Visit to Boston

Wendy and I have been in Boston this past week, visiting with David and Rebecca and family. We so appreciate how good they were to us and the sacrifices they made to have us there with them (like making us use their bed while they slept on cots in the older boys’ room). And David took the days off from work, and he and the family spent much time in squiring us around to show us the Boston area.

We left our home on Tuesday evening, October 26th, and drove to Wendy’s sister’ place (Bonnie and husband Steve) in Bennion (near 6200 S. and Redwood Road). We stayed the night and Steve drove us out early to the airport to catch a 9 am Southwest Airlines flight Wednesday morning. We changed planes at Chicago Midway and arrived in Boston about 5:30 pm. We were thankful to barely miss a huge blizzard and wind storm that was centered in Minnesota but aided the jet stream in giving us an extra push eastward at nearly 200 mph (so said the pilots) and we got to both destinations early. Wendy was a little disconcerted?? to discover that we were flying over water (Lakes Michigan and Erie and also in our approach into Boston where we circled way out into the Atlantic and then landed on a runway that extends out into Boston Bay so that we couldn’t see land until we touched down), but thankfully we got back to on firm dry land for our landing.

David and Isaac met us and we were soon at their apartment in Belmont. We found Belmont to be a suburb about 10-15 miles west of Boston city center, in a wooded, slightly hilly area, with rivers and lakes (called “ponds” in MA) nearby. It has a population of about 25,000, mostly residential, appears to have been built out by the 1950s, has a wealthy high end area and all real estate pricey, and quite a few academics and business leaders living there due to its proximity to Harvard, MIT, other colleges, and various business headquarters. It also is a sort of LDS gathering place, having the Boston Temple and enjoying at least two wards, including some prominent members, including Mitt Romney and his family.

We stayed for a week and left for home on an 8 am flight that went through Denver and got to Salt Lake about 1 pm Mountain time. Steve picked us up in our Town & Country, we dropped him off back at his work, and we got home about 3 pm to beautiful fall weather.

We came away from the visit being most appreciative of two things:
1) seeing for ourselves how hard David and Rebecca are working to be good parents and to try to teach their guys the Gospel, our being a part of their family prayers, teaching the scriptures, going to church together, etc., and
2) it was a wonderful time to get much better acquainted with their boys and they with us:
Isaac–serious, precocious, fascinated with science and other learning, reading very well aloud (the scriptures), grasped the concept of and helped me work 4-star Sudokus
Ben–active and loved physical play, liked to hide and chase, laughed and giggled a lot, smart, happy, active, always kind to Henry
Henry–robust, solidly built, walking confidently, friendly, always smiling, always exploring, reminds me of a junior Holden.