Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day we were lucky enough to get Jake's Cousin Spencer and his wife Candice to come up for a visit. We had a great time exploring Boston with them--even though the first couple days of weather were not so accommodating! They came in late the night of Carder's birthday, so Saturday we met up with them downtown for some lunch and Quincy Market followed by and afternoon exploring the North End (Boston's Little Italy), where we toured Paul Revere's home and had some delicious cannolis at Mikes Pastry. I didn't get any pictures that day because it was pouring down rain.

Sunday the weather was still pretty crummy, but Spencer and Candice braved it and checked out the city a little more before they met up with us for Church. After, they all went for a walking tour of Harvard's Campus and explored Mt. Auburn Cemetery a bit.

Carder just loves "his friend" Spencer

On Monday the weather finally got nice and we took full advantage of it by spending the day out in Concord exploring Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Minute Man National Park.

This is the cemetery where the famous authors (such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry Thoreau) are all buried. They actually have an area called Authors' Hill where you can walk along the path and see all of these author's burial spots which are all pretty close to one another.

After the cemetery we headed out to Minute Man National Park in search for the Old North Bridge...

The Park ended up being quite a bit bigger than we expected, so the first turn in we took took us to a Revolutionary War visitors/memorial center rather than the bridge. The kids enjoyed this minor detour as they got to check out the revolutionary soldiers and play with some wooden muskets.

The whole setting of Concord is just breathtaking. It was nice to just stroll along both the cemetery and Minuteman National Park. On the way back to our car Carder and Jake spotted a sluffed snake skin off to the side of the path. Major hit of the day for the boys.

We got the correct directions to the Old North Bridge and headed there next. Lots of our friends had told us it was one of their favorite places to visit in the Boston area, and it did not disappoint.  It's located just behind the Old Manse, so we walked the grounds of the Manse first. The Old Manse is famous for housing both Emerson and Hawthorne at different times.

Carder exploring the boat house and dock (he loved how wobbly the dock was as you switched your weight). You got a great view of the Old North Bridge set over the Concord River from this vantage point.

The Old North Bridge is a historical site in the Battle of Concord, the first day of battle in America's fight for Independence.

There was even a redcoat there that day.

On the other side of the bridge is an erected monument. The kids were so cute. Carder was reading the inscription to Brenn, and then Brenn was picking out letters. When she would get one right Carder's face would light up and he'd turn around and tell us "Brenn just found a (whatever letter she had pointed out and said the name of)"  and then turn to her and say, "Good job Brenn!"

After Old North Bridge we headed out to Kimball Farms for some Ice Cream before sending the Kelly's off. We had such a fun time with them and are so glad they came out to stay with us!