Mt. Auburn Cemetary

We weren't prepared for how beautiful this cemetery would be. We drove in and immediately fell in love with the place. We hope to go back really soon and stroll around. The boys were asleep when we were there. Lincoln woke up a little bit into our drive through but we can't do to much if Parker isn't awake.
A friend of our told us to find the tower and look out. Willie and I took turns going up the tower. When I got up there I saw a beautiful fall sight. What a gorgeous view. Thanks Alisa for the tip.
Here is Willie in front of the tower. I like the tower too because it's so cool looking. It reminds me of Romeo and Juliet or Rapunzel (although this tower has doors).
Here is a view from the tower looking down on Willie and Lincoln.
Self photo.
Before leaving we found a great tree that had lost many leaves so we set the camera up with the car running and quickly took a picture before the battery ran out on the camera. One shot, it turned out alright.In the olden days people would go to cemeteries to picnic. They are peaceful places to visit. As we drove around I thought about people coming in their carriages with their fun big dresses and sitting down with a light lunch. I enjoyed visiting Mt. Auburn.

Head of the Charles.

A few weeks back we went down to the Head of the Charles Regatta. You don't get this kind of entertainment in Utah. This was really fun to watch a rowing race. We made it in time to watch the quads race and stayed just long enough to watch the eight-man boats going. I overheard that conditions for the race this year were pretty good. We were lucky to be all bundled up and chilled for the race. We had fun taking the boys downtown.
We forgot Parker's beanie so we kept his hood up the whole time. What a cheesy grin.
Will is excited for the race.
On occasion the sun would break through the clouds and warm us up. Many people had purchased soup in bread bowls; the soup looked so yummy. We are cheap and we didn't want to pay the $8 for one bowl of soup.
I enjoyed taking picture of all of us with the racers behind us. We don't know who won or how the race really worked but it was still a good day to be out.
Lincoln enjoyed his time crawling around and staying warm. It's a good thing we brought a few things for him to play with.
Parker liked the boats at first but his interest soon turned to the green ambulances that were parked a little ways away. He also loved the little slope that was in front of our spot on the grass.
I think Lincoln was the warmest of us all. We had him bundled up pretty good.
I looked up at one point to watch three boats getting really close to each other. Right in front of us the paddles of two teams were colliding. They all had to stop and get out of each others way. A small crash right in front of us. I was too slow getting the video out.

From this picture you can tell that the boat race was getting really interesting; wait, never mind Parker is distracted by the grass on the slope.Just before we left I took a picture of the eight-man boat. They were haulin' it. Did you know that rowing is one of the best workouts that you can get? When we are rich and unfamous I will have a rowing machine in my home.

Trunk-or-treat.

Look out Captain Hook, Peter Pan is here. One night as Willie and I were going to bed I came up with the idea to have Lincoln be a skunk because at times he can really stink it up. I kept thinking about what the rest of us could be. Just before Willie fell asleep I told him he could be Captain Hook, Parker could be Peter and I could be either Wendy or Tiger Lilly. Time was drawing closer and I finally found the Good Will, and it helped with the adult costumes. I put a little bit of work in on Willie's but all I needed to do with mine was find a ribbon (Wendy). I finished three of the four costumes a few days before the trunk-or-treat. The costume that got us started was the last to be complete. I searched craigslist and found it there for $10. Boy was I excited and Lincoln was so 'stinkin' cute. :) Here we are in our costumes.
Here I am with the boys. My dress was a little short so I wore pj's to cover up and stay warm on the chilly night. Don't you just love the furry part of Lincoln's costume. I made Parker's hat a little too small, but hey it worked for a little bit.This was Parker's almost complete costume, he doesn't have his little knife with him. He didn't want to pose for us so this was the best we got.We didn't decorate our trunk but the kids were still happy to get candy. Willie was asked if he was a squire. About 20 minutes into the party Willie had taken off a few essential items that made him Captain Hook. He looked good as a squire as well. :)Here is our cute skunk. Lincoln did so well going way past his bedtime. What a trooper. We love this kid so much.There were so many awesome ideas for costumes at our trunk-0r-treat. We saw a family of monkey's, princess', bee keepers, another Peter Pan themed family, and others. Some of my favorite costumes were caught on this short video of our costume parade. I thought that one family had a fun idea they dressed up as Santa and had their car decked out with a Christmas tree, lights, and stockings; it was very festive.

Sharon, Vermont

For Columbus Day we decided to go out for a drive. I really wanted to see the leaves changing color. We decided to head to Sharon, Vermont where the prophet Joseph Smith was born. The property is a sacred place. I enjoyed thinking of Joseph as a young baby seeing the beautiful scenery, and crawling around on wooden floors. I am grateful that we were able to go to his birthplace. We had a fun time together. I also liked thinking about the things Joseph did for the Church and what a great prophet he was. I am grateful for my testimony of Joseph Smith.
The monument was built 100 years after his death (I believe, or it was the organization of the church). It stands 38 1/2 feet tall, one foot for every year of the prophets life. The day was cold be we enjoyed hearing testimonies from the missionaries. This was one of our best family photos.
Lincoln was a trooper. This time he wasn't asleep, he had done plenty of that on the way up.Parker was being a little pill or as I sometimes call him, 'turd.' He kept pulling the petals off of the flowers. He had done it once as we were talking to some missionaries and they said it was okay. I felt otherwise. Look at what he is doing in this picture!! Yes, he is breaking the plant. The plant stuck like that after he touched it. We couldn't even prop it up to look like the others. I just hope that we can be forgiven for not putting a leash on our child. :)After that incident, we couldn't get a good family picture. Parker was a little grumpy because of his needed punishment. I think we just told him he couldn't touch the plants anymore, and Willie tried to hold him down the rest of the time (piggy back style or normal style).The leaves were very beautiful. I love this season. I love all of the seasons! I love to watch the weather change.I think Willie was tickling P-man in this picture, it worked, he smiled.Isn't Lincoln so cute?We decided to go Geo-caching when we were done with the Joseph Smith Birthplace. We found this great pond. Parker loved playing in the leaves. Lincoln fell asleep so he didn't get to see it. Parker and Willie had fun throwing rocks into the water, oh boys!
This is a video of the boys throwing rock in the pond. I had one of Parker in the leaves but it wouldn't work. It really was a beautiful place to visit.

Cranberrys, trains, oh my!

We had a great time going to Edaville. One of my goals was to take Parker on a train ride and the other was to see a working cranberry field (harvest time). My original plan was to take a three hour drive to go on a 90 minute train ride. When some friends from our ward mentioned the Cranberry Festival we decided to go. Edaville provided the train ride (ride as much as you want) and the harvest of cranberry's we couldn't miss it.
There was a building where you could learn about the cranberry and close to this area was a childrens play area. We loved this set up. Willie and I took turns; one would learn about the cranberry while the other watched the kids play.
This machine was once used to pick up the cranberries.
This is the contraption that gathers the berries, it hooks on to the machine that drives around the fields.

Here are the boys playing in the Cranberry Ball Crawl. What great insight on the person who created this fun place. Parker was reluctant to get in at first.
We sat Lincoln in and he LOVED playing with the balls. He didn't like when he started sinking to the bottom.
Another way of entertainment for the kids was the train table. We figured out that Parker played with the Thomas trains for about an hour on his own. This kid LOVES trains.
Railroad time. We hopped aboard the Edaville express. Okay so it wasn't really fast but it was fun. I remember seeing the cranberry bog fields. Many of them hadn't been flooded yet. The leaves changing color were a highlight to my day. The train has some catchy tunes playing. Parker loves to sing 'take me out to the ballgame' and relates it to trains anytime that he sings it. He ALWAYS wants to ride on trains.Parker has fond memories of riding the train. He always asks to ride the train. He will even pull out 'ticket to ride' and play with the train pieces.
Parker really loves this video because you can hear 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game.' In the end I think it was the music that made this train memorable.
Willie and Lincoln are so excited to go on the train. I love their smiles.Here are a few picture that we have of the scenery, the locomotive, and me and Lincoln.Here comes the Edaville Train. Toot! Toot!

The fall season is fantastic for a train ride. I love the view behind Willie and Lincoln in this picture.Cranberries, oh how gorgeous. This was so much fun to see the cranberry fields getting harvested. Turns out there are only a few states that grow cranberries, Massachusetts is one of them. There are over 600 farms that produce cranberries in MA. Check out your Ocean Spray bottle, it was most likely made in MA.Lincoln fell asleep during part of our stay at Edaville. Parker was awake and entertaining so we have a lot of pictures of him. So here are a few.We tried a family photo. Lincoln stayed asleep the whole time. The small picture on the top in the middle is of a man who was harvesting the cranberries. It's fun to see the water turn pink, red, and white.This is a semi-dry field. It was getting prepped for flooding. We tried to get an up-close picture to show the cranberry. Lincoln finally woke up and we were able to get a couple of pictures of him. He was a happy kid, he always is.
Did you know you can pick out a good cranberry by bouncing it 7 times? The good berries have a great bounce to them. I wish I could remember some other fun facts, but I guess you could just google cranberry harvest. If you plan to stay in Boston longer than a week and during October, this would be a fun outing for a day.