Last Week in Boston

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Vacations do funny things to men, er, humans. They clear the mind, refocus the heart and if you're a parent traveling with many children, they become a complete blur. Or at least they do until we sit down and sort through photos and unpack bags with maps and ticket stubs and, ew, is that a banana peel? Hardened? At the bottom of my diaper bag? Or maybe that's just me. Because, it's like this: going going going going sleep a little bit going going see amazing things going going sleep an hour going going stop. 

This was the first time we traveled out of state as a sixdom and it was not without its challenges. The first few days consisted of us forgetting blankets and sippy cups and wallets and having to go back to the room and then ordering all the wrong things at breakfast and everyone being like, "I'm not eating this, what is this?"

But that's the thing about traveling. You get to say things like, "this is an adventure, guys! We have to turn around and go back but that's part of the adventure! Just like trying new foods and spitting them out in your napkin!"

We turned around a lot.

Many foods were spat out in napkins.

We got lost a few times but found things when we did and had the best time ever and here are some pictures of those times. 

(We spent an entire day at the Boston Children's Museum which is quite possibly the best Children's Museum in the world. We spent the entire day there and could have easily spent the entire night.) 

The Aquarium was awesome, too. 

And The Freedom Trail, of course. 

But it was the being together part that ruled most of all... the walk around the city, the exploration of towns outside... the bag pipes during graduation as we walked through crowds of people in caps and gowns. The holding on to bars in subways and pressing faces against the glass of bus windows and car windows and trying to navigate and not get lost. There was the BBQ David's friend hosted at her home with all the amazing food and people everywhere and the kids running around barefoot in the grass. 

... the "quiet time" breaks in Hal's parents' hotel room.

I guess the trip wasn't as "all a blur" as I thought. More like a string of moments all knotted up together and now I sit here, on the other side missing all that wonderful noise. The brothers and the sisters and the parents and grandparents and new friends and old strangers and all of the sights and sounds and smells and sleeplessness... 

I still have to download all the photos from The Cape and unravel all of those stories as well. In the meantime, I'm plotting our next sojourn. Because travel is everything. It's my happy place. Even with its challenges and moments of stress and insanity, travel is where eyes are opened and monotony is broken and sippy cups are lost and routine is destroyed and oh what a wonderful thing. It's where new places are discovered and people are known and moments are collected and kept. And two and a half years between trips is far too long. 

 Can't wait to do it again.  TBC...