BOSTON!

Growing up in Arizona, I spent a LOT of time with my cousins in the northern part of the state - Fred, Ken (whom you've seen here) and Dani. We used to travel the three hours to Flagstaff so my mom could french braid Dani's hair so she could compete in karate contests and flatten boys twice her age and twice her size - true story.

So, life goes on, they moved to Wisconsin, Dani played ice hockey at Princeton, she married a great guy (Jason) and moved to Boston. We both had kids around the same time and flash forward to now - we are FINALLY seeing each other after too many years!

Here's Dani... all grown up. No french braids.

But before I go on and on about what a fun trip we had, please allow me to GUSH about JetBlue Airlines. LOVE them! No charge for bags! No charge for gate checking a stroller AND a car seat! There were empty seats on the plane and they let me take Molly's car seat on, strap her in and enjoy an hour of quiet for NO CHARGE! PLUS, every seat has extra legroom and a video monitor in each seat back with over 50 channels of real time TV. Oh, AND an extensive snack and beverage list for - yes, you guessed it - NO CHARGE! Our round trip tix to Boston? 100 bucks. You should go to their website now because if JetBlue flies to your town, you can bet you'll be seeing us soon.

See? Here I am on the plane with earphones in, a baby I don't have to hold, and so much legroom I don't know what to do with myself.

Dani has two kids - Peter (4 1/2) and Calvin (14 mo). James & Peter became FAST friends. I don't think we were there for an hour when James laid his head on Peter's shoulder and said, "Peter, I love you." Peter confirmed that, although James was coming on a little strong, he too loved James and the two were inseparable from that moment on.

They did a lot of this:

and not so much of this:

There's a famous book, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Here are the bronze ducks from that book in the Public Garden.

Little Calvin

I don't know why James thinks that tipping musicians is a speed sport, but he drops that money in like he's being chased.

We went to a Kids Science Museum, aka THE BEST PLACE EVER to James because it had an entire room of drums.

Note:

Peter - NOT a fan.

Molly had a fun trip too. She sat in a lot of leaves...

and on bronze frogs...

and on daddy's shoulders....

There was a "baby" section of the kids museum for her to crawl around in, play with stuff, use her brain. She loved it.

Yes, she is standing by herself here.

(Yes, we know life is over as we know it.)

While at the museum, we were asked if James might like to participate in a study on "ownership" for kids age 3-5. Not ones to shy away from experimenting with James' brain, we said yes. He did a great job - he sat still and answered all the questions. He also offered several alternative scenarios instead of answering the questions directly, causing the interviewer to have to get a pen and paper.

Jason's mom babysat (all FOUR KIDS!) on our last night so we could go out to dinner and actually hold a conversation.

Here's James making a spider web out of tape right before we left.... you know, to make it easy on her.