Brance, Lauren & Haddie

Here’s a few photos I pulled off the camera this morning. The first ones are from a week or so ago when “PaPa” was here for a visit. We had dinner at Nana and Poppy’s house and Haddie got to play in the pool. She loves the pool.

Next up are photos from our living room with Haddie making a mess out of her cereal. Daddy’s not as good at feeding her as mommy is. Mommy insisted on pictures of the mess before cleaning it up.

And finally, this morning Haddie decided she needed to wear my shoes around the living room. Isn’t she cute?

This is Lauren posting as Brance (he’s taking a nap and I didn’t want to wake him by getting my computer from our bedroom).

In one of our Boston posts Brance briefly mentioned our interrupted trip to Harvard Yard and that I would tell the story.  Well here I go  -  finally, the long-promised story of the missing shoe…

I must begin by saying that it seems stories of missing things could easily become a regular theme around here as I’m not the best at keeping organized and well, the mobilization of our dear Haddie hasn’t helped matters any either.  Things going missing have become a daily, if not hourly, occurence at the Gillihan residence.  I’m sure I have at least one hundred stories of things gone missing  over the past few months that I could share with our readers… a shoe’s mate mysteriously vanishing to be found hanging out with the dust bunnies under my bed, favorite pens suddenly missing critical working components, keys to the vehicle taking a leisurely stroll from the table to the kitchen trash can to hang out for awhile, or my personal favorite – Haddie’s hairbrush going missing only to find it taking a swim in the toilet (that’s when we decided to gate the bathroom).  And though I’m sure you would find some of these stories pretty hilarious, at least we have, none of them are as intriguing as the story of the missing shoe.

Before Brance and I discovered the glories of mass public transportation in Boston (we’re simple rural folk) we abused our feet.  

I wrote a blog post about Rachel Barkey a while back after I came across a moving talk she had given in March, probably the most convicting and inspiring message I’ve ever listened to.  For those of you who don’t know, Rachel was diagnosed with terminal cancer in January and given only weeks to live.  We’ll Rachel passed away July 2.  She has left behind her husband Neil and her two young children Quinn and Kate.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch or listen to her message, I would really encourage you to do so.  It is an hour well spent.  I listened to it a second time yesterday and felt like I gleaned even more.  I’m so thankful that it has caused me to step back and reflect on my own life and areas (and attitudes) that need adjusted.  I’m convinced that amazing things would happen if we Christians would live understanding and acting on the four things she suggests we know!

Here is a link to Rachel’s message:

www.deathisnotdying.com

Here’s the last post of Boston photos. This was our last day in Boston so we decided to do the regular tourist stuff.

We started out following the Freedom Trail. We saw a couple old churches, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, the Paul Revere monument, the Old North Church, and the Union Oyster House.

It didn’t long though and we headed off the beaten path into North End to enjoy lunch at an Italian restaurant. Lauren took a turn navigating our way back to the hotel from there and took us through Beacon Hill and Back Bay. We stumbled upon the home of Senator John Kerry on our way.

After a brief stop at the hotel we headed back out to South Boston’s Pleasure Bay for a walk along the beach. Unlike the almost rainy Saturday afternoon we spent there, this time the area just outside the bay was filled with sail boats and there were lots of people out walking the water front.

We soon hopped the Metro bus back to the hotel though and got a good nights sleep in preparation for the long drive back to Virginia.

We hope you all enjoyed the photos!