Double the Fun

Today marks Ben's 32nd birthday, and Eleanor's 10 month birthday. Since any monthly milestone past 12 months of age is pretty much ignored in our family, we figured this would be the one and only time Ben and Eleanor get to "celebrate" together. Ben spent a typical day at the office and came home to any empty home since we were at a friends home. Once we got home though, we prepped for a dinner of chimichurri flank steak (one of Ben's favorite meals), potatoes and salad. After dinner we took a couple birthday pictures and put a very tired Eleanor down for bed.

The Birthday duo.

These kids adore their Dad.

Since I had made Ben's Mom's chocolate cake for his birthday and it was WAY too much cake for just our family to handle, we invited over some friends and neighbors to join in on the festivities. Of course the kids always end up outnumbering the adults at these type of things, but we had a good time talking and feasting on cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday, Ben. One year older and definitely wiser too.

At Least They're Being Fed

This summer is flying by so quickly that sometimes it's hard to remember what we've done some days. I'd hope I'd be better at documenting what has been going on, but when looking back through pictures recently it seems that the most frequent times I have photographed our children has been when they're eating something. Not quite sure why that is. Anyway, here's some recent shots of the kids in their summer of eating.

Ethan and his bud, Simon chowing on some cheese and crackers.

Not really a food, but Eleanor loves the blind cords.

Oreo shake from the Bill Gray's at the Museum of Play

She's so much messier than Ethan ever was.

Check out those upper teeth coming in! She'll be flossing with a rope in no time.

And just tonight while eating spaghetti, Eleanor learned to suck up the noodles like a pro.



And with such a messy event like spaghetti eating, the cleanup is inevitable.

Check out those curves.

The Progression of Our Master Bedroom

It all started with a door. I think it was in January when I saw an ad on Craigslist for a 1920's door for about $25. I figured I could revamp it into a headboard after seeing it on Martha Stewart and my friend, Kate's blog. I contacted the seller and picked it up a couple days later. I figured I'd wait until my Dad came into town so he could help me trim it down, put trim on it and mount it, so in the meantime I stripped one side of it of the layers of paint and patched the holes from the old hardware. Fast forward 7 months and the project is finally complete! Luckily since I had so much time, I decided to stencil the wall behind our bed which was a huge project that took me about a week to finish (and I've still got some work to do on it).

How the previous owners had the room.

How we've had it set up for the last few years.

After I scraped off all the paint.

Pile o' paint chips.

How our dresser looked for the past month or so.

The beginning of the stenciling process.

Finished stenciling.

New nightstands, but no headboard.

New headboard, but unfinished and old off-centered shelf still up.

Finished product and very pleased.

Our New England Tour

So this post is a week late, but I didn't want to trump Eleanor's 9 month Birthday just yet. Plus, I needed to get my act together and I feel like since my family has been gone I've been playing catch-up around here. No lounging around for this Momma!

Anyway, Natalie came back into town the end of July; on August 2nd she and I headed out to Boston with the 2 kids in tow to meet up with my parents who were flying in from SLC. The trip there was uneventful for the most part. Just a couple stops for a potty break, a dirty diaper and a stop at McDonalds and before we knew it we were paying an arm and a leg for tolls to get into Boston. It had been about 5.5 years since the last time I visited, and man alive was Boston even more beautiful than it was in March. The weather was absolutely perfect!

So the first day we were there we went out to Scituate, MA which is where my Grandpa Bruford was from. It is a little harbor town with a lot of charm. We stopped by the home my Great-Grandfather built and though the owners weren't home we took some pictures in front of it. Afterwards we went out to lunch at a little pub and then tried to find some family graves at the local cemetery. Unfortunately we weren't successful in finding any, so we headed back to Boston. Since we were already in the car we decided to make the short trip out to Cambridge which ended up being a LONG trip because of the traffic. Traffic always reminds me of why it's good to live in a city like Rochester where traffic is pretty much non-existent. Anyway, we parked close to Harvard University and ended up just going into Baskin Robbins (where we got the WORST customer service ever) to get a sweet treat. By this point in the day the kids were really starting to lose it, so we headed back to the hotel to sneak in a little swim and called it a night.

Grandma & Grandpa brought Ethan some Mario "Legos" that he had to build right away when he saw them.

Ethan on the rock wall that my Dad remembered from his childhood.

My parents in front of my Dad's Dad's home.

A view of the Scituate harbor.

Baby Eleanor, totally exhausted but cozy with Grandpa.

The next day we headed out a little earlier and walked downtown. My sister, Natalie, had taken a genealogy course at Georgetown where she learned of a bunch of family history that took place in Boston. So the first stop was to one of our relatives home which just happened to be about a block and a half from the State House where the Boston Massacre happened. Mind you, our relative was living there at that time. Pretty crazy. From there we walked all over downtown. We once again attempted to find more headstones in a cemetery which also happened to be the cemetery where Paul Revere, Mother Goose and the Boston Massacre victims were also buried. Looks like our relatives were pretty popular back in their day. Unfortunately (once again) we were unsuccessful, but I partially blame that on the fact that the headstones were almost impossible to read because of years of decay. After grabbing lunch, we headed to the harbor to get tickets to do a duck boat tour. After taking a little rest we made the trek to the science museum to board our "duck". The tour was really fun and we were able to learn a lot of interesting stuff about Boston. Once the tour was over we walked to Little Italy to grab dinner at a delicious restaurant. Afterwards we took the long stroll back to the hotel.

On the side of the State House.

A view of the State House from our relatives home.

The marker that talks about George Washington's visit.

What?!?! We paid $20 for this picture? Priceless I say.

A view of the public garden from the Duck Tour.

A view of the skyline from the River Charles.

Another shot of the skyline with my parents.

The next morning I went to the airport in the morning to pick up Ben who flew in just in time for our trip up to New Hampshire. Once he got in, we all packed up and made the 60 mile drive up north to Portsmouth. Portsmouth is gorgeous, by the way. The first stop was to see my Great-Grandpa's (my Dad's Grandpa on his Mom's side) hardware store downtown which is now a card/gift shop. After lunch we drove around Portsmouth and located the home that my Grandma Bruford grew up in. The owners were home and let us take a peek inside on the first level. It was pretty cool. After that we drove around a little and stopped by my Grandmother's high school (which now has an LDS chapel in the parking lot) and the Little Harbor Chapel where my grandparents got married. We also stopped by the Wentworth Mansion which had gorgeous views of the harbor and then we went by my Dad's step-cousin's home (whom he had never met before). They talked for a little bit and after that we drove over to Maine to grab some dinner at a seafood restaurant. I was the only one who didn't order lobster... yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a stick in the mud. It was an exhausting day of driving all over the place, so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

What used to be Wendell's Hardware Store.

Downtown Portsmouth, NH.

My Grandma Bruford's childhood home.

The high school my Grandma Bruford went to.

The Little Harbor Chapel where my grandparents got married.

At the Wentworth Mansion.

Aunt Nat and Eleanor.

Throwing stones into the harbor.

Eleanor was mostly happy to be out of the car.

Chubby little piggies.

Eleanor's stink face.

On our last day in Portsmouth we went to the Portsmouth Athenaeum which has tons of historical information about our family. We spent a good amount of time in there before our kids started to lose it. We left my parents and Natalie there to do some more research while Ben and I took the kids to a toy store to pass the time. When we got back to the athenaeum, my parents were in a vault where they were being shown just how many family records are kept there. It was amazing. I think there was something like 80 boxes of family records, photos, and ledger books. All from the Wendell family (which is my Grandma Bruford's maiden name). With all the information in hand we left Ben with napping kids at the hotel and hit up a couple local cemeteries to find some family graves. Finally, luck was with us and we located some gravestones. We also drove by a couple historic homes that belonged to our relatives at some point in time. By the time we were done we were kind of burned out with the driving and searching so we headed back over to Maine and went to a couple outlet stores to do some shopping. Afterwards we went to dinner at a little restaurant off the side of the freeway and then went back to the hotel.

My Dad checking out the ledger book from the Hardware store. A whole lot of linseed oil was sold in those days.

Postcards from the hardware store.

The iPhone was the only thing that kept Ethan semi-quiet in the athenaeum.

Boxes upon boxes of family records!

Outside the athenaeum.

The grave (or bunker as I called it) of the first Wendell's in Portsmouth.

My Dad at the headstone of his Grandpa Wendell.

The Jacob Wendell house.

The little fish market down the street from my Grandma Bruford's childhood home where we believe that she used to go and get lobster.

After about 8 hours of being stuck in the car with 5 adults and 2 kids, we made it back to Rochester. Ahhh, did that feel good. What a great trip though, and definitely a trip we won't soon forget.