Boston!

As usual, I'm about a month behind. In September, I went on a business trip to Providence, RI. It's easier to fly in and out of Boston and then drive to RI. My colleagues and I had some free time for a team-building activity. My boss is from Boston so we asked him to give us a tour of his town. I have always wanted to go to Boston (in fact, Cory and I almost booked a trip there last year), and I was pretty excited to see all of the historical sites. We stopped in Concord first. We had the opportunity to see Ralph Waldo Emerson's house (this is the boat house), which was later lived in by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
And of course, you can't stop in Concord and not visit the site where "the shot heard round the world" is located. The writing underneath this farmer says, "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world." How amazing that a bunch of farmers stood up to the mighty British army (and won!). What great sacrifices our forefathers made for us. Where is that same patriotism now when we need it most??

In order to maximize our time and see as many historical sites as possible, we took a duck tour. Our "duck" was Fenway Fanny. And our driver was a hoot!

Here we are cruising at a whopping five knots. The captain had her at full throttle! :)

We zoomed past Cheers. Which was okay by me - I've heard that going inside is highly overrated.

Al (my boss) knew about a great seafood place to have dinner. I had the best clam chowder ever! Here are my colleagues: Al, Donna (with her superstar glasses on at night), Carole and Joyce. I can't wait to go back someday and spend some more time exploring this wonderful city.

I'm An Aunt!

We had a baby shower for Karen on September 11th. A big thanks for all who came and to Ashlee and Emilee for giving me so many good ideas! Here is the diaper cake.
And the cupcake rattles.

And more yummy treats!

I love my cute family!! We've got Courtney, Bracken (who is expecting a baby in January and looks fabulous!), Landon, Tracie, Afton and Brett.

The cast of characters continues. Here is Great-Grammie, Dorothy, Britney, some of Karen's friends (???) and Aunt Lee in the middle! :-)

The guest of honor. I should mention that less than 24 hours after the baby shower, Karen went into labor. But she said she felt good here!

The Grammie-To-Be and their cute neighbor, Erica.

Whitney and Maylin came all the way from Provo. Thanks guys!!

And here is the new arrival. Paisley Lila Hollingsworth was born on September 13th! She has tons and tons of hair, which works out great for her beautician mother who can't wait to start styling! Congrats Karen and Jaron!!

Teton National Park With The Johnson's

Agh! I'm so far behind!! We went to Teton National Park with the Johnson family back in August. We had yummy food, nice visits around the campfire, fun hiking around Jenny Lake (pictured below) and lots of good laughs.

And don't mind this picture. It's out of order and I couldn't figure out how to move it. But I had to leave it in here - I just love Gracie's face. She had a blast on the slide! The girl has no fear!

We spent a day in Jackson Hole and, of course, had to have our picture taken under the antler arch.

We also had fun riding the Alpine Slide. I'm happy to report that no one flew off the track. Go, go speed racer!!