This past week Mark's parents came for a visit, and we had a blast. We hadn't seen them for over a year, and I just loved being able to take the days off of work to hang out with them. They arrived late Wednesday night, and I took them on a tour of downtown Boston on Thursday. This was not an ordinary tour that you get when being a tourist in Boston. This was a tour of "Where Kat Spends Her Day!" I showed them the office I work in, the benches I sit on to make phone calls during my lunch breaks, and the building where I think our offices are going to be moving to when we get it all finalized. We had lunch at a restaurant that I know the guys at work like but I could never afford, and it was just fun to be with them again.
This was an advertisement we saw for Marshall's shoe sale!
Thursday evening was a BYU football game that we actually got on our cable, so we had several people from our ward who wanted to come to watch it with us. It was fun to have an apartment full of friends AND FAMILY for a BYU game. Too bad the game was such a disappointment! Oh well!
Then on Friday, there wasn't really anything terribly pressing that we HAD to do, so we just stayed in the apartment and watched "Star Wars" movies while I was working on a new quilt. That was pretty fun too. We just waited for Mark to come back from school and enjoyed just relaxing at home. That afternoon we went downtown to look at the trees in the Boston Common.
Looking down at a hill covered in pretty yellow and red leaves, I just had an urge to go rolling down the hill like we did after church as little children. I was so excited and just wanted to roll and roll and roll...so Mark joined me.
To tell you the truth, it wasn't as fun as I remember it being. Maybe I'm more tender now, but that hill had lots of hard lumps, and it's wasn't very comfortable. I had to roll down facing the other way too because I got so dizzy I had to try to fix it. I felt almost sick, so I decided that two rolls were enough. But I was still glad to do it and make a memory of it. You gotta live it up every once in a while. After the park we also watched the movie "Eagle Eye" in the nearby theater. Overall we all enjoyed the movie, but the guys expressed their criticism of the plausibility of the technology. I guess that's to be expected.
On Saturday we went to go see the USS Constitution with our neighbors, Heather and Greg Stoutenburg. This was one of the few things on the Freedom Trail that I've only glanced at but never really experienced. It was really fun to just be there and see something new.
We then took the T-Boat (which I didn't even know existed) across the Boston Harbour to eat dinner at Legal Sea Foods. I had never really had some of the types of seafood that they serve there, and I was glad to try something new. Mark's King Crab Legs were really good, but I was disappointed in the dish that I chose. I really should've gone with the garlic shrimp instead of the nutty salmon. I probably would've liked it much more. I don't think that it was really all that bad, but I was definitely not all that impressed.
On Sunday, it was pretty much a normal Sabbath Day. We went to Church, I made a pot roast with potatoes and gravy for dinner. We did, however, drive up to New Hampshire to look at the fall foliage. We don't do that every week, but it was nice to go for a drive and take a few pictures in the changing colors. We also watched a Red Sox game, but what I remember the most is how badly I did not want to go to bed. I was sleepy and I knew that I had to do it, but it meant that when I woke up in the morning, I was going to have to go back to work.
Monday came, and I said my good-byes. I'm pretty sure that I would've been slightly depressed about it all day if Mark hadn't surprised me with a visit during my lunch break. Well, it wasn't a hug surprise because I kinda told him to when I was teasing him in an email...but I didn't expect him to actually stop by. It was a very nice treat that split up my lonely Monday perfectly.
It was so great to be able to visit with Mark's parents. So many of the people I talked to and mentioned the in-laws' visit assumed that I was glad that they were gone now. In-laws get such a bad reputation, but I love my in-laws and was so happy to be with them for a few days. I would've enjoyed to have them stay longer, but that was just not a feasible option. The other night Mark and I were talking about how having them here makes us miss them more. Obviously not while they were here, but seeing them again reminded us of all that we've missed out on in the past 13 months. Mark turned to me and said, "Now I can understand a bit of how you must have felt for your family in Chicago for the past 7 years!" It's true that I miss being with family all the time, but it's also true that no matter where we live when Mark is finished with school, we cannot live by and appease all of our family. Living here in Boston has truly been great for us and our marriage, but being close to family certainly does have its benefits too.
Right now it's just important for us to keep plugging along...keep doing what we think the Lord wants for us to do...keep following the commandments...and everything will be alright. Everyone will be just a plane trip away, no matter where we end up. The next big thing we have to look forward to is going to Chicago for Christmas. I know that's a whole 2 months away still, but I am getting so excited for it!
