Boston Vacation--Part 3

Our new extended family--minus a few

The Scituate Lighthouse

Nancy, John, Catherine, Olivia, and Eva--some of our new favorite cousins!

The whole crew at the 1st Snelder's Family Reunion.
4 generations present!!

Julie S., Julie E. and Nancy. Some of my favorite girls!!

Scott with his brothers and sisters and Scott's grandfathers brother and sister!

Josephine and Tom.

More Scituate Lighthouse--Sorry, I don't know how to put these in order!

Meeting Aunt Helen, Grandpa Johns other sister who couldn't come to the reunion due to health reasons. So we took the party to her and she was worth it! So funny and sassy!

Josephine, Scott, and Tom Snelders.

Our artistic interpretation of a beach picture! Somehow the computer flipped this one and I can't flip it back! Enjoying the sunset on the beach in Scituate.

Scott's not acting! After a short swim in the ocean he is half frozen! Look at the beautiful view behind Scott. This is the beach where our cousins grew up just a block away!

On our tour of Plymouth, we visited this old Mill. It is the 1st mill built in America!

What would a tour of Plymouth be without visiting the Mayflower replica?

Boston Trip (Part 3)

"The final chapter...I Promise!"

Well, here is the rest of our trip in kinda of a jumbled random order. I need to call Julie for blog tutoring skills so I can make my post flow better. But this was the last thing on my list of things I wanted to accomplish today so I'm going to get it done no matter what! We enjoyed so many beautiful places while on the east coast. The beach where Nancy grew up was among one of the most beautiful places we visited. I can't imagine growing up a block from the beach! Nancy's husband John grew up in a town next to Plymouth and so he was our guide when we went there. It was amazing to visit the Old Grist Mill, Plymouth Rock (or pebble), the Mayflower replica, and a Pilgrim cemetary. Thanks so much to John for showing us the sights and being SO patient with this crazy large group of people! The walk to the mill was SO beautiful to me along the creek and through a tunnel. Pretty, Pretty everywhere!! John's kept the touring alive and took us a few days later to tour the Scituate Lighthouse. It was so fun to be inside a lighthouse and I couldn't help but feel kinship toward my fellow Lighthouse keepers from Pete's Dragon! If I would have been alone at the top, you know I would have sang Nora's song, but I held it in so I would embarass Scott!

The reunion we got to attend on Saturday was the driving force behind us making this trip out to Boston. Scott's grandfather was one of four children. All 3 of his siblings are still living and his brother Tom just turned 90 this year. It was a great excuse to get the whole family together. Scott helped Nancy with creating a family pedigree chart so everyone could see how they were related. It was so fun to see people walk in and enjoy filling out their branches of the tree! We are such big believers in the importance of family and it was so FUN to meet distant relatives and find such wonderful, caring, and might I add--Good looking people! ( I can say that because I'm not blood!) Thank you so much to Nancy, Cara, Tom, Vinny and Victoria for taking such great care of us. What wonderful hosts you all are. Cara--thanks for the Yummy doughnuts! Man those were awesome! Nancy and John thank you for opening your home and pool to us night after night! Uncle Tom, thank you for the fresh Lobster dinner (even though I only had steak). I just wished I would have been there to watch them cook! Also thank you for the souvenirs and making us feel so loved and welcome in your home. We can't wait to get you to Boise so we can take you to a game on the blue!!

Dreams DO come true! (Boston Trip part 2)

We got to go to 2 ball games while in Boston!

Watching the pitcher warm up!

Ahhhh, isn't that a beautiful sight!

Scott and I on our tour of Fenway Park

Proud members of Red Sox Nation!!

Boston Trip--(Part 2)

Ok, SO I know I said I would break our trip into 2 parts but there will be 3. Since the Red Sox are such a big part of our lives I felt like we owe it to the Bo-Sox to devote this post to them. Scott has been a Red Sox fan since he was born..pretty much. His grandfather John grew up in Boston and enriched a love for the greatest baseball team on the planet in his Son. The boys grew up cheering for the Red Sox ever since they could speak. And now as tradition goes the boys are passing on this passion to their kids. Even Brittanie knows "Yeah Red Sox....BOOOO Yankee's!!"

We were thrilled when we found out that Scott's cousins in Boston were arranging a reunion and that we would get to come to Boston to meet them. Not only did they plan a reunion but they planned alot of activities to entertain us while we were in town. A huge thank you to Vinny and Victoria for hooking us up with tickets to the game, a tour of Fenway Park, and a tour through downtown Boston. It was SO much fun!!

We got caught in an unbelievable rain storm in the middle of our tour of Boston. We started making our way back to the ballpark and to get some dinner before the game and it started raining like I've never seen! We made it into a souvenir shop next to Fenway before it really started to pour. I had fought the whole day to save my hair by walking around with a sack above my head and now this! Damp hair and the possiblity of the game getting rained out--I started feeling despair. After about 45 minutes the rain suddenly stopped! Victoria got a new shirt that John Paul helped her pick out while we waited and we went on the have a perfect night for watching baseball.

Didn't I mention we went to see the Red Sox twice? Yeah, this so wouldn't have happened if we had taken any of our kids and that is why this is a story I must tell. Our 1st day in Boston we arrived about 3:30 and checked into our hotel. Then after a walk on the beach and gathering sea shells we started talking about what we should to that night. We were traveling with Scott's brother Craig and his wife Julie...and did I mention we had NO kids with us? It was about 6 :15 when we spontaneously decided to head into downtown Boston and see if we could get into the game that started at 7:00. By 6:25 we were in the car and on our way to find the train station. (This is the part that would never happen with kids!) What a night! We caught the train and rode with some pretty interesting people! We ran into some sister missionaries and while visiting with them got asked by a woman " What is this a freakin' Mormon convention?" She was obviously a little tipsy and headed to the game as well but turned out to be pretty helpful. She gave us a few tips on finding tickets. Once we were outside the stadium we parted ways. (Sigh of relief!) We ended up getting standing room only tickets for $20 since it was already the 3rd inning. We enjoyed a Fenway Frank for dinner and stood behind the seats on the 1st base line. We had great views and after a few innings people started to leave and we got GREAT seats! This game was Also amazing. We watched the Red Sox beat Cleveland Indians--literally! There was a fight in the 7th inning that cleared both dugouts! It was a "Wicked Pissah" of a game! (That is Boston talk for "Really Awesome".) We had a blast!! I will never sing Neil Diamonds "Sweet Caroline" without thinking of my Boston experience!

As a side note: After the game we rode several trains literally packed in like sardines to get back to our car. The idea of personal space was non exhistent! But that's not the funny part of the story. After we make it back to our stop we are walking up the stairs away from the train when we hear a shrill voice screaming "We know you! We know YOU!!!" As we all slowly turn around we find our fellow Red Soxs fans from the earlier train ride. Yep that woman and her husband were there and they remembered us! I guess she wasn't as plastered as I thought!

Our Big Summer vacation (Part 1)

Visting the Sacred Grove in Palmyra.
The Palmyra temple--So beautiful!

Touring the Sacred Grove with my Sweetie!

Visiting Niagra Falls with all the other tourists!

Touring upstate New York.

So our adventure began July 31st. We drove our kids to Pocatello to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen while we got the vacation of a lifetime to go to New York and Boston without any kids. My sister Janelle and my niece Tyler took Zach and we can't thank our family enough for taking care of our kids so we could go on this trip!! SO Thank You, THANK YOU everyone!

Since it is late and I have been wanting to post this trip for weeks I have had to break it into 2 parts because I don't know how to add more pictures to this post...it's is getting late so just humor me...Did I mention it is late? ( I just edited what I've typed so far and this could be a really funny post! So pardon any rambleing!)

We flew from SLC to Buffalo, New York on Saturday. The next day we crossed the border and visited Niagra Falls. It was beautiful. Then it was back across the border. It took us twice as long to cross the border than actual time spent looking at the falls! No kidding!! Then we drove a about an hour and a half to Palmyra, New York. We met up with Scott's other brother John and his family. It was SO fun to see our nieces and nephews. It had been 2 years for me and I can't believe how much they have each grown and changed. John Paul may be 13 inches taller than me but can still carry him--barely!

While in Palmyra we got to tour all the sites of where the Mormon church got it's beginning. Itwas amazing to tour the Grandin building where the Book of Mormon was published and hear the history of how much was sacrificed so that that we can have this book. I loved going to the Joseph Smith home. The home is 80 percent original and boy did it smell original!! I also loved going to the Martin Harris farm and hearing stories from the missionaries living there. It was an experience I will never forget. When we got home I was on a car trip with Britt a few weeks later and she was keeping me awake while we were driving. So I decided to tell her how our church was started. I must have gotten lost in my own stories but after I had talked for about 15 minutes I realized she was FAST asleep. Huh, I guess it's alot more exhilerating once you have walked in these sacred places. I love that our testimonies never have to stop growing.