Boston Bound!

We knew going in that April was going to be our biggest travel month of the year and man, our first trip didn't disappoint!  We are tired, but the tiredness was definitely making family memories and visiting with dear friends.

Pretty much since diagnosis, Little Buddy's best friend's dad, Mr. R, has had the goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon in honor of Little Buddy.  Well, goal completed!  And if Mr. R was running, you know the WILLPower squad had to head up to cheer for him!

Then, Daddy and I go to talking.  If we were headed to the Northeast and were that close to New York, we should probably try to knock one of the big items off of Little Buddy's bucket list:  the Statue of Liberty.  And so our New England road trip was born!

On our flight to New York!  (Did I mention that Momma and Little Buddy had just gotten home from Minnesota the night before? Ay yi yi!)

Driving into the city.

Made it to the hotel...finally!  We are so done!

     

Little Buddy enjoyed the view from our hotel room!

Picnic dinner in the hotel.

Our hotel was crossed the street from the 9/11 memorial.  We were too late to go into the Memorial Museum but we did walk through the Oculus and go the Memorial pools on Memorial Plaza.  It was haunting and moving and humbling, but I am glad we were able to pay our respects to the fallen from the terrible day.

View outside our hotel.

Going into the Oculus.

 

     

Memorial Plaza.

     

Looking into the Memorial Museum.

Haunting and beautiful remembrances.  

We were up bright and early the next morning so that we could catch our tour over to the Statue of Liberty!

Castle Clinton.

Views of the city from inside Castle Clinton as we waited for our tours to start.

Excited to ride the ferry over to the Statue!

Here we come!

And so begins Little Sister's epic picture strike the lasts nearly the entire trip.  Sigh.  

     

     

There were some really great exhibits in the Statue of Liberty museum in the pedestal.  

Family shot from the pedestal viewing platform.

     

The internal scaffolding of the Statue and the stairs to go up into the crown.

Statue of Liberty!

"Look up, Little Buddy!"

     

So glad we got to do this for Little Buddy!

Also got to see the "Fearless Girl" statue on Wall Street.  I love her.

Caught sight of the Brooklyn Bridge as we headed out of town.

Before we left New York, however, we got to meet the M family.  Their son, J, also has Sanfilippo Syndrome.  What a blessing to be able to spend time with another family (and to get ice cream together)!

And then New York was done and we continued our road trip through Rhode Island and Connecticut until we got into Massachusetts!  We were thrilled to united with our dear friends, the D family, and excited to spend our pre-marathon time celebrating Easter and checking another baseball stadium off of Little Buddy's and Little Sweetie's lists!

      

     

     

Hunting eggs at a park we found right near our rental house!

Assessing their finds!

     

     

Burning off some energy at the park after the egg hunt!

So excited to be with one of my best friends and to meet her youngest, C!

Happy Easter from us and the D family, in smiley and funny faces!

Then it was off to Fenway!  Excited for the kids to see the Green Monster!

     

Ready to go in!

It was hotter than we anticipated, so we were very grateful for our shady seats!

Enjoying the game...and some hot dogs, popcorn, and ice cream!

Baseball buddies!

J and Little Buddy!

     

The real winners at park were the character statues, lol!

After the game, we were lucky enough to meet a second Sanfilippo family!  Thank you, S family, for letting us come play and love on S for the evening!  It was wonderful to meet you!

The next day was RACE DAY!  We managed to get all the kids (and adults!) on the train and into the city so we could cheer on Mr. R!

Cheer squad ready!

     

     

Excited to ride the train!

     

Cheer squad is ready!

Hiking towards the finish!

Found a good viewing spot!

Little Sweetie enjoying a Boston Cream donut...she needed some extra energy for all that cheering!

Our inspiration.

We managed to see Mr. R!  It was quite the feat!  Afterwards, we headed to recuperate at the Public Gardens.

Picnic lunch!

     

Fun at the Public Gardens!

           

Attempts at duckling pictures at the Public Gardens.

We love this boy!

     

 The awesome hugs between Little Buddy and Mr. R!

     

       

So many great shots of these two together!

   

     

Mr. R snuck Little Buddy some aweomse hardware before we left to head home!  Thanks, Mr. R!

Although a crazy travel weekend, we can't say enough about how good this trip was for out soul.  Meeting two other Sanfilippo families, being with our dear friends, and watching our children (especially Little Buddy and J) interact made our hearts full.  Our journey is difficult, but we can bear the burden better being surrounded by love.

     

Watching these two make me happy.  J worked so hard to be with Little Buddy and to be a good friend to him.  And Little Buddy could tell.  He knew his friend.

Besides her picture and hunger strike (although we did find that she has a fondness for cold spaghetti...go future), Little Sweetie did well with the constant upheaval and travel of this trip.  She was a trooper!

Until next trip (so many this month), 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma