Home again, home again lickity split

If only "home" were lickity split away.  As exciting as planes are--their novelty is starting to wear off, even for Rawly--who has now traveled on 37 flights (which is, coincidentally, how much he currently weighs, although if you ask, he will say seven-thirty.)  Well, I forgot two more flights to the All Star game in Phoenix last summer, which brings his total up to thirty nine--so sorry for the previous "mom" comment:)

With two kids in tow for our first hop over the pond, we wanted to break up our return to the States with a stopover in Boston.  Ken's sister and her boyfriend greeted us at the airport and, after registering with lost baggage, we made our way to the T and our apartment we rented in Beacon Hill.  OH!  I had almost forgotten about getting to the airport for our departure--what a ride!  Let's just say we made it there in our second fastest time yet.  Ask Ken to tell the story!

Zoya was quite the fan of Chris, here, he's entertaining her with a menu--oo la la!

We kept ourselves busy from (EARLY) morning 'til night.  Ken deserves the title of Super Dad for getting up the first morning and taking Rawly and Zoya for a walk at 4 am!  He is my hero--which I don't tell him enough!  

Our apartment was just a few blocks from the Boston Commons and we enjoyed our historical walk along the Freedom Trail.  At one point we got doused by a heavy rain storm and sought shelter under a restaurant awning.

The next day we watched a great game at 100 year old Fenway.  Ken loved taking the kids there and Rawly really enjoyed watching "men play baseball."

The day Em and Chris left Ken was an allstar yet again and got up early to go with them to the airport and pick up our rental car.  Thanks to Em's directions (via her trusty Gretchen), he made it back to our place easily and while I was out for a stroll with the very awake children, managed to load most of our luggage.  Now mind you, neither Ken nor I are too keen on computed direction givers (I love the The Office episode where Michael drives into the lake), give us a good ol' map any day and we're golden.  Let's just say that after finding a map, we realized that the directions we had were indeed correct and that there's an I-95 and a I-93, one takes you to New Hampshire and the other to Rowley, MA where Grammy Janet lives.  Upon finding the later, we spent a lovely morning catching up with Grammy--we sure love surrogate family!

Rawly still loves feeding horses, well having Dad feed horses and Zoya was quite ecstatic to be so near the big ladies.

From there we traveled north to Albion, Maine (no problem thanks to our handy dandy map).  There we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of life at a slower pace and the good company of my Bill and Nancy.  It's hard to believe that they left Eugene over 15 years ago, but I do suppose that I am nearly thirty now, so the math adds up!  Ken and I knew that the trip there would be well worth it, but little did we know the surprise that waited for us there (no, I'm not pregnant as one facebook friend surmised.)  Probably not quite the fanfare she was looking for, I dumbly announced, "What are you doing here?" when my mom popped out of the pantry.  Lucky for us Gigi didn't want to wait an entire month more to see us in Oregon, so she came back to her East Coast roots to see us (and was also able to catch up with some longtime friends).  In summary: good food, good conversation, good people, Maine.  Oh, and who can forget a good tractor ride?

Living up life on the farm with Cousin Bill

As shown, Z was a little cautious of the chilly water, but Rawly traversed and kept asking for more!

Gigi and grandkids splashing in the same pool that she swam in as a little kid (at her aunt and uncle's.)