaning up glitter for days afterwards, not weeks. Progress.

 

I loved the golden egg that Josh made.

 
The boys loved the Easter Egg hunt.

 Luke made small Easter baskets for our dinner plates.

 I don't have a picture but we invited this 79 year old man from Africa that goes to our church for dinner. He has seen and experienced so much in his life time. It was awesome to sit and listen to him talk. Plus he plays a mean game of checkers. :)

 Holiday #3 April Fools Day (whose bright idea was it to put these three holidays within a couple of weeks of each other. It almost killed me.)

The Menzies joined us for this delicious dinner.

 Everyone was given a menu with code names. If you don't order a plate it goes on the table. If you don't order silverware you eat with your hands. If you accidentally ordered ice cream with beans. Eat up.

It was a finger licking good night.

Brimfield

While the boys were at a preisthood meeting Josh and I went to Brimfield, a huge antique market.

 We didn't stay very long but it was a fun couple of hours, there was a lot of cool old stuff there.

 

 I was having so much fun taking pictures of the kettle corn the guy said I had to come and take a turn stirring. 

 We could have stayed all day but we had a garden waiting to be planted and a deck waiting to be sanded. The work is never done.

My superman

When Josh was around 2 yrs old he got this superman outfit. Probably for Halloween.

He wore it every day and asked to sleep in it each night.

I told him if he wanted to wear it in the day he couldn't sleep in it. That was my only chance to wash it.

In these pictures we had just been to the store and the library.

It didn't matter where we were going he always had it on.

I'm glad I got this picture of him before he completely grew out of it.

Josh doesn't wear a superman costume anymore.

But he has a superman tshirt.

After he grew out of the costume he's always had a superman tshirt and it's always been his favorite tshirt.

It makes me smile.

When I see him in his superman shirt it takes me back to those days when he was 2, wearing his costume everywhere he goes.

Josh will always be my superman. :)

The van

Our van runs.

The air conditioner is broke
The back lift gate is broke. It has to be opened gently with a key
Our automatic lock button on our key chain is broke
The defrost doesn't work very well in the winter
Some of the electric doors don't work
It has 170,000+ miles
The engine light is on regularly and it doesn't matter how many things Mike does to fix that problem, the engine light always comes back on (this is a few year old problem)
And the passenger window goes down fine but it comes up very slowly and then dies just before it gets to the top. So we have to push it up manually the rest of the way.

Yesterday, I was rolling our barely functioning window up when it decided it didn't want to work anymore and fell back down into the door.

Of course Mike was not around.
Of course there were sounds of thunder in the air and the dark rain clouds were rolling in.
And of course we had places to go.

So Ben and I did our best to come up with some kind of a plan to keep the rain out.

Duct tape and saran wrap.

We thought we were so smart but really it wouldn't have protected us from anything. It just made us look....a little on the ghetto side.

We pulled up to the school for Josh's band concert and of course the only parking spot is right in the front of the school (go figure).

This little boy walking past our car says "Mommy, they really need a new car."

Oh yes we do.


Although the best thing about our special van is that we own it!
We know it's slowly dying but have no desire to have a car payment, so we'll drive it until it dies or until we have enough money for another car. Which ever one comes first.


Mike saved the day. Poor guy. The wind was blowing, there were still dark clouds in the sky and now tornado warnings. He lived and the important thing is the window now has a new motor. Our saran wrap and duct tape days are over.....at least for now.

Friends, fun and cameras

Laura and I love our cameras.  Like they're an extra child in the family, love our cameras. When the opportunity arose to go on a photo tour through Beacon Hill (one of the most picturesque places in Boston) we jumped at the chance. Boston and great picture opps, how could we not?

I could've stayed all day, we're determined to go back.

Here are some of the pictures that I took.

These pictures are my favorites

  

 

These are contenders, but didn't make the favorite category

 

 

These are kind of fun.

The door looks like a robot

 
Love the shot.
This guy reminds me of Heston C. (for those of you readers that know him too)

This was taken through the reflection on the hood of a car.