The Bates Family: Boston with Uncle Jacky

We had the most AMAZING time in Boston visiting Uncle Jacky! We flew in on Saturday afternoon and after dropping our stuff at his house, we headed out to see Harvard. Here are Brookelyn and Uncle Jacky in Harvard Square:

We had a great lunch outside and met Jacky's parents and sister for dinner that night. They were so sweet to meet up with us, and we even met his aunt and uncle for dessert! It was so much fun!

The next day we set out for the Boston Aquarium. It is right on the harbor, so Allen snapped a quick picture of B-Man in front of the gorgeous water.

Inside the aquarium the kids were INFATUATED with the stingray and shark petting tank. They just could not get enough of putting their hands in the water and touching the stingrays and sharks slimy backs. At first Braedyn was scared, but after watching big sis, he was all about it! Here is Brookelyn touching one of the stingrays:

And, here are Allen and Braedyn touching some of the other stingrays. Needless to say, both kids were soaking wet by the time they finished!

We met up with some of Jacky's friends for lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant, and after walking around for a while longer, headed to a quick dinner and early bedtime.

Then next day, Uncle Jacky made all of Brookelyn's dreams come true by taking her to the American Girl Doll Store. To say she was THRILLED is such an understatement. She loved looking at all the clothes and little accessories! Here she is right before we went in:

And, here she is posing with one of the dolls, McKenna. You can see Brookelyn brought one of the dolls Uncle Jacky had sent her, and of course she has a bag of goodies that we bought!

After shopping for a while, we went back into the city to shop some more! Allen was so sweet--he surprised me with an extra special necklace as an early anniversary present. It is my first ever piece of jewelry from Tiffany's and I haven't even taken it out of the box yet! I have the bag sitting on my bathroom counter, and I think I am going to wait until the day of our anniversary (May 19th) to open it!

That evening was probably the highlight of the trip--we got to go to a Red Sox game! Our seats were WONDERFUL and the kids were mesmerized the entire game! Here are the kids, Allen, and Uncle Jacky before the game started:

Uncle Jacky surprised the kiddos with baseball hat ice creams! They both felt so special!

And, Uncle Jacky surprised Braedyn with his very own Red Sox shirt!

While we didn't make it home until after midnight, it was so worth the late night for such a fun time! However, our flight left at 6:00 am the next morning, so we had to be up at 3:30 am! Needless to say the kids were exhausted on the flight home! The Princess slept the entire first flight!

And, so did the Little Prince and the King!

We grabbed some food on our layover in Dallas. The kids looked SO adorable pulling their little suitcases. I wish I would have gotten a better picture!