vacation recap

Too much time has past from the last blog post, which for me makes posting overwhelming...so much to say.  Here is a concise recap of vacation.

1. We traveled back to our "home land," Boston.  We hadn't been back since we told all our Boston friends and family that we were adopting Oliver almost two years ago.  We left hot hot Kansas City and landed in 68 degree and rainy Boston, perfection.  The grandparents live down in Marshfield, a relaxed and semi beachy town on the South Shore of Massachusetts.  On day two we headed over to the ocean.  At first sight Oliver pointed and said "Oh Wow!"  Then he ran right in, soon discovered it was FREEZING and spent more time on the edge and in the sand. 

First romp in the water

Warming

2. Jim & I traveled up to Maine for a little overnight trip, giving us a little break and Oliver a chance to really get to know his grammy and pop pop.  They said he did an awesome job and didn't start asking for me until the second day at lunch time. 

Jim and I hanging by the ocean at sunset

3. The whole reason we went to the Northeast was to attend my college roommate's wedding.  It was great to see Lizbeth & Donald get married.  Everyone seemed very happy, the venue was beautiful, the food was great, the dancing was fun, and the company was top notch! 

Oliver, myself, and some girls from Wheelock

4.  Puddle splashing is awesome. 

Waving at an airplane

I had to take the photo before removing him

5.  First train ride!  We rode up to the children's museum and back. 

Ice cream for the ride home.

6.  Did I mention that I was in love with our airplane strap thingy?  Here is photographic proof of its wonderfulness. Moments after strapping him in I handed him a book while I properly stowed our things, I turned around and he was sleeping*.  Lovely.  He continued sleeping until moments before touchdown in Kansas City. 

*Please note sleeping was not a direct reaction from the strap thingy, we also spent about an hour running laps around the Atlanta airport.  The strap just keeps him sitting, causing him to become bored and fall asleep.  

I propped his head up with a pillow after taking the photo.

Another note about airline travel...
I'm a love not war kind of girl.  I wish people could just get along.  I wish that countries with conflict could fix it on their own.  I wish we could be all done sending folks away to become casualties of war, to become amputees, to become bearers of PTSD, to make children suddenly have only one parent even if it's temporary.   I'm not overly patriotic.  I think we could learn from other countries.  The spark to this rant has to do with our flight home.  When the plane landed we were told to stay seated out of respect.  There was a captain on our flight escorting a soldier's body home.  My baby was sitting there next to me happily snacking on ice and shoving stuff back into his backpack.  Someone else's baby was killed in someone else's war and riding alone under the plane in a box to be later rejoined with his family...that was the first time this long long war broke my heart.

7.  I have a long lost sister.  I knew of her when I was a child and I meet her a few times, she is my father's first daughter and six years older than myself.  Right before traveling to Siberia I found her on facebook.  I had looked before but was unsure of how she spelled her name, she said the same about me.  We were connected through a cousin.  Anyway, I learned that she lives in Cambridge (over the river from Boston).  Turns out we even lived in the city at the same time.  We got together for a walk around Harvard Sq, some dinner, and a drink.  She knew our dad, not much, but more than myself.  She had pictures, and some stories.  Things I was never privileged to as a child. She showed me more pictures of my father then I have ever seen in my life.  She even pried one out of her 1970s photo book for me to keep, which doubles my photo collection of pictures of my father. 

Maybe not our best photo, we were really struggling with camera batteries and cell phone space. 

8.  Oliver is obsessed with the concept of "under" or un-na as he calls it.  He says it when we drive under things, he says it when he walks under things, he says it when he demands you lift your leg, when sitting, so he can drive his trains under it, and he says it as he runs laps around the house and dives though Jim's legs.  I'm always amused by the things that "catch" kids minds.  I'm happy that un-na is what has caught his mind and not something like coloring on the walls with crayons.