This Memorial Day we decided to ignore the mounting list of house projects and give our weekend entirely to family time.  It’s rare that I have a whole weekend free in the summer and we decided to use it to it’s fullest.  I love photographing weddings but I do miss out on a lot of summer weekend activities with my family.  I’m lucky to have a wonderful husband who takes over and has “boys day” with the kids when I’m gone.

We decided to surprise the boys with a trip to Boston and had the great idea to take them on a Boston Habor Cruise.   They would love a boat ride we thought, and it’s 90 minutes long!  What could be better than hanging out together on a boat deck, learning about the history of Boston?

Sometimes your good intentions take a turn.  Sometimes you have to let go of your ideals and let life be what it wants to be.  Sometimes you have to just enjoy the moment for what it is and not what you envisioned.

We got off the T, and walked up to the city park.  We had just enough time to walk a ways to the wharf and eat some lunch.  We never stood a chance.

At the top of the stairs was a balloon man.  Our kids were mezmorized!  How can these city folk stand it when there’s a balloon man right in their park?!

So, we stood there while each of our kids chose an animal.  We stood in the hot sun while Asa’s dolphin popped four times in the creation.  We stood there and reminded oursleves that while this isn’t exactly our idea of a great day in the city, it is to our kids.

Asa ended up with a dog because we were about to miss our boat.

The boat ride was informative as promised…but we never heard any of it because we were running around trying to keep balloons from blowing into the harbor and kids from falling through holes.  It turns out that 90 minutes is a VERY long time when you are stuck in the hot sun with nothing to do but look out at water.

The highlight of the boat ride was getting italian ice.

After the boat ride we stayed in a hotel for the night.  This is one of the boys’ favorite things to do.  Especially if it involves a pool and a continental breakfast!  They had a blast.  They didn’t want to leave.

Again we were reminded that we had to let life be what it was.  If an indoor pool and make-your-waffle was what made our kids happy than we would go with it.  And we did.