Sunday, April 28, 2013

Birthday Surprise Trip - Day 1

Quick recap: a week ago Shira tells me she's going to take me on a super long hike on Friday for my Birthday, so clear my schedule. Then, Thursday night she tells me Surpise!, we are taking a hike, but doing so out of town. Pack a bag for a flight we're taking on Friday.

We arrived at the airport, walked to the furthest gate, and the first part of trip was revealed: we were heading to Boston.

Now I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but even I know that no trip to Boston is going to happen without some serious quality time with my nieces and nephew. And sure enough, that was the case. We arrived and met DCT (AKA Dovid, Chana and Tzipora, AKA The Twinners and Tzipora) for lunch along with their parents and their au pair.

From there we took the kids to the Boston Public Gardens, and left the adults safely back home. The day was absolutely perfect park weather; a little crisp and sunny. It was nice seeing Boston in a care free state after the turmoil of the previous weeks. We saw a couple signs announcing "Boston Strong," but other than that, you'd never know that we were in a city that had been rocked by the events of the last few weeks.

We took the kids on the swan boats, and we walked through the park. Chana managed to finagle a balloon shaped like a flower from a Mom who said her kid also had one of a sword. Later on, we picked one up one for Dovid that was in the shape of an airplane, and a cute pink swan for Tzipora.

The kids were beyond adorable. At one point Tzipora was looking at Shira's necklace, and Shira explained that Uncle Ben had bought it for her. At which point she looks up and says, "You did great Uncle Ben."

Dovid, at lunch, carefully picked up his knife and fork and like a perfect gentleman, cut a piece of chicken from his Chicken Lo Mein. He then, just as carefully, put the knife and fork back to their original location next to his plate, and shoveled food into his mouse using his hands. It was the cutest attempt at table manners I've ever seen.

Chana displayed amazing tact as she took the balloon she managed to rustle up and shared it with her Brother and Sister. She'd announce, "you can hold the balloon now." And then a few minutes later, she'd say, "I want to hold the balloon now." It was all very lady like. This makes sense, as she announced to us that she was going to be a "Big Girl at Playgroup."

After a couple hours at the park, it was time to return the kids to their parents and for us to be on our way to the next stage of our adventure (which I still didn't have any ideas what that was). What a wonderful birthday treat it was, getting to see DCT and spending time with family. Birthdays can be a time filled with lots of emotions, but all I was feeling was a nice mix of joy from seeing the kids, and exhaustion from playing with them.

No comments:

Post a Comment