On the 4th, Dashiell and I made our traditional red, white and blue strawberries (strawberries dipped in white chocolate, then dipped in blue sprinkles) and made some lovely chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and red and blue sprinkles, all to bring to Uncle David and Aunt Lindsay's 4th of July bbq. No pictures of either the treats or the party were taken, unfortunately. But it was a fun (though sweaty) afternoon, filled with family and good food. Then Rick and I took Aurelia home to get some sleep while Dashiell headed out to the fireworks with nana and grandpa! Lucky kid! We considered trying to take Aurelia, but since the fireworks begin 2 hours after her bedtime - and she's only 18 months old and needs her sleep - we decided we could wait another year (or two) before attempting a fireworks viewing. We were told that Dashiell was very good, and very snuggly (on a hot, hot night...oof...).
The next day we picked D up from the grandparents and headed out for a warm-weather hike! We went to visit the fire tower in Medford, which is fortunately a very easy, short, shady hike.
Dashiell's favorite clump of mushrooms, found on the way up to the tower.
I'm so glad we did it! Though Dashiell complained about the "long" walk up to the tower, once we got there he was AMAZED. First off, it's a really cool little tower - it looks like a very small castle, and we've been studying knights and castles the past couple of weeks so it was very timely.
Once you get inside, the view of Boston is pretty darned neat, even on a hazy day. And it's nicely breezy inside - perfect during the warm weather!
There's a cool outcropping of rock right outside the tower that's fun to climb on, and it also has the lovely view.
My favorite quote from Dashiell during this excursion? "I never imagined what was behind all those trees next to the highway!" Said with such reverent awe that you just knew that seeing Boston from this angle was totally blowing his mind.
The next day Rick and I had "Date Day/Night"! The grandparents had the kids over for a sleep over, so after dropping them off at around 11 am Rick and I headed to the beach! We chose Revere Beach for it's close proximity, ease of parking (we found a free spot on street!) and the fact that there's a Kelly's Roast Beef right there, so we had lunch covered! It was so relaxing - no worrying about putting enough sunscreen on the kiddos, watching them closely to make sure they weren't about to drown or eat handfuls of sands, or trying to limit Dashiell to a small number of shells and rocks to add to his collection (you know he'd want to take home every stinkin' shell and rock he came across!). We lounged about, READING (what the heck is that?!?), taking our time to get to the bathrooms when we needed them, and it was lovely. And it made me realize that we could easily bring the kiddos to Revere Beach and it wouldn't be too big of a hassle. It's a HUGE beach, with amenities. And since parking is cheap or free, if it turned out to be a disaster we wouldn't feel like we wasted $25 in parking fees if we left early.
Later that night we decided to be true Boston tourists and headed out on a sunset cruise of the harbor! Though the ship was a little cheesy and the bathrooms nearly made me want to jump out the porthole, it was a fun cruise! The view was great, they had Sam Adams beer, and I learned a little more about the harbor islands than I knew before.
Rick and I on the boat!
Boston skyline from the harbor
Zakim bridge - one of my favorite bridges!
USS Constitution and Bunker Hill Monument
We called Dashiell to say goodnight to him from the boat (Aurelia was already asleep), and he longingly said, "I hope that someday I'm invited to go on the boat, too". Shortly thereafter we received a picture of the drawing Dashiell did of a boat right after he got off the phone with us.
I guess we'll be taking another cruise soon!
Rick and I had a great day and evening, but by the time we picked up the kids the next day we really did miss them! It's nice to get that bit of a recharge every once in a while, not only for the break and to reconnect as a couple, but to make you realize how much you appreciate having the chaos of the kiddos in your life every day!
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