Goodbye, Massachusetts...

Oh, Massachusetts, how I miss you. It's been six months, but I still think of you often. Other than San Diego, where I lived for 18 years, you were the place I lived the longest. Seven years. You'll always be a second home to me. 

I moved there right after graduating from college. It was there I had my first apartment all to myself. It was a tiny shoebox of a place, and I loved it. (I didn't love the mice, but hey... we worked it out.)

I moved there at the end of Summer, when the heat and humidity made me second-guess my life choices. But then came the Fall, and I truly fell in love. I crunched each vibrant fallen leaf with the joy of a little child. I tried to take a mental picture of every firey tree I passed.

Then came my first Massachusetts winter. I didn't know what to expect. Holy crap, the wind was awful! But again I found beauty.

I also found history. Our country is young; its history is short. But man, is it cool. And so much of it happened in Massachusetts. 

Even the homes are historical (and beautiful)! Case in point: Emily Dickinson's house.

No discussion of Massachusetts is complete without Boston. As the song goes, "Boston, you're my home." The skyline!

Fenway park!

The food!

The country's absolute best 4th of July celebration!

I mean, really, what's not to love?

Speaking of love, I found it in Boston. It's where I met Daniel. Here we are in our first-ever photo together, taken on one of our first dates (to a BU hockey game).

And shockingly soon after, we were engaged. It all happened in Boston.

Massachusetts is where we made out first home together. It was a piece of crap one-bedroom basement apartment with exposed pipes and leaking windows. The woman above us was inhumanely loud at 6:00 in the morning. We had the sewer main back up into our shower on a Sunday morning. We lived next door to the missionaries (that should tell you a lot about how nice it wasn't). But it was the first place we lived together. It was home.

Still, we moved after a year. Our new place was better, but it was still a basement apartment. We lived right by the (extremely loud) front door of the building, so we heard every resident's (and visitor's) comings and goings. We lived on a loud, busy street. We had mold. But again, it was home. And best of all, it was the home in which we discovered that our family would be growing by one little person.

And then she came. She was our first Massachusetts baby. 

We kept the big life events coming. A few months after Aubrey was born, we bought our first house. We felt like real Massachusetts residents. It was the perfect first house for us at the time. I still miss it.

While we lived there, we experienced our fair share of snow.

But then we also experienced some wonderful spring weather. Picnics in the front yard and neighborhood walks were favorite pastimes.

When summers rolled around, we had the beach! We didn't go too often, but it was nice to know we always could. 

Then, every Fall, we got to experience one of my favorite East Coast activities--fruit picking. Peaches, apples, strawberries, blueberries. Massachusetts had them all. 

As time went on, our family grew a little more...

... and a second Massachusetts baby was born. 

We continued to enjoy all Massachusetts had to offer us, this time as a family of four. We visited beautiful farms...

... and enjoyed the wonderful New England Fall. I tell you, it NEVER got old.

Things got even better when Pam and Javier moved to Boston. We got to see them nearly every week! It made Massachusetts even more wonderful.

We were happy there.

But, of course, there were some tough times, too. Our poor Carter was pretty sick that first year of his life. Thankfully, he received wonderful care, and I never worried he wouldn't make it (even when he was admitted to the ICU).

And with times like that--when we needed our families but they were all so far from us--it was hard to be in Massachusetts. It was hard to have our kids' grandparents a day's travel away. And so, for the sake of family, we decided to leave.

And that, too, was hard.

These are the last photos I took of Boston, on our last family trip to the city.

We sat in the Common and tried to soak it all in. We lamented that our children won't even remember Massachusetts, their first home. So I took this photo, in hopes that I'll always remember what it felt like to live there.

Massachusetts, you're my home.

Albuquerque Trip

When we left Massachusetts for the last time, we didn't go to Colorado. Instead, we went to Albuquerque for Pam and Javier's wedding! I'd never been to New Mexico before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how pretty it was!

See what I mean?

Of all the wedding-related events we were there for, the only one I actually got photos of was the cake cutting and eating. Figures, right?

But there was eating (except by Aubrey, who threw a full plate on the stone floor, making a big mess and even bigger commotion) and dancing (the highlight of which was when I did an awesome kicking thing in the middle of the dance circle and flung my shoe straight into a woman's chest). Much fun was had. 

But when the night was over, we had to say goodbye to Pam and Javier. It was particularly sad knowing we wouldn't see them again in Boston. After a year of seeing Pam every week, it hit me hard. I'm still sad about it, honestly. :(

Besties! (I think this is the first time I've ever said or written that. It's weird.)

Anyway, after the wedding festivities, Daniel went back to Massachusetts to drive our stuff to Colorado, and my parents, the kids, and I did a little tour of Sante Fe. We mostly walked around the main square, where Aubrey and I danced together to some fun live music. (My mom got video of it that I'll have to get from her sometime.)

We also visited San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in the continental United States. It dates back to the 17th century!

And, of course, Grandpa took the opportunity to play with Aubrey before we moved on.

When we did move on, we went just around the corner to one of the oldest buildings in the country, De Vargas Street House. It began as a pueblo in about 1200, though it was obviously altered and added to over time. And now, of course, part of it is a gift shop.

Here's the inside staged for tourists like us:

I snapped a few photos showing how the building changed over time. Here's what it was like somewhat originally...

And here it is today:

We kept walking, and we eventually found this moose. Reindeer? Whatever; Aubrey's the star of the photo anyway.

Carter totally didn't appreciate the luxury it is to be pushed around in a stroller, and he got a little eager to be free.

More Santa Fe as viewed on our stroll:

Finally, we went to Loretto Chapel, where we saw this famous, pretty staircase that is a feat of engineering, apparently.

I always like the ceilings in churches. I suppose it's fitting that I should be looking up when I enter a church, huh? 

At some point, Aubrey convinced me to let her use my phone to take pictures. The following are only some of the 90+ shots she took in our 5 minutes there. 

Do you notice the theme? I think my daughter has a butt fetish...

Anyway, I also took some shots. They're less exciting, I suppose, but they are a little more on point. 

We only had the one day in Santa Fe before heading to California, but I'm glad we made the trip. It was cool to see a part of this country I'd never visited before. We'll have to go back someday and see more! And next time Daniel can come... I guess. Maybe. ;)