Boston for our Silver Anniversary

 It's hard to believe that Steve and I have been married for 25 years. We decided we wanted to take a trip for our silver anniversary, and we also decided we were really missing Conner, so we booked a trip to Boston.

When we arrived, it was right during rush hour. The traffic in Boston is horrendous, and we had a rental car. We ended up eating at a restaurant just a few miles away from the airport, called Ocean Air. It was really good food, and we were able to stay warm and wait out all the crazy traffic. We actually came upon a terrible accident while driving from the airport, it was fatal. Steve saw someone in the street. Very sad.

We spent our first day together driving up the coast. Neither of us have been to Maine, and it's such a short drive. It would have only taken an hour and a half, but I do like to stop for pictures. This was taken at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

We drove up Route 1A, which is literally right along the coastline, and the homes we passed were incredible. Some were these amazing mansions, others were summer beach houses, but they all were incredible! 

We drove to York, Maine, and stopped at the Nubble Lighthouse. It is such a cute little lighthouse, and it was all decorated for Christmas. Our pictures turned out pretty bad... really bad! Haha! So, you'll just have to imagine. It was SO COLD!!!! And the wind was really blowing. We mostly enjoyed the views from inside the car!

After the lighthouse, we stopped at a small restaurant overlooking the ocean. It was called Lobster Cove. Steve said I couldn't go to Maine without getting a lobster roll. This was such a cute restaurant, it was all decorated for Christmas, and had a fire going in the fireplace. We sat right by the window to eat. There was so much lobster on my lobster roll, I was shocked! Delicious!!!

Then we drove to the Kittery outlets, in Kittery, Maine. They have so many stores! I asked Steve for a coat for Christmas, and when Steve gets me anything, he gets the very best! We had stopped at the airport in Salt Lake and looked at coats in one of the ski shops. I had picked out one that was the warmest coat I have ever put on. Of course, there's no way I would pay the price they were asking for, for this coat. It was so expensive. When we got to the outlets, we found the exact style of coat, by the same brand and got it for 50% off the retail price. I'm so glad Steve got it for me, because, it turns out Boston is extremely cold in December!!!

Friday night, we wanted to take Thad and Kim out to dinner. They have been amazing to let Conner come and live with them, and they will be moving very soon, in fact, their house is already empty, the movers have packed almost everything away. So this was a kind of goodbye, thank you, we love you, sort of dinner. Kim suggested the Union Oyster House in downtown Boston. We didn't know what to expect, but were willing to give it a try.

This restaurant is amazing!! It was built over 250 years ago, and has been a working restaurant since 1826. So many famous people have been in that building, including George Washington, and John F Kennedy, and it really hadn't changed much in a few hundred years. I really felt like I had gone back in time. The food was incredible, and we enjoyed Thad and Kim so much! 

The best part about being in Boston is learning the history. And Thad was the perfect guide, he drove us throughout downtown, and showed us where different events in history had taken place.

He took us to Paul Revere's house, which is the oldest house still standing (maybe oldest wooden house?) He talked about all the fires they would have, and how amazing it was that this home was never burned. He also showed us where the Boston Marathon took place, and where the finish line was, and you could see where they are repairing buildings from the bombing. He took us along the freedom trail, and explained each place and what occurred there. It was cool to see the North Church, where Paul Revere looked to see the lights shining in the bell tower. We drove into town on the side streets, because the freeway was so backed up, which was really neat because he would tell us about different battles. We saw Harvard, MIT, and Boston College. We saw where the Boston Massacre occurred. It was really a neat evening.

Then we came back to Thad and Kim's house, and saw our Conner!!!

Honestly, the reason we came!! We've missed this boy so much!! When I said I was going to Boston, a friend said, "Why, is it warm there?" I said, "Only in my heart."  Conner has worked really hard in school, and has been very active in his ward. He has attended seminary, and has had some jobs to earn money. He seems really happy and has really thrived in Massachusetts!

We took him back to the hotel to spend a couple of days with us! We had told Conner that Saturday was his day to plan whatever he wanted to do. Well, we slept in until about noon! Haha! And then we went to the Burlington Mall. This is a place where Conner and his friends would go quite often, and Conner was excited to tell us that the movie, "Mall Cop" was filmed there. We did a lot of Christmas shopping for Conner, and had some lunch at the food court, then we made our way to the Jordan Furniture Imax theater to see The Hobbit (2) I don't remember the full name of it. It is a 6 story screen in 3D. Pretty crazy!! We wanted to invite Conner's friends out to dinner after the movie, and Conner texted them all, but as luck would have it, we planned our trip on the same day as the first snowstorm of the year in Massachusetts, and it was a major snowstorm! His friend's parents didn't want them to go out in it, and, they were right! When we got out of the theater, the storm had started, and it was a blizzard! We went back to the hotel, actually stopping 2 blocks away at a fun pizzeria for dinner.

We had planned to go to church in Thad and Kim's ward, and meet all of Conner's friends, teachers, scout leaders, etc. But Sunday morning we received the call that the storm had been so bad, they had cancelled all church meetings. It had snowed a foot, and then it had warmed up and rained, freezing rain on top of the snow. So there was about 8 inches of snow with 2 inches of ice on top of it. Very heavy, very slippery, very cold, and not very good for driving around in. It was still nice, just spending time with Conner. He and his dad wrestled a bit, and I was afraid the neighbors would complain, but it was so fun to be together again. That evening after the roads were clear, we drove to Thad and Kim's house again, spent a few hours with them and our nieces and nephews.

One of the parking lots we stopped in had a huge pile of snow... actually all of them did, but Conner chose this one to climb up and get a picture. 

Back at the house, Madison and Talmage made a tunnel through their mound of snow. They were having such a good time! Conner snapped this cute picture with Madison. 

We spent our last night in lodging on the air force base. It was really nice, very comfortable, and close to family. Then flew home the next day. What a fun, fun trip! Little bit cold, but a  great time!!