Travel and Such

Time to catch up on my blogging. We've had a lot going on lately, it seems. Two weekends ago, Brad and I took somewhat of a last minute trip to Boston for a long weekend. The grandparents watched Gavin for us (he had a fun time!) and Brad and I headed East. We had both been to Boston, separately, in the past. Me for a work conference a few years ago. And Brad, of course, for the Boston Marathon in 2009. Gavin (just 8 weeks old at the time) and I stayed home while Brad, Mark and Shirley ventured to the marathon. So, we were looking forward to exploring the city together, taking in the history and such.

We saw lots in our few days there - Freedom Trail and all the pertinent stops, Quincy Market (for a yummy chowda lunch), some shopping, and a trolley ride around the city. We ended the weekend with the season's first Nor'easter, fortunately not getting stranded (though delayed getting out).

A highlight of the trip was visiting the Sam Adams brewery, one of our favorite brewers. We were able to sample the Boston Lager, Oktoberfest (yum) and Pumpkin Ale (double yum). Here we are a local pub enjoying one...

On Friday, we plotted out our own pub crawl to the nation's oldest pubs and breweries. And we ran into this guy from the colonial ages... (actually, it was Halloween weekend, so many were in costume).

In other way EXCITING travel news, we booked a Disney Cruise vacation for this coming January! The Disney Dream (pictured below) will be our home for five glorious days! We're very excited for this warm-up opportunity and a chance for Gavin to meet all of his favorite Disney friends. Shirley, Brad's mom, is coming with us as well, which makes it even more exciting! We all could use a nice family vacation, but at the same time our hearts are heavy knowing that our two angels will not be with us.

I've been reading up about the cruise - it is going to be incredible. Disney is well-known for creating wonderful experiences, so I can't wait for us to be pampered and served beyond our wildest dreams. Disney Dream is a new cruise ship, introduced earlier this year. I'm sure the "newness" of the ship will make it even more special.

As is typical these days, all of the excitement of things to come is damped a bit by bittersweet feelings. Of course, there should really be no cruise. And no trip to Boston. But it is our reality. My mind can't help but continue to be filled with the "what ifs". I think its even more difficult, knowing that this time last year, we had just found out we were pregnant with Grace, not knowing any of what was to come. In fact, it was one year ago today that I stared down at this...


I'm sure this is just the beginning of thinking back a year to what I was doing, how I was feeling, etc. I was feeling really good. I did during both of my pregnancies. I've always really liked being pregnant. Just not the outcome with Grace.

Alright, pulling it back together - I'm going to log off and go enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall day. We've taken lovely bike rides the past two weekends at Millenium Park. We're really blessed with gorgeous fall weather this year. I like it!