Boston Day Three- April 8

On day three, we took a trolley tour of the city. It allowed you to jump off at whichever site you wanted to. We jumped off to take our free Harbor cruise first.
The building which marks the spot of the Boston Tea Party! :)
The skyline- notice the guy sleeping? We got a free cruise, but most people had to pay for it. Why in the world would you pay for a cruise, (lasting like 45 min), and sleep the whole time? lol
The USS Constitution with Bunker Hill in the background. (I have pics below of us in them).
Pretty tree, cobble stone street, and pretty houses, all near Paul Revere's house.
Paul Revere's house. If there were a theme of this trip, it would be OLDEST. EVERYTHING in Boston is the OLDEST. Our hotel was the oldest, they have the oldest subway system, Fenway is the oldest, USS Constitution is the oldest, Paul Revere's house is the oldest, in a few pics you will see the oldest firehouse, etc etc etc. Oh, and when it says oldest, it is the oldest in the country- not just like the city or state. Pretty cool!
More pretty trees!
A statue of Paul Revere with the Old North Church in the back ground.

In the steeple, 2 lanterns were hung to tell the colonists across the harbor that the British were coming by sea. And, Paul Revere had his, "midnight ride."
Mr. Incredible inside the USS Constitution. I was not a fan of these steps. Very steep.
In the lower decks, the ceiling was only 5'5"! Everyone had to duck!!!

Day 2 was a warm 80 degrees, and day 3 was not as warm, but still nice and beautiful. That was until we came out of the USS Constitution. It became overcast and very cold, very quickly!
Bunker Hill Monument, the site of a HUGE blonde moment....
See these stairs? There were almost 300 of them. In my blonde brain, I guess I thought it wasn't that bad, so instead of pacing my breathing and stride, I started this at a run. Yeah, half way through this I was dying! My calves were still sore yesterday! 2 days after this, I could barely walk!! Very humbling! lol
The view from the top.
The oldest firehouse :)
Trinity Church reflected in Hancock Tower. They is about a 100 year age difference between the two. As our tour guide said, "the old is reflected in the new." It is a theme in Boston. :)
This was a "just to say we did it," detour in the walk. :)
In the Public Garden. There is a book called, "Make way for ducklings." The city of Boston loved it so much that they made this statue.
Statue of George Washington. Notice my sweater? I was FREEZING! I had perfectly good warm clothes back at the hotel, but we were burning daylight, so I bought this sweatshirt. I loved the colors of it. :)
A pretty bridge in the Boston Common. :)

Boston DayTwo- April 7

Day 2 was also our actual anniversary! When most people heard we went to a game on our anniversary, they looked at Mr. Incredible like, "really?" And then they would look at me to see if I would have an irritated look on my face. I would retort with, "This was all MY IDEA. I had to talk him into it!" :) True story!

We started off our morning with a professional photo shoot. This too I had to talk Mr. Incredible into! After we were done, he ranted and raved about what a blast he had! His life would be so much easier if he would just take my word for everything. ;) Once I am done with my daily recaps of the trip, I will do a post just on the professional pics! They are AWESOME!!!!!

Yawkey Way!!! Oh Yeah!!!
We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, oh, and it was 80 that day!
Nuff said! :)



Don't you just love that they had the date on it? I did!!!

The Fenway Frank. EVERYONE we have told about Boston, (for instance our nurse at the ER was from Boston), asked if we had a Fenway Frank. Her exact words were, "if you didn't it is like sacrilegious!" Don't worry people, we both had a Fenway Frank, and I took a pic to prove it! :)
3 years of wedded bliss!

Wally the mascot, because of the Green Monster of Fenway. On my last post I will show you a pic of the Monster. Oh, and I got a Wally bobble head for our monster bathroom! :)
The Bullpen

Jason Varitek didn't play this game- he spent the game with the Bullpen.

Boston Day One: April 6

Ok, the Boston post could be really long so I am breaking it down into days!

Before I get there, I must do a Bolt update:

Saturday night before we left, Bolt had pain in his back leg. Bad pain. We just assumed it was a twisted ankle or something, and left him with the sitter on Monday as planned, (thanks again Brooke)! When we returned home on Friday, he was shaking profusely and when I picked him up he yelped. The rest of night on Friday and on Saturday too, he wouldn't jump onto the bed or couch and he yelped if you picked him up or if he jumped off the furniture. Remember how I said we thought it was his back leg, well now it seemed to be his front leg, rib cage and back. By Saturday night, we were greatly concerned, (we would be been concerned sooner, but we got home at 1:30AM on Friday- well Saturday technically- and that morning at 7 we had to leave for adoption training which we didn't get home from till 7PM). So, we took him to the ER with fears it could be a broken back, (not likely since he could still walk), or a tumor of sorts which was causing the all over, inconsistent pain and the shaking. Turns out he has a bulged disc, which ironically I have as well. Mr. Incredible says it must be genetic. ;) The shaking was caused by his pain. :/ Thank you if you joined us in praying for him, as you see we thought it was REALLY bad! We are so thankful to God that it was not!

Back to Boston Day One:

The whole plane ride there was cloudy, but made for really cool pics.
Do you see the red bricks? All over Boston, there are red brick/red paint lines. These mark the Freedom Trail. You can follow this 2mile+ line to see major historical landmarks. AWESOME!
This is the state house.
This pic may not be the greatest, but it will go down in history as one of our priceless memories. You see, we were about to take separate pics when someone offered to take our pic together. Awesome! After this pic we told her it was our anniversary and she asked if she could pray for us. SO COOL! Then she began to share the Gospel with us. We told her that we too were believers. She went on to tell us that she, (and the group she was with), was there to pray for revival in New England. During the conversation the adoption came up so she again prayed for the adoption, as well as our walk with the Lord. PRICELESS.
The trees were amazing there. This pic is pretty cool too. You see, being from Texas, we know that we are very friendly and the North is not, (with the exception of a few- Traci). ;) Anyway, we were about to take another lone pic when a man offered to take our pic. He was a Bostonian, and after the pic he stopped and talked to us for a good while about places we should go etc. We learned very quickly that Boston was actually a more friendly town than anywhere we had been in Texas. Are you as shocked as we were?
One of the reasons why I first became a Red Sox fan was the love the town had for it. Here is a random office building showing its spirit! :)
Our hotel- over 150 years old!

Mr. Incredible being himself. :)

Day one was full of the Freedom trail, and hanging out at Faniuel Hall/Quincy Market. I didn't post many pics from this day at the Freedom Trail. Day two, two words: RED SOX!

Preview

Sorry I haven't posted, but I was in Boston!!! I could have posted from the hotel, but Mr. Incredible didn't want the world knowing we weren't home. :)

We had an amazing time!!! Boston has earned its spot on our top 10 places to move to, (probably top 5 actually)!

I will do the official post tomorrow, so to hold you over:
Us on our last day in Boston- on the Green Monster!
Statue of George Washington in the Boston Common.
Cool buildings and brick road near Paul Revere's house!
Fenway Park, Yanks vs Sox- nuff said!
Day one- the trees were SOOO beautiful!!!

That's What its all about! ;)

The bunny? The eggs? Family time?

WHAT A SAVIOR!

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin.
We were born under the power of sin's control.
- Admit that you are a sinner.

Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."

Sin has an ending. It results in death. We all face physical death, which is a result of sin. But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever. It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain.
- Understand that you deserve death for your sin.

Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Salvation is a free gift from God to you! You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
- Ask God to forgive you and save you.

Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"

When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life. He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us!
- Give your life to God... His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of being a slave to sin. His love is what saves you -- not religion, or church membership. God loves you!

Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10 "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
- If you know that God is knocking on your heart's door, trust Him as your savior!




This is a new favorite song of mine! When it comes on the radio I turn it up and yell out: YOU ARE THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE! YOU ARE MY JOY AND MY SALVATION! STOOD IN MY PLACE, TAKING MY SHAME, UPON YOUR SHOULDERS!

The Evolution of a Ring

This post is purely for fun. :) Enjoy! :)

This is my engagement and wedding ring:
I felt convicted about this ring. It was a 2.1 karat diamond, and I felt when people saw it they thought I valued the things of this world and that it could hurt my testimony. Read more about it here and here.
When I sold the ring, I bought this one as a replacement.
For our 2nd anniversary I got this ring. It is a stackable James Avery ring. It is our anniversary stone, and then we were going to stack the kids' stones.
Well, we want more than 2 kids, and that is all the room I would have with the stackable rings. So, we decided to go with this ring to symbolize all the kids. You see, we decided to adopt all our kids in June 08, so we chose June birthstone to symbolize all our kiddos.

Then a dilemma hit. You see, I wanted to replace my wedding band with the gold version. I felt like people saw my ring and thought I didn't value my marriage or was trying to hide it or something. So, I thought getting the ring in gold would help it be more obvious that it indeed was a wedding ring. That ring at James Avery is over $200. Not too bad but still. So I started playing with my rings and this is what I came up with:
I will wear the stackable ring as my wedding ring, and the band will be worn on my other hand. Looks more legit huh, (sorry it is so out of focus).

This saves us the $200+ for the gold ring and it saves us the money from the other ring since I am nixing the stackable ring idea.

INSTEAD:
They have the same remembrance things, but for charms instead of just rings! I am going to start a necklace of our anniversary and each kids' birthstone. This way I can include all the kids! :) When we go shopping for our anniversary, I will post my new necklace! ;)