{City Lights}

I miss those city lights, those sparkling city lights, those twinkling city lights blurring my eyes.
I love those city lights, the color of the city sights, that shine under city lights tinting the skies.

-via City Lights from the Act-

{Living In the Moment...April}

This month I'm taking a little turn with my LITM post.  Typically I post little moments of our lives that I don't want to forget.  The details.  The everyday.  The normal.  In this month's post I have moments I don't want to forget.  I have details.  However, these moments are not everyday.  They are not normal.  At least for our part of the world.

This month I am sharing the pictures that I took of the Makeshift Memorial at the Boston Marathon finish line.  I will let the pictures do the talking but I do want to explain a bit of the feeling.  Sure there is plenty of feeling in these but I'm talking about the feeling while standing there next to hundreds of strangers looking at the memorial.

As we approached the area everything was blocked off.   And unexpectedly everything was untouched to how it was left on Monday.  There was trash everywhere in the buffer zone.  Everything needed to be left exactly as is for evidence.  There were blocks and blocks of "crime scene".  It was very eerie to say the least.  And once we got to the spot where the main memorial was there was silence.  Sure there were people talking but it wasn't the normal sound level of the city.  People were crying, hugging each other, standing and staring, standing with their eyes closed, taking pictures and just feeling.

There were two veteran volunteers manning the memorial while we were there.  I wrote a post about the man with the dog here.  They had people hang flags and assisted them in finding a spot for the items that they brought.  There was a little boy there that brought up a flower and then got some love from the man's dog.  It was innocent and sweet and just the kind of moment that we all needed.

I have a lot pictures this month.  Please forgive me.  Also please check out Melissa's LITM post this month.

{Oh Hey, it's Tuesday}

Hey guys!  I wanted to start talking about our weekends more in detail especially since we'll be starting our Summer Bucket List soon!  So this may or may not become a reoccurring post.  :)  I did share some of these pics in my InstaFriday post but you don't mind.  Right??

This weekend we started it off by going to a Red Sox game on Friday night.  Lisa's work got a bunch of tickets from a higher up manager for being awesome so we got a babysitter (Thanks Jen!) and headed up to Boston.  Lisa said it was going to be chilly but I thought, how cold can it be?  So I chose cute over function.  As usual.  She was right.  I was wrong.  It was ass chilling. 



The Red Sox won.  They also had an insane amount of Home Runs.  Seriously.  I thought they were supposed to be hard to get?  They had at least four and one guy had two.  That doesn't seem like something that's so difficult.  Hmmmmmm.  But the Fenway Franks were delicious and BOGO.  So that rocks.  Also we got the kids some cute t-shirts.  And I got a new Alex and Ani bracelet.  Pictured below.  Which btw, I'm kinda pissed about.  The disc bracelets are usually like $28 bucks.  So when Lisa asked if I wanted it, yeah sure.  It wasn't on my have to have list but I figured I might as well.  Right?  Well as we were walking into the bathroom Lisa informed me that it was $45.  Whuck???  (Word of the day which means what the fuck courtesy of Rants From Mommy Land)  I totally should have returned it.  If they took returns.  At least now I'll know to check the price and not assume.  You know what they say about people who assume....



Saturday I went to dinner with my Mom and my sisters.  It's been years since we've gone out together just us.  Way too long.  I hope to do it more often for sure.  It was a good time and all day prior I kept thinking to myself that I needed to get a picture of all of us.  You think I did?  Nope.  Oh well.  Next time!  I did take a picture of this painting.  This is at the Hearth and Kettle which I haven't been to in probably ten years.  Yup, those paintings are still there.  Also I drove by my childhood home.  Or at least the house we stayed in the longest.  If you ask me where I grew up, Plymouth MA in this house but there were a lot of houses in a lot of towns before this one. 



Sunday we brought the kids to their first Providence Bruins game.  It was a lot of fun!  When we told them that morning that we were going, they weren't too enthusiastic.  But they seemed to love it.  Especially the boys!  The game even went into overtime and we gave the kids the choice of staying or going.  The only one who said "I want to go home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" was Izz.  Naturally.  Lol.



Bailey really got into it and said that he wanted to watch hockey forever now.  He was even video taping parts with his iPod.  Ian got really into trying to get on the jumbo screen but he was too shy so Bailey helped him towards the end.  They never did make it up there but I'm sure they will next time.  Isobel really could have cared less but enjoyed the snacks.  And Chloe said she had fun.



We had hot dogs, french fries, popcorn and fried dough.  Mmmmmmmmm fried dough.  It's been YEARS and it needs to not be that long again.  So yummy.  So very yummy.  In fact my mouth is watering right now.  And I'm sure yours is too.  It's ok.  I won't tell. 


Just look at these kids dancing. Chloe even got in on the action. How can you not put these cuties up on the jumbo screen?

{Boston}

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about the terror that has fallen on Boston this past week.  Las night, the terror was brought to an end and the manhunt was over.  While I live in MA, I do not live in Boston.  I live about 45 minutes away.  That doesn't stop me from thinking of myself as a Bostonian.  I'm sure everyone who lives in MA feels the same way. 

My father was born in Dorchester.  My Nana moved all of them out of the City to the suburb of Marshfield.  I do still have family that lives in South Boston.  Going to "Southie" to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade was one of my favorite traditions as a child.  Now, going to Boston every October with Lisa and friends for the annual Ghost Tour is one of my favorite days of the year.

I love being in the City and have always had a yearning to live there.  If it weren't for the kids, I would have definitely moved there long ago.  I love the hustle and bustle.  I love the beauty.  The architecture in Boston is amazing to me.  I remember driving through the City and wishing my eyes were cameras that could capture all the beauty. 

Last night while at work we heard of the infamous boat.  Immediately my eyes were peeled to Twitter.  If you weren't on Twitter throughout this ordeal, you missed out.  Everything on Twitter was a good two minutes faster than any news source.  Twitter is an amazing community and that became clear over this past week. 

I also listened to the Police scanner for most of yesterday.  I know right?  I always make fun of John and Lisa for their love of the scanner.  But over this past week, it proved to be awesome.  There's something eerie about hearing it all happen in first person.  With that said, "He's in custody" were some of the best words I've ever heard.  Relief swept over me.  I wept.   

In the wake of this week and especially last night, I found some truly awesome pics via Instagram.  I don't know if these are the original sources, but I will give credit via the person I found the pic from.

{Via teensknowbest on Instagram}

This is one of my favorites. I need to contact this person about getting a print if it was in fact made by them.

{Via iengelberg on Instagram}

{Via livslove on Instagram}

{Via tquinn928 and ???? on Instagram}

This one is just so very awesome. Lyrics from Can't Hold Us by Macklemore.

{Via elenamichellee on Instagram}

This right here. History. Awesome. Goosebumpy.

{Via @Boston_Police on Twitter}

{This was everywhere. If anyone knows the original origin, please let me know}

This. OMG. SWAT teams fist pumping in success after the capture.

{Via jimperial77 on Instagram}

So very powerful.

{Via emikoorose on Instagram}

And then, the city went out and celebrated. How I wish I could have been there last night celebrating with everyone.

{Via cyrusvj, wyatt_lilmonstr, megan_tucker20 and barrettgupster on Instagram}

And of course, there was some humor.

{Via jtquack and mickey0025 on Instagram}

And finally...

{Via annaeherman on Instagram}

I've always been proud to be an American.  I've never been prouder to be from Boston.  -Me {4/19/2013 at 9:16 PM}