Boston (the Short Version)

I spent last week in Boston.

These two went along: This is how Katie spent a lot of the trip:

She was an awesome traveler. Folks who went on boats and planes and buses with us constantly commented on how sweet and good she was. She was amazing! Best of all, she slept through the night four of the six nights we were there! I was hoping it would be the new trend (up until now, she's been one of my worst sleepers), but she was up four times last night, so no such luck. Instead, I think it was all the brain stimulation. All those sites, sounds, people, places, and events wore her out. She hated the Subway but seemed to enjoy everything else.

The rest of my kids -- seven of them! -- stayed with my brave mother-in-law. She did a great job, but I think she will probably sleep for a week to recover. Many of our neighbors took three of the little girls (Allison, Sarah, and Eliza) for a few hours each day to give her a break. I have wonderful neighbors.

We've only done something like this once before, in 2007, when we took our 6-year-old Joey and our 6-month-old Eliza to Paris and Armenia to visit my husband's dad, who was serving a three-year mission in Armenia. My brother and sister-in-law watched our other four children, including our almost-three-year-old twins. They were ten times easier than the year before, but still a huge challenge. My brother had an 18-month-old child at the time and I think the experience of our kids was a bit overwhelming -- years later, after experiencing a three-year-old of his own, he told me, "Now I know that's just how three-year-olds are!"

My mother-in-law raised eight children of her own and assured us she knew how kids are, and so, with strong counsel and a few bribes offered to our children to PLEASE be good, we left.

It was wonderful. Our flight was free (frequent flier miles). Our hotel was free (Hilton Points). We spent $115 each on Go Boston cards, which got us into tons of major attractions at huge cost savings. We figured out that the cost of paying for all of our things separately would have been over $300 each.

We saw graveyards, including Paul Revere's. We saw tons of historic sites including the Old State House, which is the site of the Boston Massacre, the site of governance both of the royal governor and the patriot government, and now the home of a busy Subway station in the basement.

We went to the aquarium.

We took a tour up the New England Seacoast, all the way to Kennebunkport, Maine. We went whale watching. The tour insisted that we had to pay to bring our baby along. We joked on the way back that we hoped Katie enjoyed her $33 nap. We went to Cape Cod. We met a lot of great people, some of whom may be reading this blog now (welcome!). This image, of the Old South Meeting House against a modern skyscraper, epitomizes Boston for me: a modern city that grew around its historic past. More to come as I get our photos sorted and my life back in order.