Vacation to Boston!

At the end of September, we embarked on our first "big" family trip to Boston! We left on Sunday the 26th and came back that following Saturday. We had a lot of fun, although the weather wasn't fantastic in Boston and we encountered a few flying mishaps (more on that later!). However, it was still a great trip overall, and we enjoyed spending an entire week together as a family! Bella was awesome on the flights and throughout the whole trip, even though she was getting over a cold and two of her teeth were coming in. She was pretty clingy with her Mama, so many of her pictures are of us rather than with Daddy! We did manage to detach her at some points though. :) So here is a sampling of the 600-some pictures we took!

Bella enjoyed coloring at all of the restaurants we went to. Eating though was not on her top priority. Not sure if it was because of her teeth or the fact that we were in a different environment, but she definitely was not her normal self in regards to eating! However, her good eating habits resumed once we got home.
Playing with Mommy's make-up was a fun hotel activity!
On Monday, we went to the Boston Children's Museum, which is down by the harbor. Obviously, the weather was pretty cruddy on this day. It was very cold and damp!
Bella had so much fun playing in the museum. There was a special area just for 0-2 year olds, so we spent a lot of our time in that section. She was very busy playing with all the different things!
Of course they had slides, which Bella adored!
There was a water room that Bella soaked herself in. :) I think she probably would've climbed in the water table if she could've!
There was a shadow screen that had birds flying around on it- Bella was very fascinated by it and also liked Daddy's shadow puppets!
We tried making a big bubble around ourselves, but I couldn't get it to work.
But we had fun playing with the giant bubbles!
Outside of the museum, there were all these pigeons flying around and eating food that people were throwing. They were going a little nuts, but Bella loved watching them! That was one of the highlights of Boston for Bella- watching all the crazy pigeons!
Our hotel room had a nice little window seat, so Bella had a good place to look outside at the rain. :)
Our hotel room was really close to this marketplace called Quincy's Market. There are lots of different shops and restaurants, so we walked around there on Monday afternoon and evening. Again, Bella had fun with the birds!
There was also a carousel by the market that Bella spied some "neighs" on. So she got to take her first ride, and she loved it!
We ate at a delicious pizza place near Quincy Market on Monday night- a meal that Bella actually ate!
We took Bella to the hotel pool Monday night, which was definitely another highlight. Bella has always loved the water, but she was more excited than ever to go swimming! She was splashing and kicking around like crazy- so funny!
She also started a fun game of getting out of the pool and jumping in.
On Tuesday, we walked down to the harbor and visited the New England Aquarium, after looking at some big boats with Bella.
She wasn't too sure what to think of the giant penguin.
Bella hasn't really seen fish before, so we were excited to take her to the aquarium. It was very cool and was probably the favorite part of the trip for both Derek and I. Bella also liked looking at the "shish," her terminology for them!
And again, Bella loved seeing the snake in the cage. :) I hope she wouldn't be so excited if we saw a snake out of the cage!
The aquarium had a huge round tank in the middle that you could look at while going up, so that was pretty neat.
There was a little area for kids to play in, so we had to visit that as well!
Actually letting Daddy hold her. :)
Outside of the aquarium was a park area with this water fountain. Bella enjoyed watching the "wah-wah," although it started to freak her out a little bit.
Some favorite toys traveled with us of course- babies, Elmo, and kitty!
Bella is an avid milk drinker. She drinks whole milk of course,which is not typically sold in restaurants. Our hotel room didn't have a fridge, so we made one out of her sink so that Bella could have her milk whenever she desired!
Coloring has been a favorite activity lately- plus it was a good way to pass time on the plane! We spent Tuesday evening in the hotel because Bella had a slight fever, either from her cold or the teething.
On Wednesday, we took a trolley tour around the city. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we were thankful to finally have some nice sunny weather!
We went by the Boston Celtics arena.
This is where a scene from the movie The Departed was filmed. Derek and I both like that movie, so we found that interesting!
A cemetery where some Sam Adams, John Adams, and some other historical people are buried- apparently neither Derek or I paid close enough attention to the tour guide. :)
This is the Boston Common, which is the oldest public park in the US - one tidbit of info I remember!
The original Cheers location. :)
Trinity Church, which had very cool architectural elements.
A little touch of home. :)
The trolley went by Fenway Park, so we got off at that stop to take a tour of the ballpark.
We heard a lot of interesting historical information about Fenway and also got to visit the press box and other cool seats, so it was fun! Derek obviously enjoyed this part of our trip as well, especially since I vetoed his idea of going to a Red Sox game.

The tour did go up by MIT and Harvard, but we didn't get off on those stops, nor did we get any good pictures of those areas.

Going on the tour was a fun way to see a lot of the major parts of the city. Bella got a little antsy on the bus at the end, but we made it through the whole thing!
After her Wednesday afternoon nap, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and brought Bella down to the Boston Common to walk around and play.
Again, Bella found the birds to watch. She also loved seeing all the people walking their dogs, which I believe has started her current infatuation with "puppies!"
We ate at the Cheers restaurant on Wednesday night- or Derek and I did at least!
On Thursday, we visited the North End of Boston, which is the old Italian neighborhood. It is also the location of the Old North Church from the American Revolution.
The church steeple.
Bella apparently wasn't too impressed with the historical aspect of the church- she liked playing with her stickers instead. :)
I actually got to be behind the camera that morning!
The front of Old North Church
Every afternoon, Bella took a 2-3 hour nap back at the hotel. At home, she typically takes 2 shorter naps a day, but since we were busy with various activities in the day we just combined it into 1 longer one. That worked well for her, and she had no problem sleeping in the crib. However, Thursday afternoon, she didn't want to sleep in the crib, and she ended up on our bed in this position!
On Thursday afternoon, we went on a boat cruise around the harbor. The weather was kind of gloomy (again), but it was a really pretty way to see the ocean and the harbor front. Bella was a little freaked out by the boat at first, but then she had fun!
The USS Constitution, which is an old battleship.
After the cruise, we took one of our two family pictures that were taken throughout the whole trip. :)
On Thursday night, we continued our Italian theme of the day and ate at an Italian restaurant in the North End. We are all very much pasta lovers, so it was awesome to eat at an authentic place. Our waiter was even Italian (and very difficult to understand!). Derek and I also like watching The Sopranos tv show, so we felt like we were part of the show eating at this place. :)
Splashing around in the bathtub! Bella's new favorite thing in the tub has been to play with the running water. We typically don't let her do that too much at home, but we let her splurge at the hotel. :)
On Friday morning, we walked down to the Boston Common again and found a playground for Bella. Again, she had lots of fun on the slide! I think it's quite apparent that Bella loooooves her slides.

Sitting on some weird little frog statue. :)

Right next to the Boston Common is the Public Garden, which is a big park with lots of flowers and landscaping. It was very pretty!
Bella with her Mama and Dada. :) Derek has a weird look in this picture, but it was cute of Bella!

Friday afternoon, it was raining, so we decided to have a fun indoor activity- Build-a-Bear! Plus I thought that would be a good souvenir for Bella of our trip. And surprise surprise, Bella did not select a kitty. We guided her towards selecting a puppy as watching puppies was such a big part of our vacation for her!

Bella has done Build-a-Bear, but she was just a baby then and obviously didn't get it. This time, she got to help! Here she is placing the puppies heart inside the puppy. And Bella's puppy (named Boston- yes, we are original) has not only one heart, but three hearts. The nice worker let Bella keep sticking more and more hearts inside. :)
After doing Build-a-Bear, we partook in the seafood cuisine of Boston. Neither Derek and I are huge seafood eaters, but eating fresh seafood was very yummy! We also took our second family picture.

So it was definitely a very fun trip! It was great spending so much time together and to not have to the reality of everyday life. However, we didn't have a pleasant experience on the way home that I don't even want to go into because it still devastates me to think about. Let's just say that our camera was lost on the plane, which led me to a state of depression because I didn't think it was going to be found, but God knew I couldn't handle losing my pictures because it was delivered back to us. That's the abbreviated version- at least it had a happy ending!