Massachusetts

This last week was October Break, which was glorious because, I mean, no school for a week! Really, it was a great break. Especially because I got to go to Boston with my mom and dad to visit my sister and her family!

We left early Saturday morning to catch our 8:30 plane to Boston. We first landed in Kansas, letting people off there and getting a new crew of attendants, then we took off again to Boston, only to take a detour to Maryland when we were only 20 minutes from Boston. Why? Something was wrong with the plane and there was no one to fix it in Massachusetts, only Maryland. So we had to get off and on to another plane and by the time we landed in Boston it was 7:00 PM EST (10:00 PM in AZ time).

The next day, we walked around Harvard campus, it was fun to see some of the things there, but the weather was the best part!

{jumping in front of Harvard library}

{petra, me, rilla, lars}

When we got back we watched the LDS General Conference (semi-annual conference sessions where latter day saints hear and listen to talks given by latter day prophets and apostles - learn more here).

After that conference session, we went to the Mount Auburn cemetery. This cemetery is the first garden cemetery in America and has graves of people dating back to the 1700's. At the cemetery, there is Washington Tower, which was built to commemorate George Washington. The cemetery was super pretty and was even prettier from the top.

We also passed by George Washington's headquarters and decided to look around! We couldn't go inside because of the government shutdown, but we walked around the front and back. It was so crazy to think that Washington himself was there thinking about the war and life.

{front steps}

{the garden in the back}

On Monday, first we took a walk by the Charles River and over the John W. Weeks Bridge. Later, we went to Harvard Square and looked around, which was super interesting!

{John W. Weeks Bridge}

{rubbing John Harvard's toe for good luck}

Tuesday, we took a drive to Cape Ann. It was the first time I had been to the Atlantic Ocean, which was pretty exciting!

Wednesday was my niece, Petra's, birthday! She decided she wanted to go apple picking, the idea was super cute to me, so I was super excited! It was fun and the apples were delicious. Also, we went to the Louisa May Alcott house, which was built before the Revolutionary War!

{the whole crew - 1. chelsea, mom, dad, me; 2. lars, rilla, petra}

Our last day, Thursday, we walked around the Boston temple, which was super pretty, and did the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail was super amazing. I love American history and thinking that the Revolution had happened there almost brought me to tears. We stopped by places like Paul Revere's grave and house, the site of the Boston Massacre, and tons more. Walking along the same streets as the first Americans did really blew my mind.

{Boston, MA temple}

{Freedom Trail}

Overall, the trip was amazing, and I'm a bit sad that there's school tomorrow.