Ice, Ice, Baby

This week Steven was off school and the younger 3 had an at home week. This meant I had kids home all week BUT it also meant no seminary so I got to sleep in all week. The weather was all over the place this week. Monday was so warm that after the younger 3 finished their school work (and some house cleaning) we walked down to 7-11. It was a good outing but this pregnancy is definitely making me slower. 

Tuesday morning I ditched the kids for a bit and went out to breakfast with Stefanie. It is always nice to catch up with her and relate our fun teen problems. That afternoon Ben had a birthday party in Novi so I dropped him off and ran a couple errands with the girls while I was out that way- Penny was on the hunt for fake glasses. She goes through fashion phases. She claims the glasses are so she can look like me so I had to try them on too. The wind was awful that day, made you feel like you couldn't breathe when it hit you, so after the errands and picking up Ben, I was happy to stay inside. 

Wednesday we had freezing rain all day. I did not leave the house. That evening the branches had all grown heavy from the ice and started falling. I love the trees in our neighborhood but during bad weather they can be quite a curse. I did not sleep well with all the crackling and falling limbs. A couple branches falling caused our house to shake. We lost part of our tree in the front yard but thankfully it just fell in the yard and didn't hit anything. Also, thankfully, we did not lose power. The person across from our driveway was less lucky. His tree hit his roof and his cable wire. Around 1am a fire truck parked in front of my bedroom window and 3 firemen went to take care of the wire. They were super loud and laughing about something. Glad they were having a fun time :|. 

Thursday I woke up with anxiety again. Not as bad as the previous week but not great. I knew the exact reason of the anxiety- another birthday party to take a kid to (I hate birthday parties at places I have never been with people I don't know) and also I had a midwife appointment which always makes me anxious. The birthday turned out ok. I was able to drop Lucy off and I when I picked her up, the mom of the kids was nice and chatted with me so I didn't feel too awkward. Afterwards Lucy got to come with me to my appointment. I was so nervous it would be bad news and she would be scarred for life. I was so worried that all my worrying these last couple weeks had hurt the baby (such a vicious cycle anxiety is). The midwife had Lucy use the doppler and again they struggled to find the heartbeat. Thankfully she did find it. She thinks I have an anterior placenta (it's in the front instead of the back) and that was why it was hard to find the heartbeat. That might explain why I haven't felt movement yet. I guess I will find out for sure at the next appointment.

Friday I went with Michelle to look at some more rentals for Mariah and Jeff. There was one with potential but I think they might still be able to find something better if they just give it a little bit. They don't have to move until May so they still have time. It was nice to get out with Michelle but I think sometimes I over share. Probably talking about pregnancy with a real estate agent who has never been married or pregnant wasn't her favorite thing, lol.

Saturday we woke up to snow. This weather just doesn't quit. Also, Saturday Tyler and Steven ditched Robotic's Club again. They didn't go Thursday either and went super late Tuesday. I am not sure having Tyler in the club has been super helpful because he seems to be waning on his commitment to mentor and Steven definitely does not want to go. Steven is even complaining about having to miss school for the competition. He was so excited to miss school for his birthday but for Robotic's Club? Nope. This teen of mine. This is starting to feel like a major waste of money. I don't think we'll do it again next year.

I had a "drive-thru" relief society activity Saturday. That was interesting. One of my seminary students took my order for a drink and cookie and then the RS president hopped in my car and checked in on me and ministering. I probably over shared again. I think my anxiety makes me too chatty sometimes. Anyways the cookie was soooo good and I even drank the soda. I have really been craving soda this pregnancy and I gave in. 

Later that day Tyler took the boys to do D&D at the May's house and Caroline came over and we puzzled while the girls watched a show. It was a good night for all.

Valentine's Day

On Sunday both boys got set apart in their new callings- Ben as Deacon President and Steven as Teacher first counselor. With only 3 boys in the Deacons Quorum and 3 in the Teachers Quorum, it was inevitable they would both be called to something. We'll see how they do in their new callings.

Monday I was supposed to go on a walk with my pregnant friend, Julie, but she ended up in the hospital with premature labor (she's 25 weeks along). Thankfully they were able to stop the contractions and now she is on modified bed rest. The whole thing gave me even more anxiety (is that possible?). How am I supposed to feel safe at 15 weeks when friends are having issues at 25 weeks? Anyways that is my own problem. I am grateful everything turned out ok for her and I hope she is able to make it to her due date. While I was feeling anxious for my friend, Lucy and I went on a walk to the library. It was a beautiful day and the walk really helped me feel better.

Tuesday was Valentine's Day. I made some of my heart sugar cookies for my seminary class but I undercooked them so they weren't as good as usual. I don't know what it is but I swear when I am pregnant my baking/cooking skills suffer. Nothing ever comes out quite right. For my own kids they each got a little "love gift" and some candy and a homemade card. It is a tradition that they still look forward to. The girls made me and Tyler a homemade card, it was very sweet. (I failed to get a pic of Steven)

Tyler was nice and made me my favorite crepes for breakfast and then we went out to Arby's for lunch. That was the extent of our romantic day. That evening Tyler and Steven had Robotic's Club so there were no dates to be had but that's ok. Everything is always extra crowded on Valentine's Day.

Wednesday after we finished our school work, we had the task of buying gifts for birthday parties. The kids have 4 parties in the next 2 weeks. Apparently a lot of people were born in February. We went to Five and Below but they didn't have anything good for their friends so we ended up at Target where we had success. 

Thursday evening I had Bunco at Nancy's house. We had some super fun freezing rain which made the sidewalks like an ice skating rink. I had to take baby steps to get into Nancy's house safely. I have found with Bunco that when the prizes are nothing I am super thrilled about, I do really good. Tonight was no different. I got 2 Bunco's (haven't had one in forever) and ended up with the highest score. I took home two little Valentine's decorations that were cute but I don't really need more knick knacks. I have been trying to root through some of our junk spots in our house this past week so I wasn't thrilled with the idea of bringing home more things. Anyways we ended Bunco a little earlier than normal since we were concerned the roads might get bad due to the freezing rain. Nancy was unhappy about this, she really thrives on time with us Bunco ladies. Thankfully the roads weren't bad, the only bad thing is I need new windshield wipers. They were less effective.

After many nights of 4-5 hours of sleep, Friday night I finally mostly slept through the night. Plus school got cancelled Friday (due to icy roads) so with no seminary I was really able to catch up on sleep. It was amazing and I felt like a whole new person, even my anxiety was lessened. Since then, I have honestly been feeling a lot better, not perfect, but better. 

Saturday I took the 3 younger kids to the mall so I could get a walk in and of course, so I could eat some pretzels. It was a nice little outing with the kids and it felt good to finally be up for one. Later I had to take Penny to a birthday party for a friend at school and my anxiety returned some. I hate going to new places with people I don't know. Thankfully I didn't have to stay at the party so I went to a nearby Target and then got some Wendy's for dinner. And thankfully the anxiety didn't stick around quite as severely as it has in the past. When I picked Penny up she informed me that it was the best birthday party ever. They had done Nerf gun wars and then had pizza and ice cream. She spent the whole drive home talking my ear off about all the birthday party things. I am glad she had a good time. I wish Steven had that kind of excitement for things. 2 months in and he still hates Robotics Club. We are apparently torturing him by making him participate in it. The competition is in a couple weeks and it will be interesting to see if he still hates it after that, especially if they do well in the competition. 

Steven's 15!

On Monday in my attempt to get out more, I went on a walk in the afternoon with a my neighbor, Julie. She is a mom to triplets that are Penny's age and she is pregnant as well. She is just due a few months earlier than me. When I posted that I was pregnant, she sent me a text and soon we set up a weekly walk. It was fun talking with someone who was also surprised with a bonus baby and who will have the exact same age gap between her youngest and the baby. We can definitely relate to each other. 

Tuesday after I cleaned the house, my pregnant body felt like I had overdone it with the long walk Monday and cleaning Tuesday. Everything ached and I hate that. I get nervous when things ache but I don't want to be a lazy bum on the couch because that makes the anxiety worse. Ugh. That night the boys had baptisms at the temple with the ym. I am glad the ward set that up so they could have that opportunity. I really need to get better at getting us all out to the temple more.

Thursday I had my doctor's appointment with the midwife/behavioral specialist. It went really well. She was really easy to talk to and listened well. She suggested I meet with an actual therapist and also prescribed me something to help with the anxiety. I asked her about what ob dr she might recommend since the guy I was seeing had brushed me away so quickly. She laughed and said he was her boss and a great doctor but he doesn't do feelings. She also said I was welcome to see her or any of the other midwives until I got closer to delivery. That sounded good to me so she introduced me to another midwife and then set up my next 3 appointments with her. We also got to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It took a long time to find it-which it never has before- so of course that was terrifying. She did find it though and relief was had. 

Friday was Steven's birthday. He went to seminary but then I let him ditch school since he hasn't missed a single day this year. Once again he wanted to shop for his own gifts so we went to Target and he ended up picking two Nintendo Switch games. He was a little more decisive than last year. Afterwards I took him to Subway for lunch. Later Max and David came over. They played on the Switch, walked to 7-11, ate pizza and cake- and basically just did all the teen things. They ended the night watching the latest "Puss in Boots" movie, which was surprisingly good.

Friday night I took my first pill for my anxiety and I don't know if it was a combo of that and eating all sorts of junk food that night but I did not sleep well and I felt really lousy all of Saturday-stomach ache and headache. I ended up spending most of the day in bed or on the couch. Not a super exciting day for the kids. When Tyler got home from Robotics Club with Steven though, he helped Lucy rearrange her room- basically she just switched the bunk bed and the dresser. Then after dinner he took them all to Meijers to get them out of the house. That was nice because than I got to enjoy a quiet house.

And here's a pic of the girls with the giant bear at the library, a pic of Ben and his friends making pb cookies, and a pic of Ben in his traditional winter outfit.

Cold, Pregnancy Annoucements

Sunday was weird. We had one lady who talked about all her visions she's had of the afterlife during sacrament and then in Sunday School people tried to stir controversy with talking about blacks and the Priesthood. It's not a neat and tidy part of our church history. After church we had a linger longer and they made us listen to a spill on Family History before we could eay. Church is during lunch time so I was starving and felt blah and just wanted to eat already. When it was time to eat they were calling tables and I was bummed it wasn't our turn and Caroline said "Well I think pregnant people should go first" Totally spilled the beans to the other couple at our table. She felt so bad but honestly it was kind of funny. I've slowly been spreading the news so it's fine. I am 13 weeks now which is a fairly safe zone.   

This weeks was soooo cold. We had several days where wind chill left temps feeling like they were in the negatives and I am not a fan. Monday night, after hibernating inside all day, I ventured out to take the kids to 5 and Below and just the short walk from the car to the store was painfully cold. We went to 5 and Below because Grams and Poppy had sent the kids a little Valentine's giftcard and they were desperate to spend it. The girls ended up getting Squishmallows, even though they insisted on touring the whole store first, I knew that was what they would get. The boys both got Bee Swarm Minifigs. And everyone got Tic Tacs because they have had so much junk lately that I wouldn't let them get straight up candy, lol.

Tuesday I was looking forward to having all the kids in school so I could clean the house in peace but...Lucy wasn't feeling well so she ended up staying home and Steven had a half day which meant he was home at 11am. Lucy learned that being home from school is not that fun and was super bored while I cleaned the house and Steven ended up in his room playing an online game with a friend so they mostly stayed out of my way. That day Penny's "Big Sister" shirt arrived and it inspired me to make a little pregnancy announcement. I tried to get them all to make surprised faces but Steven was NOT cooperative. Although weirdly he gave me some nice smiles instead...

I sent this to Tyler's siblings and there was an underwhelming response. When Keshia announced she was pregnant a couple months ago there must have been at least 100 texts in response on the family group text. I announced my pregnancy and got maybe 5 responses. It's fine. Out of sight, out of mind. 

Thursday morning while the kids were at school I went for a walk with my friend Grace. It was surprisingly a warm 19 degrees, ha. I layered up really well and survived. I needed the fresh air and the good talk though. I have really been struggling with my anxiety, haven't really been able to shake it since my last dr's appointment. I've tried doing yoga and breathing techniques and they help for a bit but then it comes back. It was the same with this walk. I felt really good afterwards for a bit but the anxious feelings came back. I finally messaged my doctor saying I probably need to meet sooner and they obliged. I will have an appointment Thursday and hopefully I can get a handle on this stupid anxiety. It is really messing with my sleep. I wonder if I can get them to prescribe me a trip to somewhere warm so I can get outside more. I think that could help ;)

Friday afternoon we had the May kids over. It was one of those days with a negative wind chill but the older kids all walked to seven eleven and all the kids played outside for awhile. They are insane. I only left the house to run a few errands and that was enough outside time for me. That night, since it was pizza night and I needed pizza as a prop we made this pregnancy announcement because I saw it on Pinterest and it was just too fun to not recreate. This will be the social media post. Lucy was nice enough to take the picture but I drove her crazy making her take a bunch of pics so I could get the perfect one (I drove Tyler crazy too). 

Saturday Tyler and I went and did sealings in the temple. My last Endowment Session I had issues with getting things on and remembering things and so I had been delaying coming back to the temple because I felt so anxious about it. With my extra anxiety issues as of late, I knew I needed to get back to the temple but I needed to go in a way that didn't make me even more anxious, lol.  I finally decided we would do sealings because I would have Tyler there and that would make me feel better. It ended up being just us with a bunch of temple workers which was honestly really nice. They asked how many kids we have, and Tyler told them 4 and one on the way. When they asked how old our oldest was, one nice man said we didn't look old enough to have a 15 year old. That was flattering. When we first knelt down I had one of my super fun pregnancy flushes that made me a bit red and sweaty. The sealer must have noticed because he offered me a chair for the rest of the session. I felt silly taking it since I was the youngest in the room but I am glad I did, it made the session much more comfortable. Afterwards we sat in the Celestial room for a bit and then left to get dinner. It was a really good date.

Later, I went out to ice cream with my friends. I am grateful for my friends, they are a little bit crazy but so am I. It is nice to have people I can turn to to vent and get advice. After ice cream we strolled Meijers and at one point we walked past baby clothes and they were admiring them for my future baby. They are convinced it is a girl. I am still not ready for buying things and it is hard to even think about it because I still have that nagging, what if something happens...Still working on trusting that everything will be ok. 

Snow, Birds, 12 Week Check

 On Sunday we just had a chill day with church and then a yummy dinner of potato soup and garlic bread. Tyler's dad was insistent on making dessert and made brownies AND rice krispie treats. The kids got so sugared out with their grandparents here. We also had some snow that day so Poppy Hatch and Ben built a snowman. They gave it a butt crack and Poppy Hatch was very proud of it.  Lucy went out later and built a snowman with a little guidance from Tyler. I did not document hers and unfortunately the next day it's head fell off :/

Monday we had seminary again. The kids were dead which always making teaching tough. Seminary is so hit and miss. Once everyone was up and at it, I took the younger 3 (Steven had school) and Poppy and Grams Hatch to Kensington. We went to the farm first and met a very friendly goat that was up for selfies. It even slobbered on Penny's jacket.

After the farm we went to the nature trails and while Poppy Hatch was using the bathroom, a nice lady offered us some leftover bird seed she had. This ended up making our nature walk a lot more fun. All of us had an oppurtunity to have birds eating out of our hands. You just had to stand very still with your hand stretched out with seed on it. Ben struggled with the quiet part but still managed to get some birds to eat from him. It was super cool. Everyone lasted longer than me though, my hands (even with gloves) started to get really cold from being held out. I probably should have worn better gloves. I took some pictures and the last 2 were taken by Grams Hatch.

After Kensington Grams and Poppy took us all out to lunch at a nearby Coney's. That was nice. Then we took the kids back to the house and I took Grams and Poppy to the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills for a guided tour. I have never been because I wasn't sure how kid friendly it would be and I don't tend to visit museums on my own. We had debated bringing Ben but I am glad I didn't. I think he would have had a hard time paying attention but also there was this room where you watch a video of basically the aftermath of Concentration Camps- dead bodies piled up, mutilated bodies, people who look like walking skeletons. I know it really happened but it was really, really hard to see. I think Tyler's parents found the tour very informative and I felt that way as well. The only weird thing about it was that the guide seemed to think I was suffering physically and unable to stand and kept asking if I needed to sit down and if I was ok. I was the youngest by at least two decades there. And at first I thought it was because he could tell I was pregnant but he kept saying he could understand my phyiscal ails so...It was so weird. I tried to say I was fine but after awhile it wasn't worth all the protest. I just went with it. The only thing I can think of is that maybe my facial reactions to the injustices he was speaking of looked like I was physically in pain, instead of just looking like I was upset with these things that happened...Idk. I didn't take any pictures at the museum, didn't feel right.

Monday evening we took Tyler's parents out to the Cheesecake Factory to say thank you for all that they did for us. We didn't have to wait long to sit down but there was quite a long wait for our food. Apparently our appetizer (thai lettuce wraps) was taking longer than everyone else's meals so they ended up serving the appetizers last. That was lame because then I wasn't really hungry for them but all the food was still delicious. While we were there thanking Tyler's parents for everything, they asked if we needed anything for the baby and I just said that we had needed all the baby things because we have given them all away. His dad pulled out his big wad of cash and gave us $1000 to buy baby things. Now our thank you dinner seemed like pretty small fries. Anyways that was very generous of them and will be so appreciated since we have to basically start over with all the baby things. Not to mention the dr bills and hosptial bills and then diapers, wipes, potentially formula...Babies are expensive.

Tuesday morning Michelle had a couple more properties to show for Jeff and Mariah so Steven and Leslie came with. The first house had a really amazing deck- huge, with a pull out shade and a tv- it was impressive. But the layout of the house wasn't super conducive for little kids. The second house was beautiful on the outside with a great yard, and garage but this layout was even crazier. It was like a maze. Plus the current renters were still living there and it was clear it was a bunch of single guys. The place was a mess. So I think both houses were a flop. It's still so early to be looking. While I didn't think the houses were great, apparently Steven called up Mariah afterwards and said he didn't want his grandbabies being raised in those homes. A tad dramatic I would say.

After looking at the houses we came back home and had lunch. Then I took Leslie to Milford where we strolled the shops. Lots of cute overpriced things that neither of us were interested enough to buy. But it was good to get out and she says she loves window shopping. When we got back home it was time to take his parents to the airport. I am so grateful for all that they did for us, but I was also ready to get back into routines. 

Wednesday we had a massive snow storm. I think Tyler said that we got 8 inches of snow. They cancelled school for Steven that day and that meant no seminary too. I got up early anyways and got groceries before the roads were too awful and then spent the day doing school work witht the younger 3 and getting the house clean. It was a good catch up day. When Ben and Lucy finished their school work, they headed outside. Lucy redid her snowman, they had a snowball fight and they even walked to seven eleven in the snow. Penny and Steven on the other hand stayed nice and warm inside with me. 

Thursday we cancelled seminary again, just because our road was still not great that morning (and also because I was feeling SO lazy), but school itself was back in session. Once I had all the kids at school I went to Debbie's to do some painting with her and Caroline. It was a lot of fun. I didn't love the first thing I made and the second thing, I literally scraped off the paint so she could reuse the canvas. I was attempting to do flowers using a chaing but they turned out a hot mess. But it really didn't matter. It's just fun to play with paint and chat with friends.

Friday was busy. Penny had a dentist appointment in the morning to get a cavity filled. She was really upset before we left but seemed to calm down when we got there and then the laughing gas worked wonders for her, she did so good. She didn't even flinch when they numbed her tooth. For some reason though, my anxiety was off the charts that day and when I went to the doctor for my 12 week check up, my blood pressure was high. I mentioned I had just been feeling anxious that day and suddenly he was referring me to see a specially trained prenatal therapist. It felt like a massive escalation. Before he was so understanding of my anxious feelings and now I need to talk to someone and potentially take meds. Honestly being pregnant and sensititve that escalation upset me and made me tear up which only seemed to confirm his diagnosis that I need mental help. I have always had anxiety and I don't think it's been any more serious in pregnancy but I suppose it doesn't hurt to talk to a professional. It was all just very off setting and I am not sure how I'll feel at this next visit which will be with a therapist who is also a midwife. I guess I have a month until them so I can properly get anxious about it, lol. On a happy note though, the baby is still doing well and has a good strong, heart beat.

Friday evening we had the missionaries over and just did our usual pizza night. One of the missionaries was from Arizona so that was cool. He went to Mesa High School. They gave a nice lesson on serving others and then we had a Dr. Pepper cake that I had made. I was trying it out because Steven has requested one for his birthday. I think it tastes really good and moist but the Dr. Pepper taste is not really there. I'm on the fence about trying another recipe. I wonder how hard it is to actually get a cake to taste like Dr. P. 

Saturday Steven and Tyler went to Robotics club and the rest of us just had a chill day at home. Penny spent a lot of the day reading, I caught up on things and Ben and Lucy hung out with Andrea and Jacob- pacing around the freezing cold outside "role playing".

Boston Day 4 and Home

Thursday was our last full day in Boston. We had did all the things on our must do list so I debated a lot on what we should do- even considered taking public transportation to Salem or Cape Cod. In the end I decided we were in Boston and should see ALL the things we can. So after breakfast our first stop was the Old State House. The Old State House is one of the oldest surviving public buildings in Boston, although we learned they have no pictures of how it was originally and because of fires, lots of changes to it have occured. This was my least favorite stop of the trip. On the top floor there was a volunteer that Tyler asked a lot of questions and she gave very long answers and I was just not interested. I was so bored for most of this visit. Although I did learn that Lucy should live in Scotland since their national symbol is a unicorn. And I also learned that the long 's' in print was typed with an 'f' so that made things hard to read.

When Tyler was finally done there we headed to the Old South Meeting House. We stopped at a little bookstore on our way there but I was feeling blah and not in the mood to stroll so we didn't stay long. The Old South Meeting House ended up being a place that I really enjoyed. The volunteer there was not boring and she managed to keep my interest and teach me all sorts of thing. We learned that this was a Puritans meeting hall and patrons had to purchase their benches. What was cool is a family's bench was enclosed which would be great for keeping little kids out of trouble, but it was actually like that so they could stay warm with something that worked like a space heater. We also learned that when the British took over Boston, they turned the Meeting House into a Riding Stable. What a way to desecrate that sacred space. 

By the time we finished there, I was definitely ready for some lunch so we took the subway to Chinatown. Originally we were going to go to a waffle place that looked really yummy- I know we were going to be weird and go to Chinatown to get waffles. BUT on our way to the waffle place we saw a corgi doll in a Chinese shop that we decided to get for Penny and as we were leaving I decided to ask for a food recommendation from the cashier. She directed us to the Hong Kong Eatery. The place was packed but a nice guy directed us to a machine where we could order on and helped us work it (because it was in Chinese at first). We decided to just get one entree to share (Beef and peppers) because we were still going to get waffles. We got to wait next to a table full of whole roasted pigs (receipts showed they cost anywhere from $400- $500). When the food was ready we walked back to the subway station and ate at a bench since the tables there were full of pigs and it was cold and snowy outside. The food was so good and I am so glad I asked for the recommendation. 

When we were done with the amazing food, we walked to the waffle place and had the yummiest waffles ever. I got strawberry shortcake. I regret that we went to Chinatown on our last full day because I would have loved to eat at both of those places again.

Our next destination was the Paul Revere House.It's one of the oldest buildings in Boston. Apparently Paul Revere owned the house for 30 years and lived there for 10 so...not really HIS house since it has been around since the 1600's...It was big for those days but also small for the cost to visit. The guides there didn't really have much to say and I probaly wouldn't visit again. You couldn't take pictures inside so it probaly would've been enough to just take a picture of the outside and avoid the visit.

After that we headed to the Subway and went back to Cambridge to vist the Cambridge Antique Market. This building had 4 floors of antiques. It was fun to stroll and see some things from our childhood but nothing worth buying. 

Then it was back to our hotel to rest. While resting we ate a Boston Cream Pie that we had picked up while we were out because of course you have to eat that while in Boston. It was yummy! After that we had to decide what we should eat for dinner. It was snowy outside and we were tired so we decided to stay close and visit the pub across the street, The Black Rose. This ended up being an excellent choice. I got their pretzel and dip for an appetizer- it was huge and so good. Then I got shepherd's pie for my meal, also so yummy. I would say that overall on Friday I ate a LOT of really good food. 

Saturday came and I felt sad to have to head back home. It really had been a good escape. We attempted to go have breakfast at a diner that morning but it was packed inside with tons of people waiting outside and we just didn't have time. Google totally misdirected us because it had said it was just a little busy. So we stuck with tradition and hit up Panera. Then it was back to our hotel to pack up and check out. Once again everything went smoothly with public transportation. We took the subway to the bus station, hopped on the needed bus and got off on our terminal. On our flight we got to sit next to eachother again and even had the row to ourself. Despite them saying it was a full flight there were 2 empty rows by us so the lady who had been by us moved to one of them. This time my screen worked so I watched a classic "Italian Job" and it ended right as we landed. 

When we got back it was dinner time and Poppy and Grams Hatch were good to us and took us all out to dinner so we wouldn't have to worry about feeding everyone. It was a perfect end to a perfect week. 

Boston Day 3

 Thursday morning we decided to skip the overpriced market and got breakfast at Panera. I absolutely love their cinnamon crunch bagels. And they allow you to put your own cream cheese on your bagel so I could have just the right amount. After breakfast, we walked to the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum. This was the most expensive thing we did but also one of my favorite experiences. It started out with a reenactment of the townhall meeting. Tyler was given a character to play with a part and everything and he recited his part so well ;) We we were all to chime in with "huzzah" "hisss" "boo" and "here! here!" Tyler was the biggest partcipant and I chimed in a little. There were about 5 other people there (2 who were very little kids).

After the meeting we went out to the ship where we got to throw "tea" into the water and we learned a lot about how the "Tea Party" was carried out. We learned about the difficult process they had of cutting the tea out of the boxes and lead wrapping and then hauling the hundreds of pounds of it out of the cargo haul. The water was also at low tide when they dumped it so there were just mounds of it in the water. When it washed to shore during high tide they stomped it into the ground so no one would take it. One man who did try to take handfuls of it and was beat and then they nailed his coat to the gallows. This was serious business. I also was given a character and apparently my character got hit on the head with a box of tea and was persumed dead. (Gratefully they didn't reenact this). They brought him back to his workshop hoping that it would look like a work accident but lo and behold the next morning they went to check on the body and discovered he was still breathing. Huzzah!

After the ship we went inside to the museum and they went over the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party. They did this with a 3D reenactment of two wives talking (one a loyalist and one not). Then we went into another room where they had a video and then 2 portraits that honestly looked painted but turned out to be projections that moved and talked. In this room they had a crate from that night and a vial of tea from that night- not sure how someone got away with keeping that. The last room had a video of the Midnight Run and the shot heard around the world. This video was a little graphic (with a bullet wound victim) which made me feel bad for the dad with the 2 little girls. They looked traumatized. This video also made me a little emotional. I wish people appreciated the sacrafices that were made so that we could have freedom here. 

After the museum we went back to our hotel room and ate some leftover pizza and rested our feet. After our break we headed to Charlestown to see the USS Constitution. This required taking a ferry so that was fun. The ferry looked like it hadn't been updated in decades but it got us their safely and the view was nice so I guess I can't complain.

The USS Constitution Museum was a short jaunt from the ferry. Honestly the afternoon sleepies hit when we got there so I wasn't super excited by the museum. I felt like I could curl up on a bench and take a nap. Instead we read plaques and learned about what ships are made of and the life of sailors. I would never make it as a sailor. 

When we finished up at the museum, we headed to the actual ship. It is still owned by the navy so we had to go through security and then we went on a tour led by a sailor. She was actually a firefighter in the navy. Seeing the boat was pretty cool. We saw the canons, and learned how they operated and we saw the place where all the sailors slept in hammocks. Tyler asked the lady a lot of questions at the end and at that point I was a wee bit bored but I am glad he learned some things. When we first started the tour it had started to sprinkle and when it ended it, it was raining. Thankfully not too hard because we had to walk back to the ferry and wait for it to come. While waiting we met a chatty couple from Canada and talked about weather with them. By the time we got in the ferry and walked back to our hotel, we were definitely a little soggy. It took some time for us to properly dry off and feel like going back out for some dinner.

For dinner we got out our umbrellas and went to Pauli's which is world famous. The sandwiches were super pricey but huge. I got the Vito sub and it was good but not spectacular. Tyler seemed to really enjoy his sandwich. When we were done we picked up something sweet to eat at the seven eleven right by our hotel. Their was a homeless man holding the door open with a cup. Perks of staying in the city I guess. He was there the following night too. I am surprised that he doesn't get kicked out...