a day in the life of a boston tourist

my brother has been living in boston for 10 years (???) and i went to school about 40 minutes north of the city. i have spent a fair amount of time in the city between school things and visiting my brother so it would be pretty easy to say that i know boston like the back of my hand. but i dont.

so when my extended family was in town and some of us had the day to wander the city, i called up my friend katie and we pretended to act like tour guides. we hit up some of the most touristy parts of the city and may have gotten a little lost wandering by north station.  but i'm going to say that everyone enjoyed themselves anyway.

here's what we did:

we started at the citgo sign because that is where out hotel was.

then we hit up faneuil hall and the quincy market area. everyone loves a good market.

next we ventured down to the harbor and spent some time thinking about where to head next.

then we wandered to the north end before making a huge circle back to the aquarium/harbor area where we hit up the seals exhibit. i don't have an actual picture from the noth end but you can see my mike's pastry box in the above picture which proves that we went there.

hope you enjoyed the tour!

;)

happiness in ten things

i thought i would try to take part in at least some of these blog every day in may posts since i kind of started the month off blogging no days.

 today's topic is: 10 things that make you really happy.

any time when my parents and brother and i are all together

lazy sundays with the boy

best friends who get me

belly laughs

marathons of the o.c. reruns

andrew mcmahon's music

praise from my students

cuddle time with my sweet sweet puppy

summer campfires

a good book in a good hammock

what makes you happy?

bridesmaid duties

i was pretty pleased when my brother and his fiance laura had asked me to be a bridesmaid in their wedding. it was my first time being in a wedding, unless you count the time i was five and a flower girl (i think) when my grandfather remarried and  i sat down in the aisle during the ceremony.... because i don't count that time.

i wasn't sure what being a bridesmaid really entailed but the maid of honor had been in numerous weddings so she kind of helped us all out a little bit. although, my new sister-in law was probably the most down to earth bride out there so us bridesmaids didn't have too much responsibility. 

the day before the wedding a few of us got together and arranged the flowers for the centerpieces. laura had been collecting small glass vases during the whole engagement to use for the centerpieces. she ordered some beautiful wildflowers and we spent the morning before the wedding cutting and arranging all of them. don't they look beautiful?? laura had so many great ideas for the wedding and it all turned out perfectly.

side note: laura made many of the decorations herself for the wedding. she is super creative and had so many cute ideas!! i don't have pictures of them all because i was too busy enjoying the wedding ;) but once i snoop around for other peoples' pictures i will most certainly show off her work.

springtime at home

i was lucky enough to be in NJ during the perfect springtime weekend. i heard the weather wasn't that nice before i got there so i like to think mother nature brought the spring time just for me. 

i wanted to take advantage of all the flowers in bloom so i ran around my house taking a million pictures of my parents' garden area. they do a pretty good job, don't you think?

speaking of parents, happy mother's day to my wonderful mom! as always it was such a lovely treat to be home with you for a few days and i cannot wait until my next trip :) miss you!

back to the blog

two weeks without a blog post. this whole blogging thing can be hard sometimes! i'm sure i have said this before but i never thought that blogging would become such a big part of my life. sometimes it feels like the best choice of a hobby that i ever could have made and sometimes it feels like a second job that i am not really getting paid for. and i know that when it comes to that second feeling that i need to just take a break. blogging should be fun! always. sometimes i feel so silly when i get stressed over not blogging for a day .. or 14. i try to remind myself that this is my hobby .. that i chose blogging as an outlet for the other stressors in my life, not to give me more stress!

so here is me telling you that i will no longer feel bad about not blogging every single day! if i need a day off, i will take a day off without guilt. i also cannot wait to get back to reading all of my favorite blogs. i sure have missed everyone :)