Walhof Visit and Easter!!!!

Hailey and Makenna inside Cabot Elementary

It was a long dry spell without visitors for us out on the East coast, but on Tuesday it came to an end with the  Walhofs arriving from NW Iowa.  The kids were so very excited to see their cousins and everyone at school  knew that their cousins from Iowa were coming!

It was difficult for the girls to go to school for the next couple of days, but it was best for us to take Stephanie, Eric and the kids on a a tour of downtown Boston without our kids.

Makenna was up with the girls and walked them to school each day and at the end of the day their cousins were waiting eagerly outside of school for them.

The Public Garden and Freedom Trail tour was on Wednesday.  Thankfully the temps allowed us to take off our coats from time to time.

The second day of the visit Mike took them to the USS Constitution and Harvard Square.

 On Friday, our kids all had school off for Good Friday and so we packed everyone up for an overnight trip to Ogunquit, ME

 The Marginal Way is one of our family's most favorite spots in New England.  The kids love climbing the rocks and exploring the beaches.

 Damon and Carter found a cave in the rocks

 Our hotel was right along side of the Marginal Way with outdoor hot tubs that over looked the Atlantic Ocean.  (We could all use some sun!)

 When in New England, it is essential to have LOBSTER!

 The Atlantic was frigid, but they had to give it a try

 On Easter morning, we celebrated our risen Savior at our church that we have come to love and belong to here: Evangelical Baptist Church.

Thanks a bunch for coming Walhofs!!!!!!!

Spring please...............

Well, it has been about a month since my last post.  I believe the reason to be that winter is dragging on and we are all lacking in some Vitamin D.  Please spring come quickly!
New England winter has not been kind to our 1st and only winter we are going to be living here.  We have had another two snow storms since winter storm Nemo.  The city of Newton and surrounding areas do not handle snow fall very well and so the response to snow fall seems to be to cancel school.  Snow removal is difficult and there is just no place to push it.  The kids have used up all 5 snow days that are built into the calendar year plus an additional one this past Tuesday.  This unofficially puts them in school until June 26!  The crazy part is that we are hoping to be packed up and leaving on June 29th.
Along with the snow came another wave of illness that struck hard in our home.  All three kids acquired a mean virus that involved tons of snot, coughing, sore throats, and fevers.  Hailey has now officially missed 12 days of school this year with 10 of them being due to illness.  She gets hit very hard each time and it always lingers for her longer than the other two.  Taylor and Carter both also missed school with fevers and poor sleep.  We also had our first fainting episode in our family as Taylor fell over at 2am after coming to me in the middle of the night with a fever spike.
Despite the illness and snow, Mike was able to persevere and finish his course work for his masters at the school of public health.  He had finals all last week and can officially say that he is finished with classes FOREVER.  (For those of us that know Mike well, I am never really sure if he will ever be finished.)  Anyway, now he can regroup and focus on all the research projects he has going on.  He is off to New Orleans to present at AHA over the weekend.
To add to some of the stress of life, we received a phone call from our renters in MN that the sewer had backed up into our basement back home.  After spending most of the day on the phone, we have all the carpet removed there and the area cleaned and inspected.  I guess we will have nice new carpet to return to in July!
Next week we are eagerly anticipating the start of visitors from the mid-west.  My sister and her family are coming to celebrate Easter and to tour New England.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with all our plans and sight seeing.
I look forward to the next blog post............................

Winter Break in New England

 In New England, the kids get an entire week off of school in February for Winter Break. Mike also was off from class for President's Day, so we decided to check out Plymouth, MA.  We found a fun hotel, called the John Carver Inn, that had a small water park inside that mimiced the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.

 The weather was not ideal for outside adventure, but we did go out to seek the Mayflower, which we then discovered had been brought away during the winter months.  We found the actual 

Plymouth Rock and the kids were very disappointed that it was just a regular rock.

 Plymouth Rock

 Out for Mexican.................

 The rest of the week we had lots of time for some play dates with friends from church and school!

 Our family was then invited to our very first Bat Mitzvah.  In the Jewish faith, when a girl turns 12, there is a grand celebration when she accepts her faith as her own.  Ariella lives in the house connected to ours and we were invited to her celebration.  The event included a speech by Ariella, her father, a slide show, dinner, and dancing.  The kids had a grand time and Carter's moves on the dance floor were quite popular.

Carter and Daniella

 I didn't attend the Bat Mitzvah because on Saturday, I left Mike and the kids to fly to South Dakota to meet my new little niece Harper Ann.

 It was so fun to cuddle and spoil them while I was there!

 I found the perfect shirt for her to wear.

I think my sister, Ginnie, has her hands full with these two little princesses.

Piano Recital--Wellesley Library, MA

 Hailey had her piano recital today out at the Wellesley Library.  Above she is pictured with her instructer, Ms Zena.  Hailey played three pieces: Dance Song by Bach,  Premier Boogie by Alfred, and Over the Rainbow duet with Ms. Zena

Carter was exhausted by listening to everyone perform.

A very exciting Valentine's Day!

 This year Valentine's Day was especially exciting as my sister Ginnie, Wil, and little Kensington welcomed baby Harper Ann weighing in at 6lb 6oz.

We are thrilled to have a new niece and cousin to spoil. It is so very hard to be so far from them.  We have been able to meet her with Facetime and talked several times each day since her arrival.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrate at home as a family with homemade Alfredo, steaks, salad, and jiggler hearts.

Winter Storm NEMO--2013

 On Friday we braced ourselves for the forecasted winter storm of Boston that was expected to drop between 2-3ft of snow.  The kids had school cancelled and all afternoon classes were cancelled at Harvard while the Governor of Massachusetts ordered everyone to be off the roads by 3pm.  All public transportation was shut down by 3pm and we stocked up on batteries in case of power outage.

The snow fell softly at first but by 6pm it was heavy with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour.

We never lost power, but by morning our snow total was 27 inches.

The problem in Boston with snow is that there is no where to go with it.  The streets are already so very narrow and parking is already at a minimum.  After the streets are plowed, the roads are essentially one lane.

 The kids loved the snow, but were exhausted after playing for a short time.  With each step they would sink up to their waste.

Farewell Town and Country

 Well, the Vermont trip was the last trip for our Chrystler Town & Country.  On our return home from skiing  the transmission went out of the van.  We had to fix the van in a small town in White River Junction, Vermont and Mike had to take a Greyhound to get the van back a week later.

They replaced the transmission with a used one that they had found for us, but after driving it a couple of days, we were very uneasy about the way it was driving and decided to look around for a replacement rather than being stranded again along the rode side with no one to call for help.

We love the functionality of a mini-van and started to do so research with vans and began pricing them and comparing pros and cons of all the options available out there.

 We came to the conclusion that the Honda Odyssey would best suite our needs and it happens to rank #1 in reliability which was a new priority after being stranded with the kiddos.

The kids said their good-byes to the Town and Country and quickly jumped into the new van which has their most important feature: a DVD system.

The Town & Country was good to us.  We purchased it with 40,000 miles at the beginning of 2006.  It now had 135,500 and really had very few problems.

2011 Honda Odyssey with 27,200 miles.

We will be returning to Minnesota with Massachusetts license plates!!!!

Celtics vs Heat

Mike and Carter were able to take in a Boston Celtic game vs the Miami Heat!

Carter was pretty excited for the Daddy day out.  LeBron James is one of Carter's most favorite players.  The game went into double overtime and the Celtics came out on top.