Niagara Falls

I keep finding more pictures! On the way home from Boston we stopped at Niagara Falls, on both the US side and the Canadian side.




After going through eight states and one country, we were back in the USA and one state away from home. I just love the Great Lakes. Look how blue Lake Huron is here.

The Template Shuffle

As you can see, Brett is not the only one who waffles! We're testing new templates again and haven't decided on which one we like. It's a good thing we have a little more time in the summer to fool around with the blog because it's kind of fun! We should settle on one soon, at least temporarily.....or, at least I think we will...but then again, maybe not. We'll see. Ha Ha.

National Down Syndrome Convention

On the last day of our vacation, we attended the NDSC. It was amazing. The people we met came from all different backgrounds and from all parts of the country, and yet they were like family. It was as if everyone was saying, "Welcome to the club of Down Syndrome, we've been waiting for you to join our party!!" We came home with books, information and new friendships. Next time we'll stay for the whole weekend and participate in some of the sibling events, as it was clear that the kids enjoyed it as much as we did. Friday night we met for dinner with a smaller gathering of some friends of mine who I have "met" on Down syndrome online forums. These people have walked the journey of DS with us and prayed us through Erin's open-heart surgery, so they truly are friends. We had so much fun meeting them in real-life.


Friend Ciarra caught making funny faces, Teresa and Erin
Erin with her buddy Emlyn
Group shop of our dinner Friday night. Don't they look like a fun bunch?!

How Many People Can You Fit in a Cab?

Nine, with room to spare! The cab driver, who barely spoke English, took one look at our party of nine and shook his head. I smiled at him and started piling kids into the cab wherever they would fit. We put the stroller in the trunk and away we went to our next destination. I think it was the largest group that cab driver ever transported. Oh well, he also had a smile on his face when Mike gave him a very nice tip.

Boston

We love Boston. It's a large city with such a small town feel. It's clean, has tons of history and charm, and friendly people (for the most part). We spent two days in Boston.

We rode the train in from Plymouth, which was a treat in and of itself for Aidan. Here he is signing train.
Waiting for the train
Aidan gets the window seat


Boston is really a beautiful city. It's such mix of old building and new buildings.



The Old North Church in the background
Quincy Market Place and Faneuil Hall

We did a TON of walking in Boston. It's a good thing we had our stroller!
The aquarium

Watching a IMax 3-D movie

We went to lunch at The Black Rose, which is a little Irish pub. It was one of our favorite places to visit when we lived there. It looked exactly the same as it did 17 years ago, which made me feel really young :)

We sat in the only table big enough to seat our whole family. Erin's name (which means Ireland) happened to be just above our table, which was so perfect because it was really Erin who got this whole trip to become reality. If it weren't for the Down Syndrome Convention being in Boston this year, we most likely would not have gone. Yeah Erin!

.... but I don't think she cared. She slept through most of our lunch.




We are finally nearing the end of our vaction pictures. Whew! That's a lot of pictures! I know we would not have had nearly so many memories perserved if it weren't for Moira's busy camera work. It seemed she was clicking pictures wherever we went and I am thankful. There is one event, actually one of the highlights of our trip, which we did not capture on camera. That event was a get together with our dear friends, Bill and Joanne Suneson and their delighful boys, Luke and Gus. Mike went to Marquette with Bill and Joanne and Bill did a reading in our wedding. And of course we had many great times together when we lived in the Boston area. They came over one night and we caught up with each other and we met each other's children in real life for the first time. They are just great, great people and we are thankful that we could get together. Seeing old freinds like the Sunesons seemed to make time stand still, and we miss seeing them more!

Hull

When Mike and I were first married, we rented a "winter rental" in Hull, MA. We lived there for nine months before moving to New Hampshire. It was like an extended honeymoon, living with the view of the ocean right out our front window. Our view was the Boston lighthouse, which is the lighthouse visible as you're entering Boston Harbor. We just had to go back and show the kids our first home!


These photos are taken from our apartment complex where we use to live.

This was our view from our apartment
The Boston light

We Were Always On the Lookout For Pack Fans!

These colors are actually a very popular choice in New England (I hope this person doesn't mind that his house is on our blog! Oops).


At least the village water-hydrant-painter-person must be a Packer fan!

I'll Bet You Thought I Was Done With Beach Photos ...Ha! I'm Just Gettin' Started!!

The Packer fan finds a starfish. On a side note, Moira DID have a little packers.com withdrawal symptoms on our vacation. No internet available or allowed on this trip. It's a good thing the whole Brett ordeal started when we got back! Oh, speaking of Brett....someone asked Mike if he was Brett Favre. Now, if you know Mike, he is several inches shorter than Brett and really doesn't look anything like him, other than they are both starting to gray and have similar coloring. But he was sitting in our car, so his height wasn't apparent. He happened to mention to this local man that he was from Green Bay and the man asked him if he was Brett. He was completely serious. It was hilarious! The kids joked about that all week.




Our seven blessings!



Erin kicks back

These steps that we walked up and down to get to the beach allowed us to get our workout in!


A nice view of the beach, which we often had to ourselves.



Teresa gets buried

Crabs

One morning we found these four large crabs on the beach, upside down. I'm not sure why they were upside down but it was quite interesting and we didn't know if they were sick, washed up with the tide, or maybe even left over from some one's crab boil from the night before. Lucky them!

After observing them for awhile we thought it was time to leave them alone. Bridget had the job of returning them to where we found them, but she didn't want to touch them. She figured out a way to take her little babies home.